Ocqueoc River is home to the largest waterfall in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, Ocqueoc Falls near Rogers City on the northeast side of the state.
(Ed. note: This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. Visit the newsroom online: bridgemi.com.)
By Kelly House
Bridge Michigan
Michigan may be known as the Great Lakes state, but most of its residents have a river to thank for their hometown’s existence.
“Just looking at settlement patterns in Michigan tells us a lot about how important our rivers are,” said Lisa Dechano-Cook, a Western Michigan University geographer who co-wrote the book “Kalamazoo River.”
“You wanted to be near water, especially running water, so that you could get from place to place.”
When combined, Michigan’s 76,000 miles of rivers, creeks and streams have a shoreline 46 times the length of Michigan’s Great Lakes coast. That means in most of the state, the nearest water body is more likely a river than one of those big lakes.
Even some of the state’s most well-known inland lakes - from Oakland County’s Kent Lake to central Michigan’s Lake Ovid - are actually rivers that have been slowed, deepened and widened by dams.
“I really don’t think (rivers) get the proper credit and thought,” said Melissa DeSimone, executive director of the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association.
While Michigan’s rivers provide drinking water for millions and an abundance of recreational opportunities, they also struggle with widespread E. coli and PFAS pollution, development pressure, legacy contamination that makes fish unsafe to eat and a host of other challenges.
This summer, Bridge Michigan will embark upon a monthslong exploration of the state’s rivers, from the recreational opportunities they provide to the struggles they face.
So why the focus?
—————
History of rivers
When Dechano-Cook thinks about rivers, her geographer’s mind gravitates to the way they’ve shaped Michigan’s landscape.
Glacial rivers deposited sand and gravel to form long, narrow ridges on the Earth, called eskers. In other areas, flowing water carved into the land, creating vast depressions like the Kalamazoo River Valley.
“It’s really hard to imagine what Michigan would be like without them,” DeChano said of the state’s rivers.
Rivers have also played important roles in the state’s culture and industry.
Native American creation stories document how humans settled in the Great Lakes region primarily because a key food source — wild rice — grew in the local rivers and lakes.
As Europeans arrived, they built riverside settlements for easy access to food, water and water-based transportation across what was then a densely forested region.
They later used rivers to raze those forests, with lumbermen floating logs downstream to water-powered sawmills. The eskers were mined to build roads. Rivers were dammed to produce electricity or regulate water levels. And factories began to crowd riverbanks, where flowing water made for convenient shipping and waste disposal.
All of it came with consequences for the environment.
By the mid-1900s, many Michigan rivers were dangerously polluted with industrial waste. In others, native fish species went extinct after logging and dams destroyed their habitat. Wild rice beds became scarce. A handful of dirt scooped from the Detroit River would come up black with oil, while a man died of leptospirosis, also known as rat fever, after ingesting water from the polluted River Rouge in 1985.
“The regulations were few and far between,” said Robert Burns, who grew up in Grosse Ile in the 1960s and 1970s and has served as the Detroit riverkeeper for more than 20 years.
Few people wanted to spend time on the water. And if they did, privatized industrial shorelines posed a barrier to access.
Citizens began mounting public pressure campaigns, urging lawmakers to address the nation’s water pollution concerns.
Congress heeded the call in 1972, passing the Clean Water Act that requires industry to better contain its waste. Decades of restoration efforts followed, with hundreds of millions spent to remove contaminated sediment and reclaim shorelines from Muskegon to Marquette for use by fish, wildlife and humans.
—————
Recreational opportunities
Now, when the spring walleye and silver bass are running, hundreds of fishing boats bob in the Detroit River’s teal water. In summer, Belle Isle’s swimming beaches often reach capacity by midday.
“Cleaning up in the water and making more access points to the water have been key catalysts for showing people this wonderful resource that we’ve always had but that was underappreciated,” said Harry Jones, who teaches kids to sail as president of the Detroit Community Sailing Center.
It’s a story echoed across the state: As Michigan’s rivers have begun to heal, new opportunities for outdoor recreation have emerged: Trophy pike fishing in the Kalamazoo River. Biking along the Huron. An effort to bring whitewater rafting to the Grand.
Farther afield from the state’s population centers, reforestation and dam removal efforts have restored water quality and reconnected habitat to such a degree that species managers believe it may be possible to revive Arctic grayling, a fish that disappeared from Michigan’s rivers nearly a century ago.
Water-based recreation in Michigan has become a multi-billion-dollar industry, though it’s not clear how that breaks down between rivers and lakes. Rebecca Esselman, executive director of the Huron River Watershed Council, is betting a massive chunk of it comes from rivers.
“Almost every Michigander, if they are reminiscing about their childhood or their experience with nature, they have a river story,” Esselman said.
“Catching crayfish or floating paper boats down a creek in a neighborhood park. Because there are so many rivers throughout the state, they are in our backyards and in our parks. They’re engaged with in a very informal, playful way.’”
Her organization commissioned a 2017 study that found recreation on the Huron River alone brought in $53.5 million annually.
—————
Challenges
Those numbers are a clarion call to protect the hard-fought gains Michigan rivers have made, DeSimone said.
While the average Michigan river is healthier today than it was 50 years ago, unaddressed problems and emerging threats leave them at risk of backsliding.
“It seems like we’re always having to remediate and defend,” she said. “We’re on our back foot.”
Despite decades of political debate and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent, the state has not fixed longstanding nutrient and E. coli pollution caused by intensive agriculture, leaking septic systems and municipal sewer overflows. Roughly half of Michigan’s total river miles exceed standards for safe swimming.
Lawmakers have not heeded years of warnings about the decrepit condition of Michigan’s dams and the state’s lack of money or regulatory authority to speed repairs or removals. The result is increasingly frequent failure scares that threaten public safety and the environment.
Meanwhile, Michigan is just beginning to respond to more newly known hazards, such as the PFAS “forever chemicals” that have sullied hundreds of Michigan water bodies, making fish unsafe to eat.
From his perch on the Detroit River, Burns still feels optimistic. He believes that, with another decade of work and a billion or so dollars, it’s possible to clean up the contaminated sediment that is hindering the river’s comeback.
If Michigan can avoid re-polluting the river, he said, it may soon be eligible for removal from the U.S. and Canada’s Areas of Concern list.
“We’re never going to get the river back to what it was pre-settlement,” he said. “All in all, I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
By Kelly House
Bridge Michigan
Michigan may be known as the Great Lakes state, but most of its residents have a river to thank for their hometown’s existence.
“Just looking at settlement patterns in Michigan tells us a lot about how important our rivers are,” said Lisa Dechano-Cook, a Western Michigan University geographer who co-wrote the book “Kalamazoo River.”
“You wanted to be near water, especially running water, so that you could get from place to place.”
When combined, Michigan’s 76,000 miles of rivers, creeks and streams have a shoreline 46 times the length of Michigan’s Great Lakes coast. That means in most of the state, the nearest water body is more likely a river than one of those big lakes.
Even some of the state’s most well-known inland lakes - from Oakland County’s Kent Lake to central Michigan’s Lake Ovid - are actually rivers that have been slowed, deepened and widened by dams.
“I really don’t think (rivers) get the proper credit and thought,” said Melissa DeSimone, executive director of the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association.
While Michigan’s rivers provide drinking water for millions and an abundance of recreational opportunities, they also struggle with widespread E. coli and PFAS pollution, development pressure, legacy contamination that makes fish unsafe to eat and a host of other challenges.
This summer, Bridge Michigan will embark upon a monthslong exploration of the state’s rivers, from the recreational opportunities they provide to the struggles they face.
So why the focus?
—————
History of rivers
When Dechano-Cook thinks about rivers, her geographer’s mind gravitates to the way they’ve shaped Michigan’s landscape.
