Advocacy for Preservation

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear was founded in advocacy on behalf of preserving the cultural resources of the park. The founders believed that preservation of natural resources does not preclude saving cultural resources but that both goals can be achieved in balance. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has demonstrated their commitment to this goal since a change of direction in 2001. The road is not always a simple one however, in making management decisions that protect natural resources, cultural landscapes and recreational experiences in the Park. Priorities as to what is saved each year are set based on financial and human resources available.

Preserve submits comments to Sleeping Bear Dunes management during public comment periods and may encourage our members to provide input as well. 

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear has submitted official comments on:

General Management Plan
The Park develops a General Management Plan every 20 years or so which guides the direction of the park.  The last GMP was finalized in 2008. The GMP can be found at www.nps.gov/slbe

Wilderness Issue
In 2004-2005, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore met with groups interested in information on the meaning of wilderness and its related effect in managing Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Several assets were removed from designated wilderness as a result. 

Port Oneida Scoping
 In Fall of 2005, the Park solicited public input regarding ideas and plans for stabilizing and rehabilitating historic structures and landscapes in Port Oneida . The Lakeshore sought new and creative ways in which these structures could be preserved while offering possible educational and recreational uses, as well as input on uses that might be objectionable. 

*Three reports have been written about the historic properties in the Park to provide background for these decisions. A Garden Apart: An Agricultural and Settlement History of Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Region Farming at the Water’s Edge: An Assessment of Agricultural and Cultural Landscape Resources in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan; Coming Through With Rye: An Historic Agricultural Landscape Study of South Manitou Island at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan. These reports are available at the Visitor Center and at the The Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor, MI.

PHSB Response to Park’s GMP Preferred Alternative (adobe pdf)