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

National Parks centennial cause for celebration

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — One draws more than a million visitors each year, others only a fraction of that number. Some boast internationally recognizable names, others fall outside the public spotlight. They’re Michigan units of the National Park Service (NPS), which celebrates its centennial this year. Popular or not, widely familiar or not, they’re publicly owned treasures of environmental and natural resources, historic and cultural wealth, recreation and national identity. While the system has its origins in an 1872 law creating Yellowstone National Park, Congress waited until 1916 and Woodrow Wilson’s presidency to establish the NPS.