 Recruiting volunteers, collaborating with partners, and getting it done in the field are what we are all about. In Saginaw, Bay City, and throughout the Saginaw Bay Watershed, the impact of COVID-19 on our work has been severe. This year we had pre-planned over a dozen corporate partnerships and community volunteer events, most of which had been pre-filled with 50 confirmed volunteers. You can get a lot of work done with 50 extra pairs of hands! At a typical event, we would work for no less than three hours with about 50 volunteers. The going rate for a volunteer in terms of match value for a federal grant is around $25 an hour. The math is discouraging: 50 volunteers X 3 hours of labor each = 150 volunteer hours 150 volunteer hours X $25 per hour = $3,750 in labor per event $3,750 per event X 8 canceled events = $30,000 in lost labor revenue We have done our best to work in overdrive, making up for lost volunteer labor with extra staff fieldwork, and we have rarely worked harder as a team. Now, we have a chance to start turning the tide. We have developed a COVID-19 Safety Policy (read it HERE or download a PDF HERE), and we have secured a grant from our supporters at the Bay Area Community Foundation to have a handwashing station and plenty of protective gear, masks, and sanitizer on hand. We are only scheduling volunteer work that can be done in a socially-distant way, outdoors. That $30,000 of labor is heartbreaking, but even more heartbreaking is the thought of 1,200 hours of labor cleaning up vacant lots, planting trees, and maintaining trails that never happened. Those 1,200 hours worth of work are largely still out there. This week, we will hold our first volunteer opportunity, in Saginaw, on Wednesday morning. Contact us if you want to help. If you want to be a part of our regular call for volunteers, stay tuned to these emails and follow our Facebook page. For even more direct engagement in our volunteer organization, join our SBLC Volunteers Group to receive opportunities before they go fully public. I hope you have an opportunity to read our COVID-19 Safety Policy, as I believe you will see we are taking no chances to put a small number of dedicated volunteers to work. After all, even though the pandemic continues, the need to save our communities has not gone away. Join us. With hope for our community and an open heart, Zachary Branigan Executive Director
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 Last week I spoke about adventures in our watershed, but what if you want a true change of scenery? Traffic up north is intense, the state parks are full, and tourist beaches in Traverse City are packed. Just when we want to get outdoors and get away from it all, to see a little more of our beautiful Michigan, everyone has the same need to be free. How do you get out to camp or explore and avoid the crowds? The SBLC staff may have an advantage in this area, as our jobs get us out in the “bush” more than most. Here is a short playbook for your own adventure. 1. Don’t be afraid to go somewhere new. With the main outdoor tourism locations getting hammered with in-state tourists, especially on the Lake Michigan side, think about hitting up a place you have never tried before. We have found that many small towns have small businesses eager to serve you at the take-out window. Try Rockport State Park in Alpena, our 100th state park. There are beaches, trails, rivers, and forests all nearby. Many small towns have private or township campgrounds that rarely see the same sort of pressure you will experience at the state campgrounds. 2. Go rustic. Try dispersed camping in one of our two national forests in the Lower Peninsula. I explored the Manistee National Forest with my son last week and found some incredible spots on the Manistee River. Rustic camping requires little more than a tent, some food, sleeping bag (and a pad), and whatever kit you need for hygiene and your rustic latrine. There are millions of acres to explore and it doesn’t take much to grab a map and find a spot of your own. 3. Hit the trails. Either on foot or in your four-wheel-drive vehicle, get away from the pavement, and find your own spot in the woods. Most tourists don’t stray far from the resources of the road, so even a short hike can find you all alone in the wilderness. This past weekend, Ted and his family hiked the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore with backpacks. This incredible UP trail takes you on foot for over 30 miles of uninterrupted wild camping and hiking. You will need a permit, and you need to have the gear and experience to look after yourself, so do your homework. 4. Pack in, pack out. Always leave it cleaner than you found it. With added pressure on natural areas in Michigan, reports are streaming in of increased litter, overflowing trash cans, and more. Be prepared, bring an SBLC Green Bucket kit! We would love to put them into action (email me to find out how you can get one early) or a few spare garbage bags, and do your part to keep Michigan green. 5. Try geocaching. This fun activity involves using your GPS or phone to find small hidden caches in the community around you. There are thousands of them hidden in Michigan, and many require you to hike in and look carefully at the forest around you. Like any outdoor activity the best part is that it gets you outside! 6. Look to the local land conservancy. Michigans’ land conservatives (find a local one here) protect thousands of acres of some of the most pristine lands in our state. Most nature preserves owned and protected by land conservancies are open to the public for you to enjoy, and rarely do they see the sort of pressure you will find at a state park. While most land conservancies, ours included, don’t allow overnight camping, you are sure to find nature preserves near places that do. You can camp at the Pinconning County Park, for instance, and then explore the SBLC nature preserves of the Saginaw Bay Coastal Wildlands all around you. Camping, or day trips if you are not a camper, can be special experiences that make lasting memories. For even more guidance check out the info provided by our partner, Heart of the Lakes.
