Every Kid in a Park, an initiative to do just what its title says, kicked off Sept. 1 in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and all national parks. It focuses on fourth-grade students, who will be given free access to any national park, forest, land or water for the 2015-2016 school year. The pass also grants access to the fourth-grader’s family when in the company of said 9-year-old.
There are as many stories from the megastorm that hit Glen Arbor on Aug. 2 as there were people touched by it. This is the story of a local law enforcement ranger who survived a very near miss in the first moments of the storm and then without hesitation went back to work protecting the lives of others.
If Kerry Korpela wrote a back-to-school essay entitled “What I Did On My Summer Vacation,” she said this would be her first sentence: “I had an incredible time at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, appreciating nature and changing my life.”
Many Leelanau homeowners are hoping the governor’s state of disaster proclamation following the Aug. 2 megastorm will help fund their debris cleanup. Unfortunately, they may find those hopes dashed, especially if they expect financial help any time soon.
After the shock of entering the dense-leaved maple canopy sheared to the ground and shouldered aside like the dead dropped in their tracks, after all that what I finally see are breaking points. The storm’s catastrophe bars comprehension except in stages, but every moment our eyes are open it becomes more real: massive trunks stacked like proverbial pick up sticks — all cliché but what else do I have in the first moments of first seeing? But this is no game. Still, I am so stunned I have no fresh language to describe this — it’s all too dense, thick with damage. The heart aches and the mind can’t find the way to the words, or even the real. When do I see the breaking points? The crack and twist, wood’s open wounds, the new right angle that is all wrong for the verticality of a tree. Not until the end.
During one extraordinary week in August 2015, the sounds that dominated our town were the whirr of winds and the ugly crack of trees, followed by the buzz of chainsaws, the hum of generators, and the cheering and car honking as Consumers Power trucks and linemen rolled into town like a liberating army.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 12-13, from 10 p.m.-5 a.m., Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is offering a special Star Party at the Dune Climb. A special all-nighter is planned as our planet passes through the heart of the Perseids. The sliver of a moon provides the perfect opportunity to find deep sky objects in a very dark sky. The meteor shower peaks around 2 a.m. Don’t forget to bring a blanket to make your sky viewing more comfortable. Please park in the row furthest from the dunes with headlights facing M-109.
What will the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore do with the Alligator Hill trail west of downtown Glen Arbor, which was decimated in the Aug. 2 megastorm. Hundreds of trees fell during the windstorm, punching enormous holes in the canopy and rendering the popular hiking trail unrecognizable.
Over the past decade, there has been an increased incidence of bird deaths in Lake Michigan due to Type E avian botulism. Over 6,500 dead birds have been documented within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore alone. Scientists from the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have been conducting a collaborative research project to determine the causes of these botulism outbreaks — work that includes underwater research in Good Harbor Bay.
The 17th annual Dune Climb concert will take place Sunday, July 12 at 7 p.m. Imagine a beautiful summer’s evening at the foot of the Dune Climb in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, hundreds of families enjoying their pre-concert picnics and then a musical program provided by artists of national stature: this is the magical mixture which has filled audiences with warm memories every year since the first Dune Climb concert in 1998. The setting is magnificent and the music is even better. The concert at the Dune Climb is presented annually by the Glen Arbor Art Association and is free to the public. Because of the unique venue and incomparable music it routinely draws a large audience.