The Old Indian Trail and surrounding area in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is closed due to invasive hemlock woolly adelgid, the Park reported in a March 1 press release. Surveys this January and February found a large infestation on the southern boundary of the National Lakeshore, along and around the area of the Old Indian Trail. This infestation has prompted an area closure to slow the spread and allow for treatment. Plans are in development to reopen the trail by the fall of 2024.
From now until March 16, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will host weekly programs on Saturdays. Programs on Saturday, Jan. 20, featured Anishinaabe historian Eric Hemenway. In the morning, he lead a guided hike focused on survival strategies and traditional Anishinaabe activities during the season of biboon (winter). In the afternoon at the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center, Hemenway also shared about traditional Anishinaabe art.
This week CNN Travel named our region, including Leelanau County and Traverse City, among the 24 best places to visit in the new year. The story encourages readers and travelers to “look at places that are still largely undiscovered, or alluring in the offseason, or frequently overlooked for their larger first cities or neighbors. Maybe it’s time to head to places that are making it easier for tourists to visit and those that pay close attention to encouraging tourism that’s sustainable.” Sleeping Bear Dunes is no stranger to national and international media exposure. In 2011 the ABC show “Good Morning America” named our region “the most beautiful place in America,” which immediately boosted tourism numbers to the National Lakeshore. The honor was largely the result of northern Michigan’s social media campaign, which we examined in this article.
This year was a banner year for news in Leelanau County. The Glen Arbor Sun’s top viewed stories on our website in 2023 included the strange—a relationship coaching cult in Suttons Bay (“Twin Flames, a Suttons Bay cult, an inferno of controversy” was our fourth most-viewed story of all time); the heroic—a neighborhood effort to rescue boaters from a burning craft; the celebratory—The Mill made its long awaited opening on the Crystal River, and collaboration between the National Lakeshore and Leelanau Conservancy to preserve Glen Lake ridge property; the breaking news—an 18-hole putting course and restaurant planned to open next year in Glen Arbor; the historical—our 12-part series covering Leelanau’s farming families; and the reflective—remembering Horndog Newt Cole. Thanks for your readership, and Happy New Year! Here’s the list of our top 10 stories by online views in 2023.
Hiking, snowshoeing, even watching how maple syrup is made, from tree to syrup. They’re all on tap (pun intended) at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore this winter. And even better than that, all the activities are free. “The Most Beautiful Place in America” according to ABC’s Good Morning America offers opportunities for fun and exploration not just in the summer but year-round. “The Dunes don’t close,” says Emily Sunblade, lead interpretation park ranger. Winter certainly provides a different experience than summer. For example, if there’s snow, the hikes become snowshoe hikes. More than that, snow cover provides the opportunity to explore beyond the trails, as rangers can safely lead hikers off the trails. “That won’t damage sensitive plants,” says Sunblade.
Late last month Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore acquired 8.66 acres of picturesque Miller Hill ridgeline property with views of the Glen Lakes and Lake Michigan from the Leelanau Conservancy for $685,000. Conservancy executive director Tom Nelson said the conservation of the Glen Lake Ridgeline project was the result of a collaboration with true, unsung heroes in the Glen Lake community and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The Conservancy and the Lakeshore have an innovative history of working together to acquire and preserve pristine and sensitive land. In 2005 the Conservancy acquired property along the Crystal River that had been potentially slated for a golf course and turned it over to the Lakeshore. The acquisition represented a happy ending to a saga that divided the local community.
Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, which helps maintain trails within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore reports: “We’ve got SNOW! Over the past couple of days, we got about 5″ of fresh powder over the whole region. The ground was still warm, so some of it melted — especially on the paved portion of the Heritage Trail. We do not plan to groom the trail this time. The Dune Climb did look pretty good for sledding though!”
The National Park Service plans to conduct prescribed fires in three burn units this fall at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The fire is a tool intended to restore habitat in forested ecosystems in the park. The burn unit in Leelanau County covers approximately 75 acres within the National Lakeshore’s Leelanau District, between Pyramid Point, Bohemian Road, and the northern area of M-22, which is in the same vicinity of this past spring’s successful burns. In Benzie County, the burn units cover approximately 930 acres in the Platte District, between Otter Creek and Bass Lake.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore deputy superintendent Tom Ulrich, who will retire from the Park later this month, once heard a poignant analogy at a leadership conference that compared the old style of managing a National Park to the Star Wars jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who deftly and constantly fends off outside threats with his light saber. By contrast, the new style of Park management is not to deflect or fight off criticism from the public, but to engage, listen and teach as Yoda does. Ulrich arrived at Sleeping Bear Dunes in late 2002 at a time when Lakeshore staff was reeling from widespread criticism after it promoted an unpopular new General Management Plan that would expand portions of the Park classified as “wilderness.” His tenure at Sleeping Bear Dunes dawned a collaborative relationship between the Park and local citizens.
The Department of the Interior announced that visitor spending in communities near national parks in 2022 resulted in a record high $50.3 billion benefit to the nation’s economy and supported 378,400 jobs. The report showed that the approximately 1.5 million visitors to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore last year spent an estimated $182 million in local gateway communities. These expenditures supported a total of 2,390 jobs, $72.5 million in labor income, $130 million in value added, and $234 million in economic output.