Glacial rivers deposited sand and gravel to form long, narrow ridges on the Earth, called eskers. In other areas, flowing water carved into the land, creating vast depressions like the Kalamazoo River Valley.
“It’s really hard to imagine what Michigan would be like without them,” DeChano said of the state’s rivers.
Rivers have also played important roles in the state’s culture and industry.
Native American creation stories document how humans settled in the Great Lakes region primarily because a key food source — wild rice — grew in the local rivers and lakes.
As Europeans arrived, they built riverside settlements for easy access to food, water and water-based transportation across what was then a densely forested region.
They later used rivers to raze those forests, with lumbermen floating logs downstream to water-powered sawmills. The eskers were mined to build roads. Rivers were dammed to produce electricity or regulate water levels. And factories began to crowd riverbanks, where flowing water made for convenient shipping and waste disposal.
All of it came with consequences for the environment.
By the mid-1900s, many Michigan rivers were dangerously polluted with industrial waste. In others, native fish species went extinct after logging and dams destroyed their habitat. Wild rice beds became scarce. A handful of dirt scooped from the Detroit River would come up black with oil, while a man died of leptospirosis, also known as rat fever, after ingesting water from the polluted River Rouge in 1985.
“The regulations were few and far between,” said Robert Burns, who grew up in Grosse Ile in the 1960s and 1970s and has served as the Detroit riverkeeper for more than 20 years.
Few people wanted to spend time on the water. And if they did, privatized industrial shorelines posed a barrier to access.
Citizens began mounting public pressure campaigns, urging lawmakers to address the nation’s water pollution concerns.
Congress heeded the call in 1972, passing the Clean Water Act that requires industry to better contain its waste. Decades of restoration efforts followed, with hundreds of millions spent to remove contaminated sediment and reclaim shorelines from Muskegon to Marquette for use by fish, wildlife and humans.
—————
Recreational opportunities
Now, when the spring walleye and silver bass are running, hundreds of fishing boats bob in the Detroit River’s teal water. In summer, Belle Isle’s swimming beaches often reach capacity by midday.
“Cleaning up in the water and making more access points to the water have been key catalysts for showing people this wonderful resource that we’ve always had but that was underappreciated,” said Harry Jones, who teaches kids to sail as president of the Detroit Community Sailing Center.
It’s a story echoed across the state: As Michigan’s rivers have begun to heal, new opportunities for outdoor recreation have emerged: Trophy pike fishing in the Kalamazoo River. Biking along the Huron. An effort to bring whitewater rafting to the Grand.
Farther afield from the state’s population centers, reforestation and dam removal efforts have restored water quality and reconnected habitat to such a degree that species managers believe it may be possible to revive Arctic grayling, a fish that disappeared from Michigan’s rivers nearly a century ago.
Water-based recreation in Michigan has become a multi-billion-dollar industry, though it’s not clear how that breaks down between rivers and lakes. Rebecca Esselman, executive director of the Huron River Watershed Council, is betting a massive chunk of it comes from rivers.
“Almost every Michigander, if they are reminiscing about their childhood or their experience with nature, they have a river story,” Esselman said.
“Catching crayfish or floating paper boats down a creek in a neighborhood park. Because there are so many rivers throughout the state, they are in our backyards and in our parks. They’re engaged with in a very informal, playful way.’”
Her organization commissioned a 2017 study that found recreation on the Huron River alone brought in $53.5 million annually.
—————
Challenges
Those numbers are a clarion call to protect the hard-fought gains Michigan rivers have made, DeSimone said.
While the average Michigan river is healthier today than it was 50 years ago, unaddressed problems and emerging threats leave them at risk of backsliding.
“It seems like we’re always having to remediate and defend,” she said. “We’re on our back foot.”
Despite decades of political debate and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent, the state has not fixed longstanding nutrient and E. coli pollution caused by intensive agriculture, leaking septic systems and municipal sewer overflows. Roughly half of Michigan’s total river miles exceed standards for safe swimming.
Lawmakers have not heeded years of warnings about the decrepit condition of Michigan’s dams and the state’s lack of money or regulatory authority to speed repairs or removals. The result is increasingly frequent failure scares that threaten public safety and the environment.
Meanwhile, Michigan is just beginning to respond to more newly known hazards, such as the PFAS “forever chemicals” that have sullied hundreds of Michigan water bodies, making fish unsafe to eat.
From his perch on the Detroit River, Burns still feels optimistic. He believes that, with another decade of work and a billion or so dollars, it’s possible to clean up the contaminated sediment that is hindering the river’s comeback.
If Michigan can avoid re-polluting the river, he said, it may soon be eligible for removal from the U.S. and Canada’s Areas of Concern list.
“We’re never going to get the river back to what it was pre-settlement,” he said. “All in all, I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
Fishing Now Clicking on All Cylinders as Summer Approaches
By Jack Payne
Finally, with the weather improving, the fishing has really improved.
Pretty much, if it swims, the action has kicked in.
Two of my angler friends enjoyed a productive week of perch fishing. Minnows were the bait of choice. They fished bodies of water that connect to Lake Michigan. Drowned river mouths, to be exact. Places like Muskegon Lake, Lake Macatawa and Grand Haven produce.
A key to success is to keep moving; the fish pods are often in very small spots. And with perch fishing, here today, gone tomorrow applies. Perch Pounder-style rigs and perch flies tipped with a minnow are the best bait.
Bluegills were found hanging on the edges near their spawning grounds. On the shallow, small lakes, some of the gills were cruising the shallows. Most were not on the beds yet.
Look for pea stone or a bit of gravel. A section of shoreline with a sand bottom surrounded by muck is a good choice. On many of our small lakes, the bottom is muck or marl. A sandy section will hold plenty of pre-spawn and spawning bluegills.
Bobbers and a worm land plenty of fish, but my favorite would be either a mini-worm harness rig I make or a foam- or rubber-legged spider. The spider can be fished with a fly rod or with a casting float. The spider is a hoot to fish with.
A friend caught a pile of gills last week using a Black Gnat or a Bully Spider. The Bully Spider slowly sinks, and bluegills go crazy over it. A bully spider should be included in every angler’s tackle box.
Crappies are spawning on some of our lakes. If you concentrate on depths between 3-12 feet, you will find them. Some anglers love a minnow and a slip float. Others are throwing plastics such as the Charlie Brewer Crappie Grub or the action tails similar to a Mister Twister Tails.
I love casting a 1/32-ounce or maybe a 1/16-ounce Charlie Brewer Slider Jighead with a Charlie Brewer Crappie Grub. Hands down, this basic jig/plastic rig has caught tens of thousands of fish for our group over the past three decades. Chartreuse or yellow are about the only colors we ever needed.
A jig is my first choice, and a fast-rising second choice would be a small spinner. A Charlie Brewer Whirly Bee has flash and the paddle tail grub. A deadly combination if there ever was one.
Bass season just opened with a few reports trickling in. Fishing from the shore out to the first weedline pretty much describes the best depth range. Some enjoy fishing with a nightcrawler, others with a spinner, a plastic worm, or a Rapala.
If I wanted numbers of bass, it would be a nightcrawler hooked through the nose with at most one number seven split shot.
Of course, one rod would have a Stopper Lures Bass Stopper Worm. This anise-scented, molded-plastic worm with three small hooks built in landed me many bass over the years.
When I fish the Bass Stopper Worm, I use just one split shot. If I could go completely weightless, I would. Cast it out and let it flutter to the bottom. A bass will suck in this worm before it hits the bottom.
I also like using the Charlie Brewer Slider Worm. Charlie Brewer made famous the Do-Nothing method. This system is just that. Cast it out, let it sink, and reel it in very slowly.
You need to use the Brewer Slider Head for maximum effectiveness. This head will glide over logs, bottom debris, and snags. It will also glide over the cabbage weeds, flutter down through them, and creep through the weeds without fear of snagging.
Another bait worth sharing is the old banana bait. For many seasons, I used the old Tadpolly. This was my favorite hard bait, period. Yakima makes the Mag Lips, which are very similar to the Flatfish. These slow-wobble baits shine in shallow water and near weeds.
Don’t forget to visit Bob’s Gun and Tackle Shop and have fun on the water.
Finally, with the weather improving, the fishing has really improved.
Pretty much, if it swims, the action has kicked in.
Two of my angler friends enjoyed a productive week of perch fishing. Minnows were the bait of choice. They fished bodies of water that connect to Lake Michigan. Drowned river mouths, to be exact. Places like Muskegon Lake, Lake Macatawa and Grand Haven produce.
A key to success is to keep moving; the fish pods are often in very small spots. And with perch fishing, here today, gone tomorrow applies. Perch Pounder-style rigs and perch flies tipped with a minnow are the best bait.
Bluegills were found hanging on the edges near their spawning grounds. On the shallow, small lakes, some of the gills were cruising the shallows. Most were not on the beds yet.
Look for pea stone or a bit of gravel. A section of shoreline with a sand bottom surrounded by muck is a good choice. On many of our small lakes, the bottom is muck or marl. A sandy section will hold plenty of pre-spawn and spawning bluegills.
Bobbers and a worm land plenty of fish, but my favorite would be either a mini-worm harness rig I make or a foam- or rubber-legged spider. The spider can be fished with a fly rod or with a casting float. The spider is a hoot to fish with.
A friend caught a pile of gills last week using a Black Gnat or a Bully Spider. The Bully Spider slowly sinks, and bluegills go crazy over it. A bully spider should be included in every angler’s tackle box.
Crappies are spawning on some of our lakes. If you concentrate on depths between 3-12 feet, you will find them. Some anglers love a minnow and a slip float. Others are throwing plastics such as the Charlie Brewer Crappie Grub or the action tails similar to a Mister Twister Tails.
I love casting a 1/32-ounce or maybe a 1/16-ounce Charlie Brewer Slider Jighead with a Charlie Brewer Crappie Grub. Hands down, this basic jig/plastic rig has caught tens of thousands of fish for our group over the past three decades. Chartreuse or yellow are about the only colors we ever needed.
A jig is my first choice, and a fast-rising second choice would be a small spinner. A Charlie Brewer Whirly Bee has flash and the paddle tail grub. A deadly combination if there ever was one.
Bass season just opened with a few reports trickling in. Fishing from the shore out to the first weedline pretty much describes the best depth range. Some enjoy fishing with a nightcrawler, others with a spinner, a plastic worm, or a Rapala.
If I wanted numbers of bass, it would be a nightcrawler hooked through the nose with at most one number seven split shot.
Of course, one rod would have a Stopper Lures Bass Stopper Worm. This anise-scented, molded-plastic worm with three small hooks built in landed me many bass over the years.
When I fish the Bass Stopper Worm, I use just one split shot. If I could go completely weightless, I would. Cast it out and let it flutter to the bottom. A bass will suck in this worm before it hits the bottom.
I also like using the Charlie Brewer Slider Worm. Charlie Brewer made famous the Do-Nothing method. This system is just that. Cast it out, let it sink, and reel it in very slowly.
You need to use the Brewer Slider Head for maximum effectiveness. This head will glide over logs, bottom debris, and snags. It will also glide over the cabbage weeds, flutter down through them, and creep through the weeds without fear of snagging.
Another bait worth sharing is the old banana bait. For many seasons, I used the old Tadpolly. This was my favorite hard bait, period. Yakima makes the Mag Lips, which are very similar to the Flatfish. These slow-wobble baits shine in shallow water and near weeds.
