FIELD GUIDE Exploring Michigan: Tips, trends, and tidbits
WATER CLEANUP: The MI Paddle Stewards program, offered by Michigan Sea Grant, is now available online. It trains paddlers to help identify and report invasive species, and teaches how to prevent the spread of these harmful plants. michiganseagrant.org/ educational-programs/ SUMMER FUN: Check out the online maps/guides for the Lake Michigan Lighthouse and Lake Michigan Circle Driving Tours. Some 100 lighthouses are highlighted, and the circle tour guide inspires stops along the way. Search lighthouse tour at wmta.org ONLINE GAME: A $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Digital Projects for the Public will help the Grand Rapids Public Museum develop a web-based mobile game, “River of Time.” It will feature interactive content on the history along the lower Grand River area. grpm.org ISLAND-HOPPING: A Maureen Dunphy paperback, “Great Lakes Island Escapes: Ferries and Bridges to Adventure,” takes a look at more than 30 islands accessible by bridge or ferry. She also mentions 50 other islands that are worth a visit. Search by book title at wsupress.wayne.edu/books GRAND HAPPENINGS: New this season at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island will be a revamped pool area with 15 new cabanas. An improved restaurant and health facility are also in the works. grandhotel.com – Compiled by Ron Garbinski
Have news that pertains to Michigan travel and exploration offerings? Send a note to MSwoyer@Hour-Media.com. 10
Freshwater Friends Springtime showcases the secret life of Great Lakes turtles
By Ellen Creager | Photography by Carl Sams
T
hey outlasted dinosaurs and surely will outlast us. And here’s a surprise: Turtles can talk. “In the last decade, it was discovered that turtles actually vocalize, just at a decibel that humans can’t hear,” says Chelsea-based herpetologist David Mifsud, an authority on Great Lakes turtles. In their small secret lives, Michigan’s turtles go about their business with little fuss. They bask in the sun to thermoregulate. When sleeping or distressed, they will use their shells for protection. After 10 to 15 years or so, some species start breeding. Some can be reproductive in three to five years. Some turtles have a longevity of up to and even exceeding 100 years. Other species, Mifsud says, may live 20 to 30 years. It may be that the turtle you saw in a certain cove last week is the exact same
turtle your grandfather saw 25 years ago at the very same spot! “Great Lakes turtles don’t migrate like sea turtles,” says Julie Champion, from the Lake St. Clair Metropark Nature Center. “They know that what they’ve got right here is what they need.” Through his company, Herpetological Resource and Management, Mifsud works to protect the state’s declining turtle populations. Julie Champion, Eastern District interpretive supervisor for Huron-Clinton Metroparks, educates visitors on turtle lore and care. Michigan has no tortoises or sea turtles, but it does have 11 species of freshwater turtles, and some can grow to a foot long. The rarest is the tiny Spotted Turtle. The most common are the Painted, Snapping, Northern Map, and Red-Eared turtles. All have a carapace (hard shell), and most are aquatic. To see some turtles, Mifsud and Cham-
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