The Leelanau Conservancy is hosting a free Speaker Series and Kids Harvest Party event at the Suttons Bay High School on Saturday, Oct. 19 from 3 to 5 p.m. The event, “Farming and Food: Past, Present, and Future” is Part Two of the Conservancy’s Leelanau: Looking Ahead Speaker Series.
To mark its 25th anniversary, the Leelanau Conservancy will hold a speaker series over the next two years that features national environmental and conservation leaders. The series is part of an effort to engage members and the public on topics important to Leelanau County.
Two Northern Michigan land trusts received Land Trust Excellence Awards for collaborative leadership in land conservation and promoting the work of land trusts in Congress. Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and Leelanau Conservancy were selected by the Land Trust Alliance of Washington, D.C. from more than 1,700 land trusts across the country to receive its National Land Trust Excellence Award, which was presented at Rally 2012: The National Land Conservation Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Sept. 30.
With a face as weathered as one of the boulders from his fields, and a blunt demeanor to match, Glen Noonan presents a formidable figure in the complex social and geographical landscapes of Leelanau County. This farmer, businessman, political fixture and quiet benefactor to many has plowed his fields, herded cattle, shaken cherries and picked apples, mined gravel, raised seven children with his late wife Ella, been the backbone of some key local government boards, and helped shape virtually every realm of life for the region’s residents for over six decades.
The Leelanau Conservancy will hold its annual Picnic and Auction on Thursday, Aug. 2 at the Newton Farm overlooking the Manitou Islands on Jelinek Road. The 100-acre farm near Gills Pier was permanently protected by the Leelanau Conservancy in 2004. The picnic begins at 5 p.m. and features a silent and live auction, as well as pre-picnic field trips, a Kids Tent and a short program that includes recognizing the Conservancy’s “Volunteer of the Year” and “Business Supporter of the Year.” A local foods-focused meal will be served, along with local wines. Tickets are $30 for adults until July 30, when the price increases to $35. Tickets for Kids Tent children under 12 are just $5.
Mario Batali loves Leelanau County and is again offering a great opportunity to raise funds for farmland preservation this year. On tap, a one-of-a-kind raffle for a culinary weekend of a lifetime in New York City. The winner of the 100-ticket raffle — and five of his or her friends—will enjoy a prize that includes salumi and wine tasting and dinner at Otto; a six-course tasting menu at Mario’s flagship, Babbo, cooked and served by the chef himself. The prize also takes in a behind-the-scenes tour at Eataly along with an olive oil class and lunch at Pizza/Pasta at Eataly. To defray travel expenses, the winner will also receive $6,000 in cash.
Over the past 20 years, Greg and Wanda Sobran of Sobran Studios, have become fixtures of the Glen Arbor arts scene — if two inveterate, peripatetic adventurers could be described in such stationary terms.
Donald Jay Weeks, 51, of Elk Rapids, died May 2, 2011, at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City after a short illness. Born June 11, 1959 in Lansing, he was a graduate of Glen Lake Community Schools in Leelanau County and Michigan State University.
The Leelanau Peninsula Chamber of Commerce will hold its first annual Bird Fest, June 1-5. This event is billed as “a unique birding festival with a conservation theme.” The festival will offer a wide variety of unique field trips including Birding by Tallship, endangered Great Lakes Piping Plovers, a 300 acre prairie, and pontoon boat to the Leelanau Conservancy’s Cedar River Preserve.
Check out this video by the Leelanau Conservancy that shows the beauty of our county during the wintertime. Sure, it’s cold up here, but you can snowshoe, ski, and watch the sun’s reflection off the ice.