The federal government shutdown early this morning — forced by the Republican-led House of Representatives who oppose the Affordable Care Act — prompted the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and National Parks across the nation, to lock their gates. The timing here in Glen Arbor is highly unfortunate, as it threatens to stunt our growing shoulder tourism season.
By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will not close Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and facilities at the Dune Climb, Glen Haven and other crowned jewels of this National Lakeshore — as local administrators had planned to do after Labor Day weekend, the traditional end of the summer tourism season in […]
National Park week, which begins April 20, is typically an opportunity for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to strut its stuff and demonstrate its value to the local community a month before the summer tourism season opens with Memorial Day weekend. During this year’s National Park week, the Lakeshore will hold a water testing demonstration on Esch Road Beach, a swearing-in ceremony for junior rangers, a showing of the film Chasing Ice at the Empire Visitor Center and a star gazing party on Platte Point Beach.
Effective March 1, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was required by “sequestration” (a series of automatic, across-the-board permanent spending cuts) to reduce its annual budget by 5 percent. The park must absorb that cut in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year that ends September 30. The federal law imposing sequestration requires that each park take this cut.
Ever since Wednesday, August 17, Northern Michiganders have both embraced and grappled with the news that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and surrounding region are considered the “most beautiful place in America” — at least according to 22 percent of 100,000 voters who participated in the ABC show Good Morning America’s online competition the second week of August.