Amidst the pain, it’s important to remember this lesson: the Aug. 2 megastorm — though it may have been the storm of the century — is one of several cataclysmic events that have changed this land we call Sleeping Bear since the glaciers receded and left behind the great lake and the rolling dunes and forests. And after each event, the land and its animals adapted and tended ahead. Alligator Hill will do the same.
Skyrocketing land prices and high taxes have priced Glen Arbor out of the market for most service workers and working professionals like teachers and emergency medical workers. Over the past five years, we’ve lost countless professionals who have moved to other areas. But it’s not hopeless, say some.
Largely forgotten amidst our Aug. 2 storm coverage, July 2015 set a record for monthly visits to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, with 438,291. That’s 7,000 more than July 2014. June was also a big month for visitors, as the Park welcomed only 800 fewer people than in June 2012, which was the “summer on steroids” following the “Most Beautiful Place in America” coronation.
In case you missed the Glen Lake Association’s post-storm workshop on Aug. 29, you can watch the following video of the workshop. Also, listed below are some highlights and suggested guidelines, compiled by watershed biologist Rob Karner, for your review and consideration.
What trees, plants and animals will repopulate the area of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore that was decimated by the Aug. 2 megastorm — particularly Alligator Hill? We asked that question of the National Lakeshore’s chief of natural resources, Kevin Skerl.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS) website, conditions on Aug. 2 were ripe for something big to happen. “Northern Michigan experienced a complex severe weather setup,” it reports, “which began with a warm front lifting northward from southern Michigan toward the Straits of Mackinac and into the eastern Upper Peninsula.”
Every Kid in a Park, an initiative to do just what its title says, kicked off Sept. 1 in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and all national parks. It focuses on fourth-grade students, who will be given free access to any national park, forest, land or water for the 2015-2016 school year. The pass also grants access to the fourth-grader’s family when in the company of said 9-year-old.
“It’s hard seeing all the trees broken,” comments Dianne Nichols of Arbor Pines. “It reminds me of broken legs and broken arms.” Nichols and her husband, Fred, are among numerous Glen Arborites whose woods suffered from the Aug. 2 storm. The second week after the storm, a team of seven retirees from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) of Michigan arrived to help those who, like the Nichols, had applied for that help at the Glen Arbor Township Hall. Afterwards, Dianne describes them and the work they did.
If Kerry Korpela wrote a back-to-school essay entitled “What I Did On My Summer Vacation,” she said this would be her first sentence: “I had an incredible time at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, appreciating nature and changing my life.”
Glen Arbor needs help — hired help, the kind that works for wages. Although the community turned itself inside out to help one another after the recent superstorm, the devastation left in its wake after the tree and power line pros left highlights a pre-existing problem. We who are of a certain age (and I do speak for myself) need young, able-bodied workers — desperately.