Chicago is a delightful city to walk around in.  And Chicago offers some wonderful walking tours for those who like to experience the big city close-up.  Read these excerpts from the Toronto Star and click below for more information:

Visitors to the Windy City can explore the history, traditions and people of Chicago neighbourhoods in a new way this spring with Chicago Neighborhood Tours.

Local guides lead half-day excursions of the city’s diverse neighbourhoods and communities including Garfield Park; Greektown, Little Italy & Chinatown; Historic Bronzeville; and Ukrainian Village, Humboldt Park & Wicker Park. Special Interest Tours feature the Great Chicago Fire and culinary expeditions to ethnic restaurants, delis, and bakeries.

Tours are on Saturdays throughout April and May. The cost is $25 (all figures U.S.), $20 for seniors/students, and include refreshments. Special Interest Tours are $50 ($45 for seniors/students) and include lunch. Summertime Sampler Tours are $20.

For reservations, call 312-742-1190 or visit www.chicagoneighborhoodtours.com

http://www.thestar.com/article/347954

The saga of the Owasippe Boy Scout camp in West Michigan continues.  The camp, owned by the Chicago-area Boy Scouts, was slated for a residential development until local individuals and governments organized opposition.

This week, the Chicago Boy Scouts appealed a ruling that supported the community’s right to zone the property against the proposed development.  Excerpts and link from the Muskegon Chronicle:

The lawsuit over zoning of the Owasippe Scout Reservation will continue after the Chicago Boy Scouts council voted to pursue an appeal of its recent loss in Muskegon County Circuit Court.

According to one member of the Chicago Area Council of Boy Scouts, the Boy Scouts have spent $1 million on the dispute over the Owasippe zoning, though an attorney for the council denies the figure.

The Chicago Area Council, which owns the 4,800-acre Owasippe property that’s been used for Boy Scout camping for nearly a century, sued the township in 2006 over the restrictive zoning. Attorneys for the Boy Scouts have argued that the zoning unfairly limits the value of the property, while the township argues it protects the township’s rural nature and fragile infrastructure.

The Scouts have received a $19 million purchase offer for the wilderness property from Holland businessman Benjamin A. Smith III that is contingent on the land being zoned for residential use. Marietti calculated a potential for 2,400 new homes if the property was rezoned.

Board member Frank Kriegseis said he was one of five board members who voted against the appeal.  “We’ve lost this case. We cannot get this land rezoned,” Kriegseis said. “By going through an appeal, it’s only going to upset more people … It’s going to divide people. That’s what we have, we have a huge division in Chicagoland Scouts.”

A group called the Owasippe Outdoor Education Center has notified the council of its wish to purchase the property for $12.3 million, though OOEC officials said the council has not shown much interest in the offer. The OOEC wants to use the Owasippe property for a camping and educational facility apparently allowed under current zoning.

Kriegseis said some Scouts have been raising money for Blue Lake Township’s defense fund, and some have called the national Boy Scouts headquarters to complain about the actions of the council.

Blue Lake Township Supervisor Don Studaven said he was disappointed to learn of the council’s decision to appeal and spend more of the Scouts’ money to fight the township. Studaven is a former employee of the council.  “They were ill-advised using the money like that,” Studaven said. “That’s not what they were formed to do.”

http://tinyurl.com/ywhxgt

The Muskegon Chronicle also reports that the Trust for Public Land helping local activists in possible acquisition of the property:

TPL, as the Trust of Public Land is known, reported $220 million in revenue for its 2006-07 fiscal year on its 2006 federal tax filing. It is a national nonprofit land conservation organization based in San Francisco that since 1972 has preserved 2 million acres in 47 states valued at $4 billion, according to its Web site. It conserves natural places, parks, community gardens, historic sites, farms and ranches.

The TPL conceivably could purchase the Owasippe property outright and hold it for a time as it seeks reimbursement from such private and public organizations as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Land Trust Fund, said Christopher D. Knopf, director of regional programs for the TPL’s central region.

Knopf declined to go into details on how the purchase could be completed, though he said TPL often works with other organizations and conservation groups to get projects done. It also provides loans to groups purchasing property.

