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Meetings:
CAL Annual Meeting:
Monday, July 16, 2007
7 pm
Lake Township Hall
Additional Comments From This Meeting
(on
M-22 south of Esch Rd and just north of Riverside Canoe Livery) |
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March 2006
Newsletter
Editor:
Jeannette Feeheley, President, Board of Directors
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Wilderness Study/GMP:
A new Wilderness Study will be conducted in conjunction with the new
General Management Plan (GMP) that the National Park Service has begun
developing for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. CAL is grateful
the Study will begin with a “blank map” rather than the 1981
Boundaries. CAL believes the Park Service’s January 2006 GMP Newsletter
1 is a concise, descriptive depiction of how the Park Service intends to
develop a new GMP/Wilderness Study. The NPS Newsletter clearly
demonstrates that CAL’s involvement to date has been influential: county
roads and the need for access are among the first issues addressed. For
all CAL’s gains, however, the NPS Planning Team’s GMP “Draft Purpose
and Significance Statements” raise the same questions that have
plagued the Park Service since 2002. CAL is disappointed to be
forced to re-articulate the same substantive concerns that so many
citizens and organizations expressed in 2002 with the NPS Planning
Team’s attempt at an unauthorized revision of the statutorily
determined “purpose” and “significance” of Sleeping Bear
Dunes National Lakeshore. CAL’s Comments also express concern with
the lack of a public statement of Park Service commitment to encourage
and support Congressional action on the results of a new Wilderness
Study, provided a consensus of stakeholder support is achieved. The
NPS GMP Newsletter 1 can be viewed on the Internet at:
http://www.nps.gov/slbe. |
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National Policies:
At the national level, Park Service leadership has proposed changes to
the 2001 Management Policies of the entire NPS system. Several years
ago, CAL had identified the 2001 Policies as the part of the impetus
under girding much of the more egregious aspects of the former proposed
GMP Alternatives withdrawn under public protest in 2002. CAL is highly
supportive of the improvements proposed at the national level and we
hope they will be adopted. We have submitted Comments commending the
leadership of the National Park Service and Department of Interior for
recognizing the need for improvements.
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Port Oneida Preservation:
CAL is happy with the Park Service’s decisions this past year to
commit to and spend more resources on preservation within the Port
Oneida historical area.
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Elected Officials:
CAL is happy and grateful for continued support from elected officials
at all levels and from candidates for public office. Offices of
Congressmen Pete Hoekstra and Dave Camp stay in touch, as do the Offices
of U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. |
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CAL Treasury:
We need your financial support.
Now that a new GMP/Wilderness Study has been announced, CAL will be even
busier than ever. We encourage all members/friends to help us fund the
immense paperwork involved by sending in your dues right away for the
upcoming year. Dues are $25/year; the fiscal year runs July 1 - June
30. Donations above the dues minimum are always appreciated, of course! |
2006 Annual
Membership Meeting this summer:
CAL
appreciates very much the hospitality extended by our local townships:
Empire, Homestead, and Platte Townships have allowed CAL to hold
Membership and/or Board meetings in their Township Halls. This
summer our Annual Membership Meeting will be held at Lake Township Hall
on M-22 just north of
Riverside Canoe
Livery. Meeting starts at 7 pm on Tuesday, July 25. Members encouraged
to attend! |
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October 20th Meeting with local Park Service officials hosted
and attended by Congressman Pete Hoekstra’s Staff on behalf of CAL:
Left to right: Asst.
