Ecotourism, a buzz word with many paths

Glen Arbor Sun

The word “ecotourism” is gaining popularity in the Glen Arbor region. Ecological tourism is defined in Martha Honey’s book Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? (Washington DC: Island Press, 2008) as “travel to fragile, pristine and usually protected areas that strives to be low-impact and (often) small scale. It helps educate the traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.”

Canoe, kayak, hikes and bike trips into the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (the local branch of the National Park Service) certainly qualify as such. The nature is fragile, pristine and protected. The trips are low-impact and small-scale. While visitors don’t directly fund local conservation, their visit up north does aid the area’s economic vitality and empower the community. As for respecting different cultures and human rights … well, the indigenous peoples have long since left the Lakeshore, but ecotourism strives to respect their legacy.

Two Glen Arbor businesses now offer trips into the Lakeshore that could be considered ecotourism. Matt Wiesen’s Crystal River Outfitters rents kayaks and canoes from its base next to Riverfront Pizza on M-22. The Outfitters’ favorite trip is a two-three hour paddle along seven miles of the Crystal River, within the Park. Its website promises, “You’ll be amazed by the clear water and sandy bottom of the Crystal River … You’ll see Northern Michigan’s true residents: White Tail Deer, Blue Heron, Bald Eagles, otters, turtles, frogs and endless amounts of fish.”

This summer, Mike and Becky Sutherland’s eco-friendly mini golf course, The River at Crystal Bend, has expanded to offer canoe and kayak outings, fishing trips on Tucker Lake, bike trips and hiking tours. According to its website, the River strives “to create a place of happiness for folks that want to escape the whirlwind that has become the American lifestyle.”

“Our intentions are to educate people about how to treat the environment,” says Mike Sutherland. “It’s about teaching awareness, especially in children.” Mike sees Glen Arbor as an island surrounded by the National Park, and The River has a responsibility to share its richness with the community and visitors to the area.

The River employs several local guides who know these woods, lakes and rivers like the backs of their hands. On nature hikes, landscaper Cre Woodard teaches clients about native plants and wildlife. Outdoorsman Mark Ringlever guides the Tucker Lake fishing trips, teaches fly-fishing and explains how practices such as catch-and-release help preserve natural resources. Mark’s mantra is “get in the water and let the current do the rest.” Experienced naturalist Georg Schluender teaches the casting of animal tracks in plaster to children. One of The River’s many ambitions, says Mike Sutherland, is to “specialize in that moment with kids, teaching them how to treat the environment with respect.”

If done poorly, recreation can spend and deplete natural resources. But The River is careful to balance this consumption with teaching conservation and promoting efforts to preserves our resources.

Combining the commercial element and the environmental element doesn’t have to conflict, says Sutherland — precisely because of the symbiotic relationship between the local economy and the environment. The economy depends on the environment to draw visitors to northern Michigan. And the environment depends on the economy to promote preservation and conservation. Both support and sustain the other. Ecotourism is rooted in the concept that environment and economy are like a spider web, a beautifully intricate network of relationships.

Park-sponsored ecotourism

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, itself, sponsors ecotourism ventures within the Park. Ranger-led hikes are offered frequently, and “Saturdays at the Lakeshor” — each with a weekly theme — feature guided trips that leave from the Visitors Center in Empire on Saturdays at 1 p.m. Past themes have included “The Great Meltdown” and “Wonderful Waterfowl”.

For the second summer in a row, the Park’s Transportation Interpreter Ryan Locke is offering guided bike trips. The trips are free, as long as your vehicle as a Park entrance pass ($10 per week or $20 per year). And bring your own bike!

Locke is 25 and originally from Spring Lake. His position is sponsored by the National Park Foundation, whose mission is to promote alternative transportation within National Parks. “They gave me bikes and said ‘go to work with them,’” says Locke, who plans routes in the Park and also leads the tours. The program expanded from two to four routes this summer.

Those routes are: “Discovering Cultural Landscapes,” which tours the Port Oneida Rural Historic District north of Glen Arbor, on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. and Fridays at 11 a.m.; “Backroads, Farms and Forests,” south of Empire through an agricultural landscape, ghost town and former logging area, Thursdays at 11 a.m. and Fridays at 5 p.m.; “Recreation and Tourism,” north of Empire on paved roads near the Dune Climb, along Glen Lake, and through Glen Haven, Wednesdays at 11 a.m. and Thursdays at 5 p.m., and “Bicycle Safety and Beach Ride at Platte River Campground,” which starts in the Platte River campground and rides down Peterson Road to the beach and back, Tuesdays at 7 p.m. (all ages welcome). Locke’s current schedule runs through Aug. 28, and different programs will be added for the month of September.

“I think of ecotourism as an alternative vacation where someone is actively looking for meaning in their vacation, something larger,” says Locke, who is also a graduate student in urban design planning at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. “It’s also about people engaging in green traveling and thinking more carefully about the impacts they have.”

Writer Ian Vertel contributed to this report.