“I believe a conservation solution could work well for everyone,” Knopf said, adding that he wants to meet the needs of the Chicago Boy Scouts while conserving the land’s natural resources and providing such recreational activities as fishing and horseback riding.

Financial support for TPL comes from government grants and contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations and landowners it works with. It also raises money through the purchase and sale of land.

TPL already has expressed interest in helping Muskegon County purchase property adjacent to the county’s Meinert Park.

Knopf said he’s been keeping abreast of developments with the Owasippe property for the past five years, partly because his parents live in Whitehall. Knopf, who grew up in Ohio, had been working for TPL’s division in Ohio.

http://tinyurl.com/2t6r4r

The Jackson Citizen Patriot’s Lake Living Magazine has a great article about Wampler’s Lake in Lenawee and Jackson County’s Irish Hills Area.  Here are excerpts accompanied by some photos that I took last summer from Walter J. Hayes State Park:

The beautiful, natural lakes of the Irish Hills endure. None is larger or more scenic than Wamplers Lake, a 780-acre jewel southeast of Brooklyn.

White settlers first visited the lakes bordering the Sauk Trail in the 1820s, centuries after native tribes gathered fish, turtles and fur-bearing mammals from the lakes and connecting swamps. The Potawatomi were the last resident tribe, from 1700 to 1830.

Wamplers was developed in the 19th century, but not to the extent of nearby lakes Clark and Devils. Several large land owners controlled the lake for many years, limiting development.

Among them was the Hayes family, whose bequest had a lasting impact on life at Wamplers Lake. Cedar Hill State Park was dedicated on the northeast shore in the 1920s, making it among the oldest in the state park system, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Today, Hayes State Park takes in 654 acres that include a sprawling beach and picnic area on Wamplers, and a campground on Round Lake, which is connected be a stream under M-124. The woodland park features towering maple, oak and hickory trees.

Taylor is also a good friend of Jerry Andonian, whose family owns Jerry’s Pub, a few doors east. Jerry’s has been known for good food, a relaxing view of the lake and a resort atmosphere for 30 years.

“Jerry’s is a wonderful watering hole,” said Mary Alice Kozenchak, a Realtor for Killarney Realty.

Jerry “B.J.” Andonian Jr. said the family business depends on the summer trade, including boaters who enter at the Irish Hills Marina or at the state launch.

“We added more docks for them to pull up for drinks or dinner. They see the tiki bar, the big deck and the smoke coming off the big grill,” Andonian said.

Jerry’s is the only restaurant on the lake and is a social hub where founder Jerry Andonian is known for belting out Frank Sinatra tunes. A specialty dish is crab cakes said to rival the originals along Chesapeake Bay.

Wamplers is excellent for swimming, fishing and boating. It features sandy, gravely swimming areas the length of the shoreline, with depths moving gradually to 30-40 feet at the center.

The DNR Fisheries Division reports good populations of bluegills, yellow perch, small-mouth and large-mouth bass, crappies, pike and walleyes, with walleyes stocked by local anglers and nearby Knutson’s Recreational Sales.

Wamplers is busy with personal watercraft, pontoons, sailboats and ski boats in warm months, and is popular all year among anglers. Connecting Round Lake, which has a no-wake rule, is quieter but the fishing is considered better on Wamplers.

St. Joseph’s Shrine, just south of Wamplers Lake on U.S. 12, epitomizes the Irish Hills. You do not have to be Catholic to stop and appreciate the history. Twenty Irish immigrants laid the first stones in the 1840s. The first Mass was in 1863.

The view of Iron Lake and the rolling terrain from the stations of the cross is stunning, especially in autumn. The hillside trail is sacred to many visitors and beautiful to all.

http://tinyurl.com/2srq93

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ll be heading to Wisconsin in about five minutes.  I’ll be back at the end of this coming week.  I may or may not have an internet connection, so don’t worry.

Cheers!

Mike

A week or two ago, I posted a blog entry about efforts to place whitewater kayak courses in Flint, MI and Dayton, OH.  Given the die-hard nature of participants in the sport, both areas would serve the local kayak community.