Super. Tom Ulrich, Superintendent Dusty Shultz, CAL Pres. Jeannette
Feeheley, Mr. Jon DeWitte, Director of Public Policy for Congressman
Hoekstra, CAL Board Member Joanne Appelhof, CAL Road Commission Liaison
Dave Van Hammen, CAL Board Member Phyllis Crowell Van Hammen
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At
Oct. 18th CAL Board meeting at Platte Township Hall:
CAL Board
member Jack Feeheley, Mr. Gary Mack who asked to appear on behalf of
Keith Butler running for Repub. nomination to U.S. Senate, CAL Secretary
Alison Michalak, CAL member Kathy Stocklen
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Fines for Parking along Lake Michigan Road off M-22 in Benzie County:
Park Rangers did issue parking tickets with hefty fines ranging from $75
to $250 this summer in this area and will continue to do so. According
to the Benzie Road Commission, the road is a county road and the Road
Commission has posted no signs prohibiting parking, so parking is
allowed on the shoulder of the road. However, according to NPS
Assistant Superintendent Tom Ulrich, if people defy “traffic control
devices” like a curb and take their vehicle over the curb to park
onto the lawn of Park Service grounds or into the brush, the Park
Service has and will continue to issue tickets in order to protect the
grounds. Asst. Super. Ulrich explained to CAL that there is a range of
fines with a specific amount for specific violations. He explained that
$250 is the designated fine for “Operating a motor vehicle off park
roads, parking areas and outside of designated off-road routes”. He
also explained that besides the parking lot maintained by Lake Township,
there are two parking lots maintained by the Park Service, and that
anyone parking a vehicle in a Park Service lot is expected to pay the
entrance fee. Benzie County Road Commission Manager Bob Weaver may have
summed it up best in his advice that people should park their cars on
the blacktop and avoid making
"a footprint in the Park”.
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Scenic Road in Benzie County:
The Park Service is continuing to purchase land along the ridge between
Crystal and Platte Lakes pursuant to the boundaries established by
legislation for the Park, presumably pursuant to previous intent to
develop a scenic road there one day. There are some voices in Benzie
County who oppose such development and some who support it, but the
opportunity to remove this area from Park development was back in 1982
when Glen Lake residents successfully went to Congress to remove the
then proposed scenic road from around Glen Lake. The Park boundaries
were changed at that time pursuant to the Glen Lake efforts, but Benzie
County did not participate in the effort at that time, so the Park
boundaries remain as such, and properties along the ridge continue to be
purchased from willing sellers by the Park Service. |
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At CAL Oct. 27th Board
Meeting, Platte Twp. Hall:
CAL Board Members shown are
John Harkins, Jerry Brace, Jeannette Feeheley, Joanne Appelhof, Bob &
Alison Michalak
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Congressional Approval Needed:
Even
though a new Wilderness Study is about to begin, any new proposal put
forward will not replace the 1981 Wilderness Study and Boundaries until
and unless the new Study achieves all of the approvals the first Study
never achieved, that is, approval all the way through Park Service
leadership, Department of Interior approval for submission to the
President, the President’s submission with recommendation for passage to
Congress, and full Congressional approval via legislation required
pursuant to the 1964 Wilderness Act. That’s a tall order, considering
that the 1981 Study reigns as a fait accompli, thanks to the Park
Service’s opinion that a few lines in the 1982 legislation on the Glen
Lake matter requires Park Service personnel to basically treat the 1981
Study as if it had been fully designated by Congress, unless Congress
says otherwise. So, unfortunately, the bottom line on the new Study is
that, without full Congressional approval of the results, we may end up
with a good Study and fine Recommendations that most agree to, but that
the Park Service will not recognize: the new Study and Recommendations
will simply sit on a shelf for the next twenty years while the 1981
Wilderness Study and 1981 Boundaries continue their hold over the
management allowed in the Park. Local Park Service personnel are
adamant that, until and unless the new Study would be Congressionally
approved, they will implement only those items in the new GMP that have
nothing to do with the 1981 Wilderness Study and Boundaries, and the new
Study’s recommendations will not be implemented.
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Timing:
Local Park Service officials estimate it will take them three years just
to go through their steps to achieve approval by Park Service leadership
of the Wilderness Study’s results. However, three years from now will
occur a major turnover of the federal government when personnel in the
current administration are replaced by the next President. Such
turnover will occur to greater or lesser degree regardless of which
party sits next in the Oval Office. Those currently in the Park Service
and Department of Interior who are familiar with Sleeping Bear and the
issues may well be replaced. In addition, by that time, more elections,
possible retirements, moves, changes, etc., would have occurred that may
impact the makeup of our Michigan delegation, that is, our U.S.
Senators, Congresspersons and their staffs. The momentum is with us now
to get the necessary approvals along each step if the new Wilderness
Study is acceptable to the local communities, but time is not on our
side to get the Study the Congressional approval it will need after all
is said and done. Any delay in the process now would only add to our
concerns. CAL had hoped the Study would have begun three years ago when
the previous GMP had been withdrawn, but local Park Service officials
insisted on waiting until now. Time is not on our side. It appears we
have little choice except to participate in good faith and hope for the
best.
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