Morels grow best in spring, mid-April to late May, when the daytime temperatures reach around 60-65 degrees while the evening temps stay above 50 degrees. This helps to warm the soil to over 50 degrees, which is important for morel mushrooms and many other fungi to grow.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore joins parks, programs and partners across the country to encourage everyone to find their park and share their stories online at FindYourPark.com. Launched on Monday, March 30, by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation, Find Your Park is a public awareness and education campaign celebrating the milestone centennial anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016 and setting the stage for its second century of service.
Mark your calendars for the next Empire Area Community Emergency Fund Concert on Sunday, March 29, from 4-6 p.m. at Art’s Tavern in Glen Arbor. This will be a very special performance by featured artists Sue and Bill Dungjen.
The Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) will open artists’ registration for the annual Plein Air Weekend on Tuesday, March 31. Member artists are invited to register beginning on March 31 at 9:30 a.m.; non-members may register beginning April 3. Only online registration will be accepted. According to GAAA Director, Peg McCarty, registration for the popular Saturday, Aug. 1 Paint Out fills quickly. A waiting list will be taken once the Saturday event registration has filled.
The League of Women Voters Leelanau County will host “Understanding the May 5 State Ballot Proposal, What Is It? What Would It Do?” on Wednesday, April 1, at noon in the lower level public meeting room of the Leelanau County Government Center.
The Glen Lake Library in Empire will host a presentation by Amanda Wetzel of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum on Tuesday, March 31, at 7 p.m., at the Empire Township Hall. Wetzel will discuss the history of two aircraft carriers that served on Lake Michigan between 1943 and 1945, providing critical training for thousands of World War II pilots, including future president George H. W. Bush.
Pianist/composer Jeff Haas is the next “Talk About Art” interview on April 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA), 6031 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor. Haas, a Traverse City resident, has spent his adult life making music work. He’s a classically trained pianist who has become the voice of jazz and blues in this region thanks to his long-running public radio program “The New Jazz Archive”, a weekly series that explores jazz’s place in the American story.
The Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) “Talk About Art” series continues in conversation with sculptor Julie Kradel, March 26, 7:30 p.m. at the GAAA, 6031 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor.
“Sugar Loaf is like a beautiful girl who wants to get married. But she keeps getting left by guys at the alter, so she keeps coming back to me.” — Liko Smith … But Sugar Loaf, the long-shuttered ski resort in the heart of Leelanau County, is no longer on the front of Liko Smith’s to-do list.
Leelanau’s ice caves are back. They’re not as gigantic or awe-inspiring as the 2014 ice caves that formed near Gill’s Pier between Leland and Northport, but they have nonetheless garnered the attention of nationwide media. Glen Arbor resident Eric LaPaugh took this video on Feb. 16 of ice caves that had formed in Sleeping Bear Bay, just outside Glen Arbor. The lucky find has attracted free publicity for his company Leelanau Adventures, which offers guided tours of lesser known spots in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.