Feb 26 2008
Outdoor News Digest: 2/26 - Afternoon Edition
The Observer & Eccentric papers have a good story on how cemeteries contain much historic information:
Gravestones can be decorated with symbols. A Celtic knot points to Irish heritage and a lamb represents a child, Krugman said. Cemeteries are arranged differently. Sometimes families are grouped together provided they had enough money to pay for plots, while the poor were buried in a row without regard to family connections. Some cemeteries have sections that are just for children or infants. “Sometimes the infants were not recorded, yet there may be a grave,” Krugman noted.
The Bay City Times has a story about the increased use of airboats on Saginaw Bay:
ITC Holdings is a power-line company. It is planning to build a high-capacity line through the northern suburbs of Detroit, according to Crain’s Detroit Business. This sometimes results in rights-of-way crossing parks and other public lands:
The Muskegon Chronicle reports on cleanup efforts in West Michigan’s White Lake:
Channel 2 in Detroit has a report on the delayed release of the CDC report on toxic areas along the Great Lakes shoreline:
The Iron Mountain Daily News has a report about park and trail improvements in that far-west UP town:
So far, he has received information to look at a trail around Crystal Lake, purchasing abandoned railroad property in the city for walking areas, renovating the smaller buildings at City Park, expansion of the ski trail at City Park, working with Vision 2020 on trails to North Elementary School, having the trail by the northside ballfield lead up to the Millie Hill Bat Cave, and looking at maps that pertain to a countywide bike trail.
The Grand Haven Tribune reports on a plan to secure grant monies from the DNR for East Grand River Park:
Lisa Sutterfield, Grand Haven’s assistant city manager, likes the city’s chances this year in getting a $300,000 state grant for improvements at East Grand River Park. The city’s application last year to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to help fund the park project was rejected. City Council voted 4-0 Monday to resubmit a nearly identical application to the state by an April 1 deadline.
Sutterfield said there were many applications for the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant program last year, and she anticipates the state will place Grand Haven’s request near the top because of it being a second attempt.
The application will ask the DNR to pay 75 percent of the planned $400,000 improvement project at the 6.1-acre park alongside the Grand River at the east end of Washington Avenue. The city would fund the remaining $100,000.
The improvements would include new barrier-free amenities like drinking fountains, benches, grills, picnic tables, playground, and accessible boardwalk to a fishing platform and wildlife viewing area. Other items include security enhancements and an irrigation system; and upgrades to the existing playground equipment, boardwalk, gazebo and parking lot.
Not part of this project, but planned for the future at East Grand River Park, are acquisition of adjacent land, new barrier-free restrooms and connection to an extended waterfront trail in the city
Zero fish were harvested during this year’s Black Lake sturgeon season:
The public comment period for the MI state forest plan remains open until mid-March:
The Bay City Times has a report on a possible new 115 nature preserve in Bay County:
Jim and Shirley McLean bought up 115 acres of land in Bay County’s Garfield Township so they’d have a place to get away from the stress of everyday life. The Midland couple recently donated a conservation easement on the 115 acres to the Bay City-based Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy and are looking to turn the land into a public nature preserve. For now, the land near Flajole and Erickson roads will remain private, but stay preserved.
The couple have maintained hiking trails on the land, which includes 3,000 feet of frontage along the North Branch of the Kawkawlin River, a sugar maple forest and a southern hardwood swamp, said Greg Eagle, a land protection specialist with the conservancy.
The McLeans have talked to several organizations about turning the land into a public preserve and nature center. So far, they’ve only found organizations that want to sell the land and use the proceeds for other projects.
A woman has created a documentary about Detroit’s “Black Bottom” and “Paradise Valley” neighborhoods:
…her father was born in Black Bottom, which was roughly bound by Elmwood Cemetery to the east, St. Aubin to the west, the Detroit River to the south and Vernor Highway to the north. Paradise Valley, a booming neighborhood of entertainment in the 1920s-40s, sprang up to the north and west of Black Bottom.
The Detroit News has this tidbit:
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, will host a conservation workshop at 7 p.m. March 3 at the Huron Point Sportsmen’s Association, 35800 E. 28 Mile, in Lenox Township. Miller will discuss grant programs available through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service Program and the USDA’s Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program.
The Traverse City Record Eagle reports that the outdoor sculpture “Time Myth” will not be placed in the city’s bayfront open space. The sculpture currently sits at the old Kmart headquarters in Troy:
The Grand Haven Tribune reports on a new nature center that will be created along the Pigeon River at Hemlock Crossing in Ottawa County:
Located at Hemlock Crossing along the Pigeon River near U.S. 31, the 8,000-square-foot nature center would include exhibit areas, meeting spaces, wildlife viewing area, covered patio, and offices for County Naturalist Chip Francke and the parks department staff.
Hemlock Crossing in Port Sheldon Township was chosen as the nature center site because of its central location in the county and its varied ecology, Francke said. “It’s a very diverse site, biologically,” he said, noting the Pigeon River, wetlands, forests, open areas, and diverse plant and wildlife in the park. The 239-acre park includes more than six miles of hiking and cross-country ski trails. The only nature center in Ottawa County right now is the city of Holland’s DeGraaf Nature Center, 600 Graafschap Road.
Muskegon County officials have approved plans to allow Pheasants Forever to create pheasant habitat on county wastewater treatment land:
The Muskegon County Board of Public Works has voted to allow the Muskegon branch of Pheasants Forever to use 425 acres of wastewater property for habitat restoration. That will include planting prairie grass, sorghum, wildflowers and other vegetation necessary to attract pheasants.
The project would be the largest restoration of pheasant habitat on public land in the state, according to Farhat. Hunting the birds on the property will remain illegal, according to Dave Kendrick, the county’s director of public works.
“The beauty of that site, especially as a contiguous project, is that it’s going to be like a preserve, with no hunting,” Farhat said. The 10-year agreement with the county identifies three sites where habitat will be upgraded. The first will be 80 acres on the north side of Apple Avenue near Sullivan Road, Farhat said. At the same time, the group will plant on 130 acres on the south side of Laketon Avenue near the Swanson Road intersection.
The second and third phases, totaling about 290 acres, will be contiguous to the Swanson Road site, to the south and east, Farhat said. The group would ideally like to develop about 100 acres per year, he said.
All the habitat development will be separate from the 5,100 acres reserved for corn, alfalfa and soybean farming on the property. Those crops are raised as part of the natural wastewater cleansing process at the wastewater treatment facility.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that the City of Grand Rapids will spend over $500,000 to create a plan called “Green Grand Rapids.” It will create a new vision for the city’s parks and the Grand River:
GRAND RAPIDS — City commissioners on Tuesday approved the funding package for “Green Grand Rapids,” a $548,000 project that aims to re-write the city’s parks and recreation master plan. Green Grand Rapids also will help the city attract the type of highly educated workforce that is needed in the new economy, said Suzanne Schulz, the city’s planning director.
The DDA will add $125,000 to explore ways of developing the Grand River through the downtown area. The project will include design of new walkways along the river and a study to determine if the Fourth Street dam is needed or could be redeveloped as a source of hydro-electric power.
The Detroit Free Press has a story about plans to restore Danvers Pond in Farmington Hills:
The Bay City Times has a story about the DNR’s decision to allow for naming rights to be sold for some Michigan public lands and facilities: