It was a rainy, cold day for the scheduled tour of the Harris easement, but turnout was excellent for the bear presentation by Vern Richardson of the DNR Wildlife Division, which preceded the tour.
Vern described many aspects of black bears in northern Michigan. The audience learned a lot, with the recurring theme that a bear’s main interest is food, food, food. CALC works on keeping land undeveloped so that bears have unobstructed corridors to travel as they look for that food.
One such piece of land that will forever remain undeveloped is the Harris easement. Harris’s donated their development rights to CALC while retaining their private ownership of over 130 acres in a prime bear travel corridor. This easement marked CALC’s having over 2,000 acres of protected land.
Informational bear and CALC displays
Mr. Harris showing CALC Treasurer, Fred Sprague, a map of his easement. Note the Paveglio’s in the background taking a break from serving refreshments.