As we steadily make our way through winter 2021, the trails and forests are slowly becoming snowcovered and the smaller inland lakes are freezing. It is starting to look and feel more like the middle of winter within the Park. As soon as Christmas festivities come to a close, some start to look towards Valentine’s Day. This special day encourages us to think about those we love, but we are thinking about WHAT we love as well… and we love our National Lakeshore and all our volunteers. Even though we find ourselves in the midst of the winter months, we still are out enjoying everything the Park has to offer. One of our favorite winter activities is paddling the peaceful rivers like the Crystal River shown above. Winter offers us a different perspective with the riverbanks full of snow covered trees. We hope you all will make some time for yourself this month to appreciate what you love.
We Love Sharing Memories: We Invite You To Share Yours too! “Picture-Perfect Sleeping Bear: An Album of Shared Memories Celebrating the National Lakeshore”
Would you like to have your best Sleeping Bear Dunes area photos considered for a new book? The Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes is creating a crowdsourced book chronicling the history of our Park area through photos and text in celebration of the Park’s 50th Anniversary.
We have traveled here, sometimes for generations, and created memories of family vacations, weddings, canoe trips, campfires, and hikes. Some of us had family homes and farms that are now part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. What is your story?
The owners of photos selected for the book will get:
- A caption accompanying the photo in the book listing the photograph owner’s name and his or her description of the photo.
- An invitation to a kickoff event upon the book’s release when gatherings are approved; selected photos will be part of an event slide show.
- Knowledge that they are supporting Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park projects.
Visit our Picture Perfect Sleeping Bear Page to find out how to submit electronic or hardcopy photos. Although electronic submissions are preferred, if you mail us your historical, family photos or slides, we will mail your original copies back to you. Deadline for consideration is March 1, 2021. For more information about the book project, email: friendsbook2021@gmail.com.
We Love Our Historic Inns: BEAR Set to Give New Life to Sleeping Bear Inn in Glen Haven.
Maggie Kato and Jeff Kato of BEAR (Balancing Environment and Rehabilitation) were issued a letter of intent from the National Park Service to lease the historic Sleeping Bear Inn and Garage in Glen Haven. The nonprofit will begin rehabilitating the inn starting spring of 2021, it will function as a Bed and Breakfast as well as a lunch spot for visitors. Read more about this exciting project at the Leelanau Ticker.
We Love Our 2020 Volunteers: Hours Converted to Dollars!
A fun fact we wanted to share with you all… volunteer time in the National Lakeshore was recorded as an extraordinary 14,000 hours in 2020. That is an impressive amount of volunteer time! What would that look like if we put that into dollars? It represents a dollar value of a whopping $361,060.00! That would be a lot of cash! Thanks again to all our hardworking volunteers. Your hours really do add up! If you would like to join us as a volunteer please visit our Volunteer Page.
We Love Our Heritage Trail: Remember To Take Some Time For Yourself at the Lakeshore.
This time of the winter it is hard to think about warmer weather and Piping Plover, but our nesting pairs are starting to show up in Florida, their winter residence. Reports of piping plovers from Sleeping Bear Dunes have come in, including from Bunche Beach, Big Marco Pass, and Anclote Key, Florida, as well as Kiawah Island in South Carolina. It is good to see plovers surviving down south! Learn more about Piping Plover on the NPS website, and follow Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort on Facebook to get real-time updates on what birds have been sited where. 
We Love Our Heritage Trail: Remember To Take Some Time For Yourself at the Lakeshore.
We hope you can take some time to visit us this month and will plan a trip to the Lakeshore.
Make sure to keep updated about the winter trail conditions before you go – bookmark our updated Trail Conditions page: https://friendsofsleepingbear.org/…/winter-trail-report/
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