MICHIGAN – A coalition of outdoor advocates, business leaders and labor across the partisan spectrum announced the launch of “Vote Yes for MI Water, Wildlife and Parks,” a campaign to encourage Michigan voters to vote yes on a 2020 ballot question that would update and expand the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF) and State Park Endowment Fund (SPEF) for land conservation and support of public recreation.

The expansive effort aims to educate voters on the work of the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund and Michigan State Park Endowment Fund across the state and the importance of voting yes to protect our clean water sources, natural areas, and wildlife habitats.Read More…

Author: Patrick Dunn The Michigan Air Line Trail, linking the Metro Detroit suburbs of Commerce Township, Wixom, and Walled Lake, has quickly become a popular destination, with some users hitting the trail last summer before the asphalt was even fully laid. But trail manager John Hensler says trail organizers “wouldn’t be where we are right…Read More…

Author: Patrick Dunn It was 1976, and debate over whether to drill for oil in Michigan’s Pigeon River Country State Forest had escalated into what Bob Garner describes as “a raging battle.” Shell Oil Company had discovered oil in the area in 1970, and Michigan’s elected officials, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff, and residents…Read More…

  Author: Kate Roff Linda Walter vividly remembers her college professor Charles Lewis at Wayne State University driving her parks and recreation class down to the Detroit riverfront in 1982. He would gesture to the blighted area, predicting that one day it would be a chain of beautiful parks. “We rolled our eyes,” Walter admits….Read More…