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The majority of our snow comes from lake effect. We don’t usually see that heavy cement-mixer type of snow."
~ Gaylord-based National Weather Service meteorologist John Boris

As Leelanau continues to dig out from a MAJOR winter storm, we thought we would post some of the highlights (or is that low points) of this very disruptive storm. TV 9&10 meteorologist Tom O'Hare explains: (more...)

In Community Wind Faces Roadblocks, IPR News Radio explains that the village of Northport owns the hill behind its new sewage treatment plant, and a planned wind turbine about half the size of the windmill outside Traverse City will supply half the electricity for the plant.

Tom Gallery and more than a dozen other investors formed a private company and put up their own money to finance the turbine,allowing them to use federal tax credits and incentives that would not be available to the village of Northport.

Despite the benefits of local owners generating clean energy and using it on site, community wind projects are rare in Michigan. And Steve Smiley says it's because the state makes them difficult to do. "Every time we turn a corner someone's putting up a wall in front of us."

Smiley is the project manager for Leelanau Energy. He says, under state rules, there's an incentive to keep these projects smaller by paying less for the electricity as the projects get bigger. Originally, the Northport turbine was designed to supply all the electricity at the sewage plant. But at the lower rate, the numbers didn't make sense.

And Smiley says if state rules required a fair price for all community wind it be a lot easier to do. "We wouldn't have to go through tons and tons of paperwork and complications and have twenty or thirty people involved for a year just to try to do a piddly little project."

Read on for the rest of this interesting piece - what do you think?

The Leelanau Enterprise reported that last Tuesday night Leelanau commissioners voted 7-0 to hire Chet Janik as County administrator. He's the seventh county administrator since the position was established in 1985 and will resign his current position as superintendent at Charlevoix Public Schools. They add that:

Janik, who immigrated to Cedar in 1961 with his family at the age of 5, will receive an annual salary of $73,780, which along with benefits raised his overall compensation over $80,000.

...Janik started his professional career as an administrator at the age of 23 with Northwestern Michigan College, and previously served as superintendent in Buckley before accepting the Charlevoix position.

Proud of his heritage, Janik couldn’t help but comment about paczkis being gobbled up by officials and residents during a short break in the meeting agenda that allowed he and Van Pelt to sign his contract.

This

"I like to take trips like this, to get out of the rut of ordinary life and test myself. I don't have a lot of kayaking experience, but I like getting out and seeing how far I can go."
~Steve Snyder

Hello boys and girls, today we have the story of The Very Lucky Kayaker.

Once upon a time there was a man named Steve Snyder, who paddled from Glen Haven nine miles to South Manitou Island in a brand new kayak to camp. He ran into trouble two miles into his return trip when the spray skirt came off. With no wetsuit and taking on water, he was, as Jim Stamm pointed out when he emailed it over, incredibly lucky to survive.

He was lifted off the island by a Coast Guard Helicopter, hopefully wiser. mLive closes their article:

Michigan paddlers are fortunate. There are two excellent multiday sea kayaking symposiums every year. A symposium is slated May 25-28 in Muskegon County by the West Michigan Coastal Kayakers Association. See wmcka.org for details. The other is the Great Lakes Sea Kayaking Symposium, July 18-22, in Grand Marais. See downwindsports.com/glsks for more details.

If you are new to kayaking, consider attending. You won’t be sorry — and it could save your life.

We'll close ours by sharing the words of northern Michigan's own Song of the Lakes:

These are not lakes, these are the world's eighth seas, and her bottoms are littered with the wreckage of over 8,000 ships.

Try not to join them, OK? Don't treat Lake Michigan like a lake, she's a whole lot bigger than almost any lake in the world and demands your respect.

Photo credit: Winter Swirls on Sleeping Bear Point by Mark Lindsay

Ken shot this on Saturday night in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. He says that the brightness of the night sky is a reflection of iso and shutter speed (5 photos @ iso 1600 and 30 second exposures). Click to view larger on black!

This weekend (Feb 18 & 9) is a Michigan free fishing weekend - the perfect time to take to the ice (or open water) and try to land a local lunch! Michigan holds two of these weekends every year, one in February and the other in June.

Ken Scott shot this photo and also this cool video of ice fishing on North Lake Leelanau - check it out.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has awarded a nearly $500,000 federal Transportation Enhancement (TE) grant to the Leelanau County Road Commission. The money will be used to pave 6.5 miles of the Leelanau Trail from Lakeview Hills Road to Revold Road, and TART Trails will provide a $200,000 match.