Well, the push for kayak courses in the region appears to be spreading like a virus.  Now the community of Kent, OH is planning a $1.5 million dollar course on the Cuyahoga River.  Given that Kent is roughly two to 2.5 hours from Monroe, this would place the new run within a daytrip of Monroe kayakers.  Here are excerpts and a link to the Akron Beacon-Journal article:

”The river is one of our greatest assets,” city manager Dave Ruller said. ”We think it will be a catalyst to the economic revitalization for our downtown. On a lot of levels, it’s a good fit with Kent’s river heritage.”

The goal is to improve the ability for people to enjoy the river, which is in a gorge and runs through downtown. The project involves not only trying to develop a whitewater section for avid paddlers, but also making it easier for people to play and fish there.

The overall project area runs from the Crain Avenue Bridge to John Brown Tannery Park, and also includes work at River Bend Park.

City leaders have been talking about the proposal for more than a year and hired Recreation Engineering and Planning, a design firm from Boulder, Colo., to see if the project was feasible and to offer recommendations.

The state has $3.6 million available for such boating projects, but receives requests totaling $13 million to $16 million each year. Typically, eight to 12 projects are funded.

http://www.ohio.com/news/17121531.html

The recent move by Jack’s Bicycle & Fitness to its new Downtown Monroe location has raised an interesting question:  Should bikes be allowed on Downtown sidewalks?  To me, the answer is obvious: Yes.  I used to ride my bike in Downtown Ann Arbor all of the time.  It was just a nice way to get around.  And downtown areas are particularly suited to effective bike commuting.  Here are excerpts and a link to Charles Slat’s Monroe Evening News article:

Councilman Brian Beneteau says he wants to review the law and perhaps create a bike lane and a safety zone for foot travelers so pedalers and pedestrians can co-exist.

City ordinance bans riding bikes, skateboarding or roller-skating on sidewalks in the downtown area, due to safety reasons. Various signs in the downtown area warn of the prohibition. But the law is routinely ignored by many and rarely enforced, although youngsters occasionally have gotten stiff tickets for violating it.

Mr. Beneteau said there’s interest in the idea, partly because of talk of extending city walking paths past the River Raisin Battlefield and out to Sterling State Park.

Scott Goocher of Jack’s Bicycle & Fitness, who recently moved his business to downtown Monroe, said he’d like the idea even if he didn’t own a bike shop. “I understand both scenarios,” he said. “I understand that some people don’t want it because you have got some people riding too close to people coming out of doors and someone might get hit. But with gas at $3.25 a gallon, if you pretty much live within the city limits and work in the city, you should be riding a bicycle.”

http://tinyurl.com/yuebng

The Greenville Daily News reports that a driver hit a bobcat on M-66 in Montcalm County.  Bobcats are secretive, but not particularly rare:

Many saw a bobcat lying injured on the highway near the Dollar Days and Twin Ponds stores on Stanton’s south side Friday morning The cat’s rear legs had been hurt when it was struck by a vehicle.  Deputies from the Montcalm County Sheriff’s Office in Stanton helped direct traffic while the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was called in to handle the bobcat.  “Once we arrived we kept people away from the animal,” said DNR Conservation Officer Vicki Goss. “It is not wise to get too close to a bobcat. They can be dangerous with their claws and teeth.  “It had been hit by a car but it didn’t look like it was too injured,” she said. “It didn’t seem like it was real injured. There no visible injuries.”

Goss said bobcats are common around Montcalm County, especially right now.  “It is breeding season for bobcats. They are not that uncommon around here,” she said. “They are very well protected in this area. There is no hunting season for bobcats.”

http://tinyurl.com/2rv93n

Steve Pollick of the Toledo Blade has a great column about increasing area populations of red-tailed hawks:

Too, this year, “the weather has kind of hung stuff up,” said Shieldcastle, who is wetlands project leader at Ohio’s Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station in Ottawa County. Many migrating redtails, among others, have tended to stack up in the region awaiting fairer weather to the north.

Kim Kaufman, BSBO’s education director, added a third contributing possibility. It may just be a good year for rodents. Lots of field mice mean lots of redtails with appetites concentrated where these meadow voles are skittering.

http://tinyurl.com/2glnp8

Eric Sharp’s recent Detroit Free Press column about cougars brought him a flurry of letters claiming sightings.  Read the column here:

http://tinyurl.com/ytnudv

The Escanaba Daily Press is reporting that a man has found an ancient copper ax blade while metal detecting in his backyard near Lake Michigan.  Excerpts and link:

Ray Reser, director of the Central Wisconsin Archaeology Center at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, described the object as a copper “celt,” a type of ax blade with no perforations or grooves. He said the celt was probably a functioning tool.  The piece probably dates from 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.

