As local studies have identified billions of dollars in economic benefits from the region's parks and trails, area leaders have increasingly come together to acknowledge and better leverage those benefits.
Numerous factors have prompted huge increases in park usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, but most of them trace back to residents seeking mental stability during unprecedented chaos and uncertainty.
Stakeholders have adopted a more regional approach, thinking in terms of projects that build trail connections not just within a single county but across Southeast Michigan.
The Joe Louis Greenway is expected to connect 46,000 Detroiters who currently don't have access to a park within a 10-minute walk of their home.
Hollan's Mt. Pisgah sand dune was loved a little too well -- its visitors were causing severe erosion. Then the local community and state partnered to help preserve it for future generations.
Keweenaw County is Michigan's least populous county and is defined by sprawling, diverse wilderness.
The town of Idlewild was once known as "the Summer Apollo of Michigan.B the 1950s, the community was so packed that it would draw 25,000 visitors in a given weekend. But then the Black Eden entered an era of decline.
"A big sense of the community here is trying to keep a good hold on the natural environment and not have too much development."
"People are defined by the water in Michigan, and access to it is really a deep value and a fundamental right."
Water trails are a relatively recent phenomenon in Michigan, having proliferated across the state over the past 10 to 15 years. Water trail advocates chalk that up to a variety of factors: the ripple effect of growing public interest in land-based trails, the establishment of the National Water Trails System in 2012, and a growing population of older adults that appreciate low-impact exercise like canoeing and kayaking.
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