"This federal funding helps pay for improvements that make a real difference in economic development and quality of life," said State Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle. "Transportation enhancements like these make Michigan communities even more attractive to residents, visitors and business investors."

Under federal law, 10 percent of federal surface transportation funds are set aside for TE projects. Administered by MDOT, the grants enable communities to invest in projects such as streetscapes and non-motorized trails. TE funds provide a maximum of 80 percent of the money required for each project, with the remainder coming from state and local government and the private sector.

Thanks IPR News Radio for the tip and please consider donating to the Leelanau Trail Capital Campaign.

Photo credit: Leelanau Trail by mollypitcher

The Leelanau Enterprise reports that in addition to making it a rough winter for those who depend on snow for winter sports, the lack of snow this winter is proving troubling for wine grape growers. They talked with Charlie Edson:

Edson, of Bel Lago Vineyards & Winery north of Cedar, has more than 100 grape varietals planted on 32 acres in Centerville Township that are susceptible to freezing without snow cover.

“I don’t know how hardy the vines are. I’m guessing not as hardy as we would like,” he said.
As of Wednesday, 43 inches of snow had been recorded at the Road Commission garage in Suttons Bay, about half the 85 inches from a year ago at the same point of winter. Adding insult to injury is that any snow that has come has melted away due to unseasonably warm temperatures. On Friday, the mercury broke 50 degrees at the Enterprise weather station in Lake Leelanau. A high of 60 was recorded in the past week at the Road Commission garage in Maple City.

Those readings are a concern for grape growers throughout the region.

“It’s a problem for us,” said Erwin “Duke” Elsner, Michigan State University small fruit production & viticulture specialist based in Traverse City. “Snow is a primary source of insulation providing up to 10 degrees of protection. If it gets down to minus 5, the temperature around the vine can be 5 above.”

While lack of snow is also a concern for local small fruit trees, it is less concerning than for grapevines. Elsner explained that tree trunks comprised of sturdy tissue can survive lower temperatures.

Read on for more!

Photo credit: Vineyard ... on the Eve of Spring by Ken Scott

The 4th Annual Great Indoor Folk Festival takes place this Sunday, February 12 in Building 50 at the Grand Traverse Commons. The festival runs from noon to 5:30, and it is family-friendly and free, though you're encouraged to donate through "busker buckets."

There will be 6 different stages with over 50 musicians on seven different stages. An article in this weeks Northern Express is well worth your time. They explain that the regional organization Songwriters in the Round is the driving force behind the event:

“It’s a community of really talented people. It’s an interactive family of musicians,” said Robin Lee Berry of Boyne City.

Berry will once again be part of the roster of performers. She will be singing and playing some of her original compositions along with some judiciously chosen covers.

“It’s a really wonderful experience,” said Berry. “I’ve been part of the Songwriters in the Round since its second year. It’s really brought a lot of musicians out of the woodwork.”

The list of performers is great, and many of them are from Leelanau - some highlights:  Louan Lechler, Robin Lee Berry, Kirby, Dane Hyde & Greg Stanton, Dennis Palmer & Allison Brown, Sister Wilene, Cabin Fever, Jim Crockett & Friends, Blind Dog Hank and Dede and the Dreamers.

About a week ago now I came across this photo by Mark Lindsay. I asked former Park Ranger Bill Herd, and he told me what has since come out in the media. From 140-year-old shipwreck piece washes ashore on remote stretch of Sleeping Bear Dunes beach in mLive:

Sleeping Bear Dunes historians believe the schooner fragment, estimated to be about 40-feet long and peppered with twisted metals spikes, is part of the ship’s bilge keelsons, which the Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archeology says were long timbers running most of the ship’s length, strengthening the keel.
It’s one of several fragments of the wreck to wash ashore over the years, said Laura Quackenbush, museum technician with park service. In fact, wreck fragments from the Jennie and Annie, as well as other ships which foundered off the dunes coastline, wash ashore once or twice a year.
“It’s a very dynamic shoreline,” she said. “It’s a common occurrence around there.”

Over the weekend photographer Ken Scott made the hike and posted the video below of the Jennie and Annie and also of the other (as yet nameless) wreck that we reported on last year.

Photo credit: Sleeping Bear Point Wreck by Mark Lindsay