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Will the DNR budge on baiting to get higher license fees? Some think so

This time of year, Jim Sweeney’s food plot in Leelanau County doesn’t look like much. It’s a small field with some sparse grasses and a deer blind off to the side.  But, come fall, it’s “like a lush lawn,” Sweeney said. Sweeney mostly plants clover, beets and turnips these days. And in places where the soil’s a little better than in northwest Michigan, people plant corn. Baiting—putting out piles of food such as corn to attract deer for hunting—has been illegal in the Lower Peninsula since 2018 to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease, a fatal, contagious brain disease that’s been found in 14 Lower Peninsula counties and in Dickinson County in the Upper Peninsula. But some think pro-baiting lawmakers have a shiny new bargaining chip: The DNR needs money.

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Glen Arbor Arts Center brings Kodak Quartet as Musicians-in-Residence

The Glen Arbor Arts Center is delighted to present the Kodak Quartet as their Musicians-in-Residence from June 10–21. Presented through a partnership between the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Manitou Music Series and Interlochen Public Radio’s Sound Garden Project, this initiative focuses on planting classical music in unexpected places. The Kodak Quartet will bring its electrifying, genre-defying sound to the Glen Arbor area.

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Glen Arbor Sun wins six awards from Michigan Press Association’s 2024 Better Newspaper Contest

The Glen Arbor Sun won six awards in four different categories from the Michigan Press Association’s 2024 Better Newspaper Contest. Winners included Jacob Wheeler, Tim Mulherin, Eric Carlson, and Daniel Wanschura, who won awards in the following categories: News Enterprise Reporting; Best Opinion; Sports Writing, and Public Service Award.

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Earth Week includes rally in support of National Parks, Leelanau Conservancy events, Seth Bernard concert

This week is Earth Week, with Earth Day honored on Tuesday, April 22. It’s also National Park Week. Events in Leelanau County include a rally on Tuesday at 3 pm in Empire to support Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore—which has faced deep spending cuts and a hiring freeze by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the Leelanau Conservancy offers opportunities each day this week, starting tomorrow, to join hikes, volunteer, attend a trivia night, and learn about local efforts to preserve trees.

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Centerville Township cedes to EGLE in dispute over using sewage as farm fertilizer

Last spring, a farmer in Centerville Township started applying a kind of fertilizer to his fields: Sewage pumped from septic tanks, often called “septage.” That kicked off a local fight about whether it’s legal to apply that septage waste and sparked concerns about contaminating the land and water. Neighbors and officials concerned about the use of septage to fertilize fields pointed to the township’s zoning ordinance which requires a special permit for septage application on land. But Centerville Township attorney Chris Bzdok said at a township board meeting in mid-March that their hands are tied when it comes to stopping the use of septic tank waste on a local farm. The site falls under the purview of the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, which had granted a permit to use septage at that site. This story was originally reported by Interlochen Public Radio in mid-March.

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Cherries in black and white: Nik Burkhart captures changing landscape and industry

Artists in northern Michigan are known for landscape paintings: Green hills plunging into blue water, sunsets over Lake Michigan. But Nik Burkhart’s landscapes are a little different than most. His black and white paintings depict ripped out, cut down cherry orchards and ask questions about the region’s changing landscape. This story was adapted from a radio piece last month by Interlochen Public Radio.

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Pier Pressure: remembering a drowning in Frankfort

Lane Frame was 12 years old when he saw the Great Lakes for the first time. According to his aunt, Joy Frame, he was very excited. It was September 21, 2020. Lane was in Michigan on a family vacation. The family drove up from Tennessee, and stopped in Frankfort—a small, Lake Michigan beach community.  Jewell Frame II—Lane’s uncle and Joy’s husband—thought the lake was the ocean. A vast difference between the smaller lakes they were used to. This story was adapted from Points North, a podcast by Interlochen Public Radio.

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More than just a filet of fish

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It’s early April, and Jim VerSnyder is sitting at a big stainless-steel table that’s covered in fish blood at Carlson’s Fishery in one of the historic Fishtown shanties in Leland. He’s got a long, sharp knife in one hand, and with the other, he reaches into a bin filled with ice, pulls out a fish, and plops it on a cutting board, reports Dan Wanschura in this story adapted from a podcast for Interlochen Public Radio. Right now, the value of an average Great Lakes whitefish is around $15. But there’s a project that’s trying to double—even triple that amount in the next several years. And it does that by finding ways to use parts of the fish that are often thrown away. This project is based on a success story in Iceland.

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Manitou musicians-in-residence play community pop-up performances in and around Glen Arbor

The Glen Arbor Arts Center and Interlochen Public Radio are once again bringing free community pop-up performances to businesses and public locations around the region. Between June 3-15 the Fivemind Reeds Quintet will play at spots including the Glen Lake Narrows (pictured here), the Arts Center front porch, the Leelanau School beach, and the Glen Lake Library in Empire. For more information, click here.

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Mawby celebrates 50 years with sparkling evening at Bay Theatre

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Do you know how Sex got its name? Did you know Mawby wine has been to the North Pole? Do you want to know what the Leelanau County winemaker has planned for the next 50 years? Join Mawby for a sparkling evening of stories, both old and new, at the Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 6 pm. Interlochen Public Radio news director Peter Payette will sit down to talk with with founder Larry Mawby and current owners Mike and Peter Laing.

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