Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear will host Maple Sugaring Days at the Dechow and Olsen Farms in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District on Saturday, March 4, and Sunday, March 5 from 10 am-3 pm each day. Join park rangers, volunteers, and special presenters at this new event to learn the history of maple sugaring and the process of making maple syrup from start to finish.
The 20 goats had moved into Dechow Farm in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Port Oneida Rural Historic District just a few hours before, and already YouthWork director Bill Watson was laying in the grass near the goat pen and cuddling a couple kids who approached him. “He was a puddle,” said Amy McIntyre, co-owner of Pontiac-based City Girls Farm, which brought the livestock to Leelanau County on June 11 to graze in the fields and remove invasive species through the summer. This is the first year that Sleeping Bear Dunes officials embraced livestock grazing on Park land for a full season.