The Proposed Invasion of Ludington Beach

[XLFD]

The Ludington City Council is expected to vote for the sending of an application to the Michigan DNR Trust Fund for a $300,000 grant to significantly alter beautiful Stearn's Beach into something that will look quite different.  Four years of public unrest over the changes in previous applications, has not daunted our city management's efforts to do this unpopular action. 

The criticisms vary and are valid:  the loss of parking spaces, alteration or leveling of a sand dune, the high cost, erosion maintenance, the loss of the natural beach, the lack of a public vote as per the city charter, the blocking of the view, etc.  But perhaps the best argument against this project has not yet been raised, and only hasn't because many of the specifics are hidden from the public's view both before and after the application is sent to Lansing.  A willful action that the planners of this fiasco should know will not end well. 

They have left our whole lakefront open to invasion.  This invasion is not from the Germans, the Martians, or crazed militant Muslim fundamentalists.  The invasion will be from...

Wait, I am no expert in the field I am about to speak of, so I will allow an expert to make the case, an expert specifically picked by the West End Project planners to give them expert advice.  A local expert named David C. Dister, noted Michigan Botanist who lives very close to the lake.  In 2012, they sent this letter from Dister in with their application, where he suggests some specific recommendations.  Those recommendations in his field are circled in red below:

He strongly suggests only native flora (plants) be used in any plantings done at the beach front at the West End.  He goes on to say:  "sandy soils at this location are more likely to facilitate some horticultural plants to become 'invasive', as the sandy soils lack native fungus to control non-native and horticultural varieties of native plants.  It's not worth the risk."  He then lists 15 different native species that would supplement the beach grass.  Some of these are very attractive and interesting plants. 

For the first time this year, 2016, after four years of applications, they actually went into detail with some of the flora they are scheduled to use for 'landscaping' the constructions they propose at the beach.   Beyond the American Beach Grass and a European horticultural variety of the Purple Coneflower mentioned in Dister's letter these fifteen plants are not utilized-- though seven other varieties are.

Here is a brief listing of some of the facts of these non-native plants with links to that info:

Sapphire blue oat grass originates from southwestern Europe where it naturally resides in open forests, meadows and rocky slopes. This grass will not tolerate “wet feet” and is especially intolerant of cold, wet conditions.
http://www.learn2grow.com/plants/helictotrichon-sempervirens-sapphi...

Blue Pacific Juniper is native only to Japan.
http://www.anythinggreen.com/blue-pacific-juniper.html

Regal Privet (above) is native to Japan.  This plant is capable of escaping to form dense thickets that can crowd out native species. It is declared as a 'weed' in many settings due to this proclivity.
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/invasive_plants/weeds/border_privet.pdf

Bobzam Bayberries are native to the northeast US coast, and grows 6' tall.  Didn't John Shay say there would be nothing as tall as he was?
http://www.abnativeplants.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantdeta...

Dwarf Fountain Grass occurs naturally only in open grasslands throughout eastern Asia.
http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/plantName/Pennisetum-alopecuroid...

Bird's Nest Spruce is a cultivar (horticulturally produced) of a spruce species native to Europe.
http://www.hortmag.com/plants/plants-we-love/birds-nest-spruce-make...

Neon Sedum (above) is native to China and Korea, their voluminous pink flowers are very attractive to bumblebees.
http://www.learn2grow.com/plants/sedum-spectabile-neon/

Our local botanist, chosen by the planners of the West End debacle, warned these people of the dangers inherent with choosing non-native or horticultural plants for this project.  These city official deadheads have decided to choose these plants, one of which is regarded as a very invasive weed capable of crowding out native species, in the southern part of Stearn's Beach, ready to invade the rest of the beach with help from the prevailing air and water currents. 

Perhaps it's time to weed out our non-native city management team invasive of our security, our inalienable rights, and, as always, our pocketbooks.

[Willy]

Brad, I could not believe what I saw that day. A total mess. The City stooped to a new low that weekend trying hard to create a nasty impression so they could justify transforming this part of the beach. I've got to say that Ludington is run by idiots. 

[Brad]

Yea Willy... I noticed it's been messy, but when it was so bad this morning with everything in town looking good, and with Aquapan's post today, it really made sense. It's probably cleaned up now too. But I know CM and DDA have schemes to not do anything there to improve or as little as possible.
Save the West End!

[AQUAMAN]

Appears from the local pictures of recent, the West End isn't being kept clean or tidy at all for the locals. The "locals don't count". But, the tourists certainly do, and they say $500,000 isn't too much to spend on them, but $50,000 or less is too much for the locals, real nice. And now again, what about the local Mini-Golf sponsored by the Jaycees? Didn't they get $60-80K from grants to redo the entire deal? I talked with a newbie at the Jaycees today, and he isn't sure wth is going on either. He thought it may take until the end of July for it to be built. They tore this all out last year, how come 2/3 of the summer has to go by without a rebuild?

[Brad]

End of July for the mini-golf to be done would be "awfully quick" I think.
Obviously the lack of attention to the West End is intentional by CC, CM, and DDA and is very frustrating.

[XLFD]

Chances are the city will be (or has been) visited by MI DNR agents looking at what's envisioned in their application.  It behooves the city to make it look as bad as possible when they do, so that the grant is more likely to be pushed through, since they may look at it as an improvement. 

I can vouch that the snow fence was there throughout the Memorial Day weekend while the rest of the fence in the regular beach had been long removed.  Sad.