Don’t forget to visit Bob’s Gun and Tackle Shop and have fun on the water.
Looking Back on a Snowy Snowmobile Season
Riders explore a Michigan trail on a winter outing in the Lower Peninsula.
Photo courtesy Michigan Department of Natural Resources
By Heather Johnson Durocher
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
A busy day job and full life mean it doesn’t happen as often as he’d like, but when the weather and trail conditions are just right – and were they ever this past winter – a certain route on the Keweenaw Peninsula calls out to passionate snowmobiler Ryan LaPorte.
“I’ll take off from Houghton, head toward Gay, then Lac La Belle and Copper Harbor and Brockway Mountain – basically the perimeter of the Keweenaw,” said LaPorte, 37, who has been riding since he was about 8 years old. “There are so many views of Lake Superior, there’s a mix of trails – twisty, turny trails through the woods – and it’s not only a really cool trail, but it’s also in an area with a lot of natural forest, that is a preserved area. In total, it’s about 150-ish miles.”
As a longtime snowmobiler and president of the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club, LaPorte knows western Upper Peninsula trails well – if he’s not out riding himself, he’s hearing from fellow club members about their rides and jumping in to help groom the club’s 230 miles of snowmobile trails when needed. And this past winter, riding and grooming, in the U.P. and around the state, was happening a lot.
The 2025-26 snowmobile season proved to be one of the best ones he’s experienced, LaPorte said, because of consistent snowfall, riders out enjoying the trails not only in the U.P. but all around Michigan, and an ongoing, successful Michigan Department of Natural Resources statewide safety campaign – Ride Right – that he believes is steadily helping shift snowmobilers’ mindsets when it comes to safely navigating Michigan’s more than 6,300 miles of snowmobile trails.
“We had such good snow, equipment ran really well, there was no warm-up and no rain, which tend to make things icier and more treacherous,” said LaPorte, a member of the Michigan Trails Advisory Council, which is made up of members of the public and whose role is to advise the DNR and the governor on the creation, development, operation and maintenance of motorized and nonmotorized trails in the state, including snowmobile, biking, equestrian, hiking, off-road vehicle and skiing trails.
“We did have a rough start with ice over Thanksgiving weekend, and it took almost a month to get trails truly opened up,” he said, “but overall, I think it was really great. I think the snow conditions were just better for everybody. Our local businesses got a steady stream of traffic, too.”
—————
A winter to remember
The state’s 2025–26 winter was snowiest in the U.P., with some areas exceeding 350 inches, while much of the Lower Peninsula saw totals near or above average.
When Mother Nature provides such conditions, snowmobilers rejoice – and the snowmobile clubs that work with the DNR to ensure safe trails keep busy helping maintain routes. What this looks like: nearly 70 organizations around Michigan helping maintain more than 6,300 miles of designated snowmobile trails.
Michigan enjoys international acclaim for the exceptional quality and diversity of its trails system. Consistently ranked among the top 10 snowmobiling destinations in North America, the state also boasts the fifth-largest trail network in the nation.
“Michigan’s snowmobile program success is largely due to the clubs and volunteers around the state,” said DNR state trails coordinator Tim Novak. “Their dedication builds safer trails, stronger communities and a winter experience that all riders can count on.”
Michigan’s vast network of designated trails and authorized public lands officially opens for the season Dec. 1 and stays open through March 31. Trail grooming occurs when there is enough snow on the ground.
During the 2024-25 snowmobile season – the most recent season for which the DNR has final grooming numbers – snowmobile organizations and clubs groomed a total of 305,287 miles. This amount is expected to be higher for the 2025-26 snowmobile season given the optimal snow conditions.
What’s more, the greater amount of snowfall not only in the U.P. but throughout the Lower Peninsula meant grooming and riding was spread across the state, said Karen Middendorp, who lives in the Grand Rapids area and serves as executive director of the Michigan Snowmobile and ORV Association.
