Environment

Sleeping Bear trail system expands

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By HANNAH BRENNER
Capital News Service
LANSING — A ribbon-cutting ceremony has marked the opening of a new segment of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on the Leelanau Peninsula. But a delay in delivering parts for a boardwalk over Narada Lake means that it is not yet fully in use, said Lee Jameson, the facility manager at the lakeshore park. Work on the segment is expected to continue through the fall and possibly into next spring. When finished, the latest addition to the bicycle and ski trail at Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan will run 3.6 miles from Port Oneida to Bohemian Road. That will bring the current length to 17 miles of asphalt, boardwalk and gravel.

Environment

New research helps protect dunes

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By SILU GUO
Capital News Service
LANSING – New research findings about the geological and archaeological aspects of the Lake Michigan coastal dunes will help local governments and organizations protect them. “It’s important to make sure we haven’t damaged or destroyed dunes in an archaeological site,” said state Archaeologist Dean Anderson. He said information about dunes in the past concerns not only cultural but environmental methods. The most recent research collected data on the northern and northeastern shore of Lake Michigan, while former studies focused mostly on the southeastern part of the basin. It gives a full picture of locations for dunes among the state.