Storm Signs
By Sarah Bearup-Neal
Sun contributor
Two, new 16” x 16” signs will be placed along the Heritage Trail in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, using a combination of texts and photographs “to explain what happened in August 2015,” said Leonard Marszalek, manager of the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes’ Heritage Trail.
“What happened” is this: On Aug. 2, 2015 a rainstorm with winds clocked at up to 100 miles per hour punched through Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties shortly after 4 p.m. Forty-five minutes later, thousands of mature trees were downed, dropped by the wind on rooftops, powerlines and roadways, sometimes tangled, one with another, in a giant’s game of pick-up sticks. Particularly graphic examples of the storm’s aftereffects can be seen in the National Lakeshore from the portion of the Heritage Trail that runs along the base of Alligator Hill. “It looks like a bomb went off,” said Kerry Kelly, chairperson of the Friends board of directors. “The signs are there to help people understand what happened, and the Park’s response to this natural event.”
Although the storm remains vivid to many local residents, this group does not comprise the whole of humanity or its collective memory. “There will be a lot of people who come here and do not know what happened,” either this coming summer or in the future, said Merrith Baughman, the National Lakeshore’s chief of interpretations.
With a goal of completing installation by Memorial Day, signs will be placed in the “most severely damaged (Heritage Trail) areas between M-109 on the west and Forest Haven Road on the east,” Marszalek wrote in an email. “One panel will describe the storm, (using both texts and) a radar image of everything coming together and targeting Glen Arbor.” Additionally, this panel will include a reproduction of the iconic storm photo snapped by Traverse City resident Sara Kassien with her iPhone and used as the cover art for the crowd-sourced book Storm Struck. Marszalek called the weather Kassien captured in this decisive moment as an “ominous green wave that descended and swept through the area.”
“The second panel will describe … how this is nature’s way to renew, refresh and sustain northern hardwood forests,” Marszalek wrote. By way of an example, this sign has an historical photograph of Alligator Hill taken more than a century ago. It was denuded not by a natural occurrence, but by human activity. Alligator Hill’s old growth trees were logged and lumbered by D. H. Day’s Northern Transit Company. The Alligator Hill clear-cut took place during the Northern Michigan logging era that began in the mid-1800s. By the beginning of the 20th century, lumber and timber barons had exhausted their supply of trees, and this boom screeched to a halt. According to Marszalek, the historic photograph on the second Heritage Trail panel “reflects the current visual conditions we see.”
“Alligator Hill was cut once,” Baughman said. “It’s unsightly now, but downed trees return nutrients to the soil, and different plants and animals benefit. This forest is going to come back — not as a primeval forest — but it will come back.” Baughman added that these wayside panels are a way to “whet people’s appetite” to learn more about the dynamic natural processes that occurs after a storm of last August’s dimensions. Public presentations are in the works.
“When people see the trees down, their natural inclination is that these trees should be harvested and logged,” Kelly said. “The Park’s (mandate) is to let nature take its course. Having a sign that explains the Park’s response to the natural disaster will help (trail users) to understand why they’re seeing what they’re seeing. The National Park Service has looked at different places in the country where they’ve had natural disasters like this. Some just left things alone. Some logged. What they found was, when they just leave the (storm areas) alone, that area recovers much faster that when the logged.”
Logging removes nutrients from the soil, compacts the ground, tramples new tender growth. Conversely, the Park’s hands-off policy allows natural cycles to kick into gear.
“So, what happens after a blow down? ” said Kevin Skerl, the National Lakeshore’s chief of natural resources. “The trees lie on the ground. They begin to decay. They provide habitat for insects and small animals and birds. They return nutrients to the soil. They protect and harbor the vegetation around them … (A blow down) changes the whole dynamic of the ecosystem; but it does it in a way that’s part of the natural regime.”
The signs were designed by Saxon Design in cooperation with the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes. Funds to pay for them came from a $10,000 grant made by the Ball Foundation for trail maintenance and fix-up, Kelly said.