“We had good snow for several weeks, and clubs were grooming more down here (in the Lower Peninsula),” said Middendorp, who also serves as chair of the Michigan Trails Advisory Council Snowmobile Advisory Workgroup. “The volunteers did a great job this year with the trails. The snow was plentiful, and it was consistently good.”
For LaPorte, the amount of grooming his western U.P. snowmobile club completed was the most he’s seen in at least the past five years. All told, 25,948 miles in the club’s region – south of Houghton to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula – were groomed throughout this past snowmobile season.
“The amount of consistent snow certainly made it much easier for our operators who were out there,” he said.
—————
Supporting statewide snowmobiling
Significant snowfall, coupled with increased miles of grooming during the past two years, has led to back-to-back snowmobile seasons with more than 140,000 trail permits sold. This represents a welcome resurgence in permit sales following the disappointing 2023-24 winter riding season.
Snowmobile trail permits go on sale Sept. 1 each year, and they can be purchased online through the DNR’s eLicense or via the Michigan Snowmobile ORV Association or in person at a number of DNR license agents and dealers. The snowmobile license year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
Michigan’s snowmobile program is 100% funded through snowmobile trail permit and registration dollars. Every dollar is directly reinvested into the program through snowmobile clubs and DNR program support. These funds support critical operations, including:
• Trail brushing and grooming by 67 snowmobile clubs.
• New equipment grants for snowmobile clubs.
• Trail signage and maintenance.
• Trail bridge and culvert construction.
• Trailhead amenities, such as restroom maintenance and plowing of parking lots.
• Other snowmobile-related expenditures.
Residents must also register snowmobiles with the Michigan Secretary of State (unless sleds are used solely on private property). Nonresidents must display a valid registration from the operator’s home state or province. Michigan registration is good for three years, and those dollars support the purchase of trail easements, law enforcement on trails and safety education.
“Our snowmobile clubs are paid through the snowmobile program and are a vital component of successful, quality operations,” Novak said. “The revenue from every trail permit sold is funneled directly into the snowmobile program, providing essential funding needed to groom and maintain these sought-after trails.”
The DNR recently announced a required five-year Consumer Price Index adjustment for snowmobile trail permit fees. Starting this year, the fee will increase from $52 to $65 and will remain in place for the next five-year period.
This change follows a statutory requirement (Public Act 400 of 2008) to adjust snowmobile trail permit fees every five years based on the CPI as determined by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, ensuring funding keeps pace with inflation.
Each $65 snowmobile trail permit pays to groom 12.2 miles of trail.
“The adjustment helps offset the rising costs of equipment and maintenance,” Novak said. “It ensures we can sustain our vast snowmobile trail system, which supports a $1 billion economic impact for the state and fuels the work of 67 volunteer clubs maintaining 6,300-plus miles of trails.”
Ride home safe to family and friends
In the past couple years, the DNR’s Ride Right safety campaign – a campaign that runs year-round, during both snowmobile and off-road vehicle riding seasons – has gained momentum with more robust messaging seen throughout the state. This includes safety reminders at gas stations where riders are fueling their machines, on highway billboards, on posters distributed to businesses and placed at trail intersections, and in social media posts.
Among the campaign’s main messages:
• Speed is a contributing factor for off-road vehicle and snowmobile crashes and fatalities. Operate within the limits of your snowmobile and your own abilities.
• Ride sober.
• Stay on the right side of the trail.
• Ride home safe to your family and friends.
“The DNR’s commitment to promoting safe riding on the state’s snowmobile trails is a top priority, and the Ride Right campaign is a key component of that effort,” said Jon Spieles, DNR Marketing and Outreach Division chief. “We just want everyone to have a ton of fun and make it home safe.”
According to current available data, fatalities were down slightly this most recent snowmobile season. The DNR is tracking at least 13 fatalities that occurred during the 2025-26 season, which compares to a total of 16 fatalities during the previous season.
Both LaPorte and Middendorp are hopeful the Ride Right messaging is