This week is Earth Week, with Earth Day honored on Tuesday, April 22. It’s also National Park Week. Events in Leelanau County include a rally on Tuesday at 3 pm in Empire to support Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore—which has faced deep spending cuts and a hiring freeze by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the Leelanau Conservancy offers opportunities each day this week, starting tomorrow, to join hikes, volunteer, attend a trivia night, and learn about local efforts to preserve trees.
Ready or not, here they come. The endangered, migratory Piping Plover birds will return to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in April and set up their stony nests—regardless of National Park staff cuts and federal politics. Sleeping Bear staff might not be able to hire all the seasonal employees it needs to work with the shorebirds—or those workers might not arrive on time—since the federal hiring process resumed late in the winter. In their potential absence, volunteers are stepping forward. Grawn resident Maryellen Newport is recruiting local volunteers to monitor and protect the Piping Plover from predators. Read the story for a link to sign up.
UPDATE (March 12): The National Park Service once again has the green light to hire seasonal workers, but the late start has hampered the ability of Sleeping Bear Dunes to populate its seasonal roster. As of Glen Arbor Sun press time, approximately 80 percent of the National Lakeshore’s more than 100 seasonal positions remained vacant. The federal government chaos and the inability of seasonals from outside the area to find housing has prompted a slew of declines from candidates who were suddenly called and offered seasonal positions in March. Sleeping Bear Dunes staff have been paralyzed in other ways, too. Government-issued credit cards used by Park staff are frozen. They can’t buy ammunition or ranger supplies; they can’t even buy toilet paper for outhouses at hiking trails.