If you get out and explore Michigan, I would love to see pictures and hear stories of your adventures! I would love to hear from you, you can even reply to this email directly! With hope for our community and an open heart, Zachary Branigan Executive Director  You may have heard me tell the story of one of the very first exchanges I had with a high school friend when I returned to my hometown to accept this position at the Conservancy. It went something like this:
Friend: “So you’ve moved back here from Ann Arbor! Why?” Me: “We love it here, and our family and friends are here, too. I found a great job and I am eager to get started. I’ll be working for the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy.” Friend: “Oh! That is great. I love the outdoors. We go up north all the time!” That may seem harmless enough, but when the Saginaw Bay Watershed covers 5.5 million acres, has over 7,000 miles of rivers and streams, and is one of the most diverse watersheds in the Midwest, I was puzzled. If you love the outdoors, then why wouldn’t your first instinct be to talk about the assets we have here at home? Ever since then, I have set out to explore and document the special landscapes here and change hearts and minds about the freshwater “everglades” of the Saginaw Bay. It did not take long to find inspiration. Shortly thereafter, we partnered with Michigan Audubon to develop the Saginaw Bay Birding Trail. That project was meant to highlight the impressive habitats of the watershed through the eyes of birders and nature photographers. In developing the Trail, Trevor and I got to know the blank spaces on the map in a way that many people never have in this part of the world. Last night, Moira and I took advantage of a short window of opportunity. Our son, Leo, is visiting his grandparents for the first time in 2020. We decided to grab a little cooler and watch the sun go down over the Bay at Port Crescent State Park, in Huron County. I wish I could say it was an original idea, but the previous day Trevor and his fiancee Erica made the same trip. I had never done that before, and as a photographer, it did not disappoint! It isn’t hard to look beyond our own backyards for inspiration, but sometimes it is a challenge to appreciate the everyday beauty that surrounds us. We may be home to bustling cities, huge farmland expanses, and the lifeline between Metro Detroit and the “up north” my friend was speaking of, but we are too beautiful to bypass on the way to the crowded shores of Lake Michigan. We have some of the most diverse wildlife in the Great Lakes Basin, high-quality trails, and views over the water for days. I am proud to be from the Saginaw Bay Watershed. So, I want to challenge you to find a spot on the map and just go there. Find a patch just a few miles from home that you have never set foot upon, and explore it. Start with the nature preserves of the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy, or the parks of Saginaw County. You may be surprised. Our home may look ordinary on the surface, but scratch a little bit deeper and you will find yourself on an uncrowded beach, taking the sunset photo you have always wanted in your portfolio! With hope for our community and an open heart, Zachary Branigan Executive Director  If you are anything like me, you can spend a lot of emotional capital thinking about the big picture. With Facebook and Instagram and the instant audiences they provide, we can express our thoughts and positions on issues of vast international relevance. These are certainly important, and if the past few months have taught us anything there are challenges out there that affect our entire global community! However, I wonder if we could express ourselves more effectively with small, local actions.
Jumping into online arguments about politics or the news is not my style. Naturally, I have a few thoughts that I fight the urge to share from time to time, but I think that is human nature. That said, every time I do put on my keyboard warrior helmet and jump in, it almost always makes me miserable and leads to conflict. I have yet to see anyone change their mind over the course of a Facebook political debate! However, I have seen mountains move as a result of one small act of local compassion. One of my favorite legends tells the story of a Buddhist teacher and his student, discussing some of the big ideas of their practice while sitting down to cake and tea. The student asks the master questions with huge implications, seeking answers to the meaning of life. When the student asks “what is the teaching that goes beyond everything our leaders have ever said?” the teacher replied “cake.” This was a shock tactic meant to make a point. I believe what the teacher wants the student to know is that he should be focused on the ordinary world in front of him, and that compassion for that ordinary world will be a more direct route to the enlightenment he seeks. In short, be present for the ordinary world at your feet, and you will truly make a contribution. There is room for both avenues of communication, of course. Expressing ourselves is our right and our responsibility, no matter how we do so. I just believe that we can do so with more kindness and compassion. It is easy to forget that the person on the other end of an anonymous website is a person as well, with their own beliefs and emotions. When we are standing face-to-face with our neighbors, we have more access to empathy. I believe we are more inclined to listen, smile, and understand when we are thinking small. There are a thousand ways to take small actions and demonstrate compassion for the ordinary world around us. Pick up that stray branch blocking the walking trail ahead of you. Collect the pop can you discover in the pond at the park. Protect a Robin’s nest on your grandmother’s basketball hoop to save a few baby birds and make lasting memories (that one comes from my personal experience, many years ago). I am going to do my best to spend less energy expressing anger or despair about the challenges we face across our planet, to redirect that energy toward making tiny, positive contributions to the ordinary world around me. The health of our natural world depends on our restraint and on our being proactive to protect it from those that do not show restraint. Share nature with your family. Take a picture of a Monarch Butterfly and share it online. Plant a tree with the SBLC. Focus on making the world a better place, starting with the place that surrounds you. It isn’t always easy, but it will pay you back ten times over! With hope for our community and an open heart, Zachary Branigan Executive Director |
AuthorZachary Branigan has been the executive director of the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy since 2012. Archives |
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