A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 1,280,932 visitors in 2010 spent $120,482,000 in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (National Lakeshore) and nearby communities. That spending supported 2,070 jobs in the local area.
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The National Park Service at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (National Lakeshore) announced the completion of the Port Oneida Historic Landscape Management Plan/Environmental Assessment with the signing of the “Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI) on January 17.
Steve Yancho, Chief of Natural Resources at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, retired on December 31 of last year after 36 years with the National Park Service (NPS) — nearly 34 of them at the Sleeping Bear. Yancho, a Michigan native and graduate of the Michigan Technological University School of Forestry, started with the National Park Service in 1974 as a seasonal ranger. After a series of appointments at Isle Royale National Park and Fire Island National Seashore, he began working at Sleeping Bear Dunes in 1978 and had been there ever since.
Explore Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on snowshoes this winter. Join Park Rangers for a guided snowshoe hike this holiday season and every Saturday throughout the winter. The first hike of the season will be on Thursday, December 29 at 1 p.m. Thereafter, regularly scheduled Saturday snowshoe hikes will start up again on Saturday, January 7 at 1 p.m. Meet at the National Lakeshore Visitor Center in Empire. If you do not have your own, snowshoes will be loaned out at no charge.
Details surrounding the history, legend and exciting 2010 discovery of one of the Great Lakes’ most sought-after shipwrecks will be disclosed during the Empire Area Heritage Group’s Dec. 2, free public program at the Empire Township Hall.
Legislation by Sen. Carl Levin to permanently protect more than 32,000 acres of Michigan lakeshore won approval Thursday from a key Senate committee. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources approved the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Conservation and Recreation Act (S.140,) a bill authored by Levin, D-Mich., and cosponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Superintendent Dusty Shultz is pleased to announce that Veterans Day Weekend, Nov. 11 through 13, will be celebrated as a fee-free weekend for all park visitors to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in honor of U.S. veterans and current members of the U.S. Armed Forces.
A breath of fresh air may have descended on Sugar Loaf. Just weeks before snow is likely to fall on the downtrodden Leelanau County ski hill whose chairlifts have sat idle for nearly 12 years, a local resort owner is developing a plan that would open the mountain to cross-country skiing and ice climbing — perhaps this winter.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced funding for Great Lakes Restoration Initiative projects in Northern Michigan totaling $1.1 million. The projects will help to restore the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Grand Traverse Band watersheds and put people back to work, using a conservation corps model to hire unemployed workers to improve habitat and clean up shoreline.
Seven strong swimmers. Five kayakers, one in a borrowed orange plastic open water kayak paddled by my husband, David Early. Me, resident geek and novice on my stand-up paddle board (not a paddleboat, a paddle board), my ATX dubbed “Yellow Belle.” Our brave leaders are Kati Rooney and spouse, Jim Hennessey. We are the proverbial motley crew — except we have a purpose. This is the sixth annual Esch to Empire swim.