Stakeholders have adopted a more regional approach, thinking in terms of projects that build trail connections not just within a single county but across Southeast Michigan.
The Joe Louis Greenway is expected to connect 46,000 Detroiters who currently don't have access to a park within a 10-minute walk of their home.
Hollan's Mt. Pisgah sand dune was loved a little too well -- its visitors were causing severe erosion. Then the local community and state partnered to help preserve it for future generations.
Keweenaw County is Michigan's least populous county and is defined by sprawling, diverse wilderness.
Idlewild was once known as "the Summer Apollo of Michigan." By the 1950s, the community was so packed that it would draw 25,000 visitors on a given weekend. But then the Black Eden entered an era of decline.
"A big sense of the community here is trying to keep a good hold on the natural environment and not have too much development."
"You have a river. What else do you need?
"These are investments that are going to pay dividends for generations. You don't get a chance very often to make these things happen."
Amy McMillan saw the potential for recreation in downtown Flint along the Flint River. But she knew that to realize those dreams would require money the City of Flint and Genesee County didn’t have.
Creating and preserving Michigan's Pigeon River Country, known as "the Big Wild," has involved a long, sometimes contentious dance between conservation and the pressures of the outside world.
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