The battle for the final 4.2-mile “Segment 9” of the Heritage Trail within the Sleeping Bear Dunes is heating up again as plans are finalized and opposition is questioning the impact on the environment with roughly 7,300 trees’ fate in doubt, according to an assessment of the environmental impact by Borealis Consulting LLC in Traverse City.
“It’s cutting a swath right through the dune of Good Harbor,” said Doug Verellen, a Little Traverse Lake resident. “The cost is ridiculous.”
Segment 9’s projected cost is 14.2 million, while the previous 22 miles of trail cost roughly $10 million.
The Little Traverse Lake Association hired Borealis Consulting for the study to measure the size-class, species, and number of trees along the route, providing an inventory of the potentially impacted area.
Segment 9 is part of the efforts by the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL) with fundraising partner Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation Trails (TART Trails) to extend the existing 22-mile existing trail from Bohemian Road to Good Harbor Bay, one of the most sought after areas of Leelanau County. This would bring the trail’s total to 27 miles.
“We conducted an environmental survey for the entire Heritage Trail and looked at all of the impacts,” SBDNL Superintendent Scott Tucker said.
Tucker is referring to a study that the park did in 2009 that found “no significant impact” to the environment for the multi-use, non-motorized trail.
Throughout the 2010s, there have been more than a 100 public meetings discussing the Heritage Trail across several townships including Cleveland, Glen Arbor and Kasson Township, which Segment 9 passes through.
The last section of the Heritage Trail Port Oneida section was completed in 2016.
Segment 9’s design is scheduled to be finalized this spring with bidding for construction and tree contracts in the fall with completion by fall of 2025.
The Heritage Trail project is privately and grant funded through Tart Trails as the fundraising partner. MDOT is drawing up the construction plans.
“This section is much more expensive than the previous, but the previous sections were all constructed pre-pandemic and like everything else that we’re seeing construction costs have increased significantly,” TART Trails director Julie Clark said. “Those budgets get refined as you know more about the environment that you’re in the market conditions that you’re dealing with … Nothing has gotten less expensive in the last six years.”
Clark said they’ve raised nearly $5 million in public funding through grants and private funding for the Heritage Trail Segment 9. Clark has been with TART Trail since 2010 when the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail was started.
“What I’m proud of is the work that’s been done by the project partners to meet the community needs and values that started this trail in the beginning,” Clark said. “They’ve been met the whole way, and that’s what we fully anticipate with segment nine too, is that it will be built in the same thoughtful manner and loved just as much as the previous sections.”
Marilyn Miller, founder of the Sleeping Bear Naturally group said in a press release, and reiterated by the environmental analysis that over 85% of Segment 9 route is designated as protected critical dune area by the State of Michigan. The Borealis study states that the path of the trail lies entirely within a “vulnerable wooded dune and swale complex.”
Little Traverse Lake residents suggest in a press release that the Heritage Trail can change its route “by simply extending the trail north along Bohemian Road, which they have claimed would avoid the sensitive ecological area, keep thousands of trees, save millions of dollars, avoid private property and utilize an existing parking area with beach picnic and restroom facilities.”
The most common species of tree that make up this section of the Heritage Trail are American beech, sugar maple, white pine, red oak, ironwood, and hemlock trees, according to Borealis.
The study also found that there were no rare, threatened, or endangered species found within the trail route survey, according to the executive summary.
Borealis recommended that another environmental assessment be done by the park regarding the impact of the Segment 9 route in comparison to other potential routes, if any.
