Volunteers clean up Sleeping Bear

By MELISSA DOMSIC
mdomsic@record-eagle.com

September 28, 2008 12:00 am

—

TRAVERSE CITY -- Six-year-old cub scout Spencer Crawford wants people to stop leaving trash on the beach.

"They'll leave the earth dirty, not green anymore," he said.

Crawford and his father Ken Crawford, of Acme Township, picked up an abandoned flip-flop, drinking straws, fire crackers and lots of cigarette butts along Lake Michigan at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Saturday.

Spencer Crawford collected garbage as an elective activity for cub scouts. He joined nearly 40 other volunteers participating in the park's annual beach cleanup as part of National Public Lands Day.

"We're taking care of our lands because this is all public lands, federal lands," said Susan Sanders, park ranger at Sleeping Bear. "We all enjoy them, we use them, and it's a way to just give back, which I think is just really important for us to take responsibility."

The Alliance for the Great Lakes held beach cleanups throughout the region about a week ago. Last year, the group reported 30,000 pounds of litter collected from 234 miles of Great Lakes coastline, including more than 168,000 cigarette butts.

Volunteers near North Bar Lake on Saturday did not encounter an alarming amount of trash. It was good news compared to the "unbelievable" heaps of garbage that washed up the Lake Michigan coastline earlier this summer, Sanders said.

Hundreds of pounds of refuse surfaced on Lake Michigan beaches scattered from Sleeping Bear south to Saugatuck. Labels on some items linked the trash to Wisconsin.

But it's thanks to cleanup crews like those with the park's adopt-a-beach program that the shore is in better shape, Sanders said.

Phil Stinson of Northville spent his Saturday afternoon gathering rubbish. He has a vacation home in Glen Arbor and often volunteers to clean up the park.

"This is a very special place," he said. "Keeping it as tidy and pristine as possible is important to us so everybody can enjoy it."

Workers found nine dead birds on Saturday. Avian botulism outbreaks killed thousands of birds at the national lakeshore and other Lake Michigan beaches in the past couple years, but the die-offs appear to have slowed for now.

Another cleanup is scheduled for today on the lower Platte River. Paddlers will pick up garbage as they kayak and canoe from the Platte River picnic area to Platte Point. Park entrance fees also are waived today.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.