Restoring Our Rivers

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

There are so many rivers that feed our magnificent Great Lakes. The health of these rivers and wetlands determine the health of our lakes.

 The Grand Traverse Conservation District has been restoring the Boardman River by removing three dams. This allows the river to return to flowing within the banks where it once flowed.

I helped plant trees along one section of restored river earlier this year, 

https://laketrek.blogspot.com/2019/04/arbor-dayearth-day.html

and today I hiked a section of the river flowing through the Brown Bridge Quiet area.

Enjoy these images from the hike:

Taking to the Water

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I've had time to kayak lately, so I've taken to the water.

I joined a large group of kayakers to paddle a 10.5 mile stretch of the Boardman River. If you've been in Traverse City, you've probably seen the Boardman winding lazily through town. 

This river is over 30 miles long and its headwaters are in Kalkaska. A section of the Boardman has  class 1-3 rapids as it descends into Traverse City!

The section I paddled was from the Brown Bridge Quiet area to Beitner Road. There were only class 1 rapids on this stretch, but several miles past Beitner Road are crazy with rapids.

Here are a couple of photos from that paddle:

And here are a bunch from a paddle I took on Cedar Lake west of Traverse City:

Paddling my Advanced Elements Kayak

Is that a loon?

Yep, a loon!

Spot the turtle

Underwater...

Arbor Day/Earth Day

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

With Earth Day and Arbor Day both happening this week in April, there were many volunteer projects around town.

I pitched in to help clean up a section of the 

TART trail last weekend.

Then, on Monday I joined a group at Miller Creek Nature Reserve

(part of the Grand Traverse Conservation District land) to help out...

And today (Friday) I helped plant trees along a stretch of the Boardman River.

This is part of the river where a dam was recently removed.  The Grand Traverse Conservation District will plant tens of thousands of trees this year on their land! 

Check out opportunities to volunteer in your community!