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“Shooting the tube” through the Crystal River culverts under County Road 675 is now an experience of the past. This month the Grand Traverse Engineering & Construction will remove the three culverts and replace the road above them with an 80-foot timber bridge. The work should be complete by the end of November, according to GTEC construction manager Ken Ockert. S. Dunns Farm Road will be closed to thru traffic and rerouted around Big Glen Lake for the duration of the project. Labor Day Monday, Sept. 2, was the last day for kayakers, canoers and paddleboarders to float through the culverts. Their removal is bittersweet for the staff at Crystal River Outfitters, which has sent thousands of people down the river in the past three decades. “It’s fun to look back at the last 30 years and think that the term ‘shoot the tube’ has become synonymous with Crystal River Outfitters kayak trips down the Crystal River,” said Katy Wiesen, who co-owns the business together with her husband Matt. “Shooting the tube became not only an annual family tradition but also led to many variations on stickers, hats, t-shirts and more that are soon to be a piece of history.”

Northern Michigan’s heritage landscapes are changing as invasive species, urban development and climate change alter, damage or destroy familiar plant and animal communities on the land and in our waters. Longtime science journalist Joe VanderMeulen understands the challenges these developments pose to volunteer conservationists, natural resource professionals and the organizations working to manage, protect and preserve the forests, wetlands, streams and lakes of our beloved region.

Many a nature lover was introduced as a child to the outdoors by a parent or teacher. The outdoors can be just the back yard, but the crucial thing is awakening what Rachael Carson called in her wise and lovely essay of that title A Sense of Wonder. Pheasant hunting with his father first kindled it in local naturalist Rick Halbert. As a teacher and volunteer, he’s spent his life connecting people and nature. A botanist, he knows, loves, and fosters the native plants of our region.

The Leelanau Conservancy announced today that it has officially acquired the Palmer Woods Forest Reserve — 707 acres of contiguous hardwood forest that stretches over 2 miles north to south. Palmer Woods is located just over a mile from Big Glen Lake and just beyond the bluff that marks the western edge of Miller Hill.

New online magazine NatureChange.org tells Northern Michigan stories about conservation and climate change, including this one about difficult choices facing the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore following the August 2, 2015 super storm.