Northern Michigan’s M22 Challenge postponed until fall
Updated 2:00 PM;
GLEN LAKE, MI – A popular Northern Michigan triathlon-like event has been postponed until fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers announced.
In 2020, the M22 Challenge was canceled due to the pandemic, the Glen Arbor Sun reports. This year, the event normally held in mid-June is rescheduled for Sept. 18.
The challenge is a non-traditional triathlon that replaces the swimming portion with paddling. It consists of a 2.5-mile run, a 17-mile bike ride and 2.5 miles of paddling. The event takes place in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and around Glen Lake in the Glen Arbor area.
Sleeping Bear Dunes reports first piping plover sightings of 2021
Updated 4:32 PM;
Today 4:28 PM
Researchers at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore have reported seeing the park s first Piping Plovers of 2021. Photo by Vincent Cavalieri, National Park Service, used with permission
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EMPIRE, MICH. Piping plovers, the tiny endangered shorebirds named for their soft, high-pitched song, have officially returned to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for the summer.
Over the weekend observers reported sighting the first 2021 plover at the park, near Sleeping Bear Point. That bird turned out to be a particularly speedy six-year-old male that holds the distinction of being the first plover back at Sleeping Bear every spring for several years running.
Prescribed burns planned at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore this spring
Updated 10:27 AM;
Today 10:27 AM
National Park Service fire personnel patrol the fireline on a 2019 prescribed burn in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.National Park Service
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EMPIRE, MI – Don’t be alarmed if you notice smoke and fire at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore this month.
The National Park Service plans to conduct a prescribed fire in up to four burn units as early as April 19.
A prescribed fire is a management tool used to maintain healthy ecosystems, replenish fire dependent ecosystems, reduce available fuels in the event of wildfire, and assist with the management of invasive species.
By Taylor Haelterman
Residents worry a lack of environmental education threatens Michigan’s defining feature, the Great Lakes, according to a recent study.
Focus groups from both peninsulas identified environmental threats for coastal communities and called for education on how to be better stewards of the Great Lakes, according to the study published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research.
Concerns varied by lake, but the two most common themes were rising water levels and lack of environmental education. Those surveyed also listed beach erosion, pollution, public access, invasive species and lake user’s safety as concerns, said Kenneth Levine an author of the study and adjunct professor in the Michigan State University communications department.
7 fresh ways to explore Michigan’s great outdoors this spring
Updated 8:00 AM;
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If hope were a season, it would be spring. Every sign of its return feels like optimism embodied: Birdsong and bicycle bells, budding trees, the soul-stirring scent of rain.
This spring, that sense of promise feels especially potent and necessary. Just as a crocus pushes up from underground after a hard, long winter, many of us are stepping into this new season after an isolated and challenging year. We have mixed emotions, no doubt, but Mother Nature continues to offer her good medicine: beauty, wonder, proof that life goes on. Fresh air and sunshine, too as essential to our own thriving as they are to the ever-greening world.