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Northern Michigan national parks prepare for summer visitors amid staffing, morale concerns

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With a new tourism season upon northern Michigan, uncertainty remains about how national parks will handle millions of visitors amid lingering staffing questions because of back-and-forth federal workforce policies. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has approximately two-thirds of the seasonal staff it typically needs to welcome more than 1.5 million visitors over the next three busy months. “They’re still trying to get anybody else to accept a job, but it looks like there won’t be many more coming,” said former Sleeping Bear deputy superintendent Tom Ulrich. He added that the true impacts aren’t being felt yet because the park isn’t yet getting 400,000 visitors per month as they do in peak-season.

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Your Sleeping Bear Dunes experience this year may feel very different

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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.

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Teaching like Yoda

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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.

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Abandoned Glen Arbor Township Cemetery to be resurrected, with help of Glen Lake 8th graders

The former Glen Arbor Township Cemetery, located in the backwoods behind Boonedocks, has been buried in a tangle of trees since the brutal storm of August 2015. The place is dear to me because my first book, Aaron’s Crossing, began its life and death saga when I sensed a ghost there.

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National Park to name new Sleeping Bear superintendent by late May

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The National Park Service will name the next superintendent to run Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore by the end of May — if not sooner — Park spokesperson Christine Powell told the Glen Arbor Sun today. Powell works out of the National Park’s Midwest Regional office in Omaha, Neb.

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Public comments welcome as National Park hires new Sleeping Bear superintendent

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Acting superintendent (and previously the deputy superintendent) Tom Ulrich has reportedly made it to the final round of interviews for the position of superintendent of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The identities and number of his competitors is not publicly known. Citizens of the Sleeping Bear region are encouraged to share their thoughts about the next superintendent with National Park Midwest Regional director Cameron Sholly.

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National Parks for America’s next generation

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This is the first in a series of articles prompted by the centennial celebration of the founding of the National Park Service. Throughout 2015, the Glen Arbor Sun will publish a range of stories about the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and people’s relationships with their local park.

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Riding the new Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail

Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler took a spin Thursday evening on the newly completed Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail section between the Dune Climb and Empire. It’s a beautiful, hilly ride! Along the way, he interviewed Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Deputy Superintendent Tom Ulrich and Duneswood Resort owner Debbie Rettke, about how this leg of the trail differs from the Dune Climb-to-Glen Arbor leg, what the expanded trail means for the National Park, and for local biking in general, and how folks have reacted to it so far. Check out this video.

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National Lakeshore to expand multi-use trails

Heritage Trail grows; Kettles, Bay-to-Bay, mountain biking trails on tap? By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor Over the next couple years, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore could vastly expand its network, and range, of trails. By July, the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail will expand south, from the Dune Climb to Empire, allowing bicyclists, rollerbladers, wheelchair-bound […]

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Sleeping Bear awakens as U.S. government re-opens

What effect did closing of Park have on local economy? By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor Connie Bohlinger of Macomb County, Mich., and Linda Jones of Fort Myers, Fla., laughed as they descended the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb Thursday afternoon, kicking one foot in front of the other to avoid tumbling forward into its sugary sands. […]

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