EMPIRE -- Fritz Barratt had only one real offer when he listed for sale his family's 190-acre farm in Leelanau County's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
It came from the park.
His parcel, a mix of woods, farmland and shoreline along Lake Michigan, drew the attention of numerous potential buyers while on the market, Barratt said, but park provisions ultimately left Barratt with only one option.
"The restrictions Congress places on the property -- in the park you can't subdivide. You can sell it to anyone you want, but they can't do anything with it," said Barratt, who eventually sold the property to the park service for about $5.5 million in 2002.
"We had to do a lot of leg work to go to Congress and get Congress to appropriate the money. As they are now, (the park has) places they want to buy, but they don't have the money," he said.
The National Park Service currently is working to purchase about 434 of Sleeping Bear's 2,200 privately owned acres from willing sellers, including property along Big Glen Lake and ridge tops between Crystal and Platte lakes. But concerns over dwindling funds have some groups urging Congress to appropriate more money for fiscal year 2009.
"Right now, the park has about 150 privately held pieces of property throughout the park," said Lynn McClure, midwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. "So when parcels come on the market and people are willing to sell them to the park, it would be tremendous to have the federal funds available to make those purchases."
"Congress has not appropriated anywhere near the ceiling they are authorized to appropriate to purchase land for the park service," she said.
Property for sale within Sleeping Bear Dunes includes a half-acre adjacent to the dune climb area, a half-acre of Big Glen Lake frontage, about 212 acres along the Benzie Corridor -- a scenic view area overlooking Crystal and Platte lakes -- 36 acres near Good Harbor and 180 acres in the Bow Lakes area.
Total cost for all the properties is estimated at about $5 million, but no money is proposed for land acquisitions at Sleeping Bear for fiscal year 2009, said Tom Ulrich, park assistant superintendant.
"It has to be sort of the perfect storm where the willing sellers come forward and we have the money appropriated," Ulrich said. "If either one of those is missing, then your opportunity has also been missed."
Matt Heiman, a land protection specialist with the Leelanau Conservancy, has worked with the park over the years to secure properties for public use, something he said "certainly advances our mission, which is protecting the land water and scenic character of the county."
Heiman believes the Bow Lakes area, in particular, could be an especially important resource to protect in the near future.
"Bow Lakes area is a very unique ecological and geological resource because of the glacial kettle hole lakes and wetlands that dot that little landscape there," he said. "They are their own small watershed and ecosystem all in one."
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