Camp Tapico in Michigan to become nature preserve

[mrkstvns 486]

It's never good news when a Scout camp closes, but if it must be, then let's at least hope for a positive outcome that benefits everyone....like the recent announcement that over 1,000 acres of Michigan forest will be repurposed from scout camp to nature preserve, creating sustainable habitat for generations to come.

Story:
https://www.mlive.com/life/2020/01/1288-acre-former-northern-michigan-scout-camp-to-open-as-a-public-nature-preserve.html 

 

[RememberSchiff 3662]

Update July 25, 2020:

The 1,288-acre former Camp Tapico Boy Scout property in Kalkaska County is opening to the public this weekend as a new nature preserve – The Upper Manistee Headwaters: The Milock Family Preserve - the result of a four-year, nearly $4 million effort by the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC) to save the sprawling pristine wilderness from development and turn it over to public recreational use.

...

Tens of thousands of Boy Scouts coming to Camp Tapico over nearly eight decades to swim, fish, hike, and camp on the property also ultimately helped secure its preservation. “We received hundreds and hundreds of gifts, many of them from former Scouts who had their first outdoor experiences at the property,” says Chown. “They first learned to camp or use a canoe or sailboat there and came from very urban places, like Flint and Detroit. These people are now grown, and the fact that they could contribute to keeping this property available to the public and still be able to use the trails the Scouts created is a really heartwarming story.”

more details at source, including how this opportunity was nearly lost...“Without the Woollam family and the Milocks, it would've been a pipe dream and that property would be developed or in private hands and inaccessible to the public,”

https://www.traverseticker.com/news/1288-acre-former-boy-scout-camp-opens-to-public-as-upper-manistee-headwaters-preserve/