Lakeshore 'Wilderness' talks to resume
 
"Among issues that emerged during the “public input” phase of the GMP process two years ago were National Park Service plans to continue managing vast tracts of park land as “wilderness areas” -- a designation that limits vehicular access, parking and access for handicapped people."
 
February 26, 2004
 
By Eric Carlson
 
 
Leelanau Enterprise
 
7200 E. Duck Lake Rd.
 
Lake Leelanau, Michigan 49653
 
231-256-9827
 
 
To submit a Letter to the Editor: editor@leelanaunews.com
 
Meetings will likely resume this spring or summer between officials of the National Park Service and local members of the public concerned about plans that could limit public access within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

A process to draft an updated 20-year General Management Plan for the national lakeshore has remained on hold since October 2002 when National Park Service officials declared a temporary halt to the effort.
 
The announcement resulted from pressure applied by members of the public and elected officials who expressed opposition to the NPS’s “preferred alternative” for the plan.

“It was clear through the public scoping process two years ago that we had gotten out ahead of the public on certain issues, and we still need to deal with some of those issues before the General Management Plan process can resume,” Sleeping Bear assistant superintendent Tom Ulrich said this week.
 
“We expect to be in contact with members of the public this summer and hope to discuss some of these issues face-to-face with various groups and individuals who have expressed the strongest concerns.”

Among issues that emerged during the “public input” phase of the GMP process two years ago were National Park Service plans to continue managing vast tracts of park land as “wilderness areas” -- a designation that limits vehicular access, parking and access for handicapped people.

“Numerous individuals and groups were (also) concerned about the proposed management of non-native species in the preliminary preferred alternative, specifically the Coho salmon and the deer on North Manitou Island,” wrote park superintendent Dusty Shultz in a December 2002 newsletter explaining why the GMP process had been halted.

An organizer of one of the opposition groups, Jeanette Feehely of “Citizens for Access to the Lakeshore,” said this week from her summer residence in Florida that she hadn’t heard from Park Service officials that more meetings would be forthcoming.

“They did promise us last summer that they’d try to address the wilderness issues with us prior to resuming the General Management Plan process,” Feehely said. “And I understand that Dusty Shultz has been talking to our congressmen on the issue.”

Ulrich confirmed that Shultz had recently traveled to Washington D.C. for meetings at National Park Service headquarters, using the opportunity to confer with staffers for Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-Holland) and Congressman Dave Camp (R-Midland) who represents Leelanau County.

Camp, Hoekstra and former candidate for Michigan governor Dick Posthumus held a highly-publicized new conference at the park in October 2002 -- just prior to the General Election -- to announce that they’d persuaded National Park Service officials to halt the GMP process.

Camp was quoted at the time as saying that the park service’s preferred alternative “would have been a far too punitive measure on visitors at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, area communities, and recreational groups.”
 
Camp said halting the GMP process was “a huge victory for all who enjoy the scenic shoreline at Sleeping Bear Dunes.”

Camp’s press secretary in Washington, Sage Eastman, acknowledged this week that federal regulations require every national park to operate under an updated General Management Plan, and that Camp staffers had been in contact recently with Shultz to discuss the issue.

“We expect some talks to occur beginning in the spring or summer,” Eastman said, “and, hopefully, some of the outstanding issues can be resolved so that the General Management Plan process can move forward at some point in the future.”

As for other legislative issues related to Sleeping Bear, Eastman reported that a Senate committee this month approved a bill authorizing the National Park Service to acquire a 105-acre parcel of land along the Crystal River in Glen Arbor Township now owned by The Homestead resort. He said the bill would be presented to the full Senate for a vote later this year.

Assistant superintendent Ulrich pointed out that the bill includes the authority to purchase the property, but does not address funding. He said the National Park Service “will act as quickly as possible” to purchase the Crystal River property once authority to do so is approved by the Senate and funding is identified.
 
 
About the Leelanau Enterprise:
 
The Leelanau Enterprise is the voice of Leelanau County, serving as the official medium for local government, an outlet for the county's four public and seven non-public schools and the place sought by residents and visitors for news and views of Michigan's "Little Finger" Peninsula. The newspaper enjoys a paid circulation list which has expanded annually from 4,266 in 1975 to the 2003 total of 8,300. ... The Enterprise is one of the few newspapers remaining in Michigan to print its own product, operate a printing business and publish the paper at the same premises. It's also one of the few papers not part of a "corporate chain," owned independently by publisher Alan C. Campbell and employing a 14-person staff of full time associates.