He said he dug down, found nothing, got frustrated and recovered the hole. When his father gave him some ribbing for not finding anything, he tried again, a little deeper, and there it was.

Reser said Keweenaw copper artifacts have been found in Mexico, the Rockies and the East Coast.  “This stuff was highly coveted. It was intensively traded up and down the Mississippi River valley,” he said.  For the first thousands of years, most copper artifacts from this culture were used as tools. By 1000 B.C., Pleger said more pristine items, such as jewelry, can be found.

Pleger said because those people were fairly mobile, and due to the perishable nature of their materials, archaeologists have yet to excavate well-preserved habitation sites connected to the Old Copper Complex, but the nature of their finds does retain some clues.

“One of the other nice things about copper artifacts is that it tends to preserve organic material that it comes into contact with,” he said. The oxide created in the copper over time retards bacterial growth.

Metal detecting technology has resulted in many similar finds, but not all people have taken as much care with what they found.  “Collectors find these things and will often clean them up, destroying the evidence we can use to date them,” Pleger said.

Pleger said there are many unknown elements of the Old Copper Complex, but archaeologists, both professional and impromptu, must be smart with what they find.  “It’s important to understand that the archaeological resources of Michigan, Wisconsin, Canada are non-renewable,” he said.

http://tinyurl.com/2bm3qv

Howard Meyerson, the great outdoors writer at the Grand Rapids Press, wrote an article about the state park funding crisis a few weeks back that is a must read for those who care about Michigan’s natural spaces.  Here are some key excerpts:

State park officials are now announcing it will not be necessary to close 37 state parks next year. A two-year belt-tightening plan put into effect is expected to offset the highly-publicized $5.3 million deficit in fiscal year 2009.  “The good news is we won’t have to take any drastic measures in the short term,” said Ron Olsen, Michigan’s state park chief.

The operative words are short term. Money is being saved by not spending $2.8 million appropriated to state parks this year — also holding back another $2.5 million next year. It is money that would otherwise go to fund needed repairs and other infrastructure needs.  “The crisis isn’t over. It’s just delayed,” said Harold Herta, chief of resource management for Michigan State Parks. “We don’t want people to think the crisis is over.”

“We are still living out things (park facilities) built by the CCC.”  Maybe not for long. A joint capital outlay bill now moving through the legislature will direct $20 million to the DNR. Of that, $17.9 million will go to state parks for building construction. It is all part of a $200 million bond being issued by the state, according to Herta.  About that bill’s progress, Lahti says: “We are very close. It should be done in a couple of weeks.”

http://tinyurl.com/2ya2pn

Several interesting new solar-powered gadgets have passed through my Google reader in recent days.  The first is a solar powered cigarette lighter.  Not impressed?  Well, just read this from Outside Magazine’s blog:

The mechanics of the Sunlighter are pretty simple: It’s curved aluminum surface, when positioned precisely right in the sun, creates up to 270-degree heat. The Sunlighter comes with interchangeable cigarette and cigar holders, but Martino, who recently celebrated his 13th year as a non-smoker, says it can light just about anything. Tested and approved, oddly, by the Boy Scouts, the lighter can make flames from your headlights and start a killer bonfire with just a cotton ball and Vaseline.

Martino and his business partner, Leonard Ucci, have already sold 6,000 and are gladly hopping on the eco-friendly bandwagon, marketing themselves as the “greenest” lighter around and citing the 3 billion Bics each year that make their way to landfills. And the best part is that it looks like your own little personal satellite dish. The folks around the ashtray might think you’re a bit strange, and it doesn’t exactly fit in your pocket, but for $15 you can have one of your own“ at sunlighter.com.

http://tinyurl.com/342sk6

And I’m not sure how new they are, but here is a link to some solar battery chargers.  They would be pretty nice to pop on top of a backpack while on a nice long hike in sunny terrain.  It would keep the GPS working.

http://tinyurl.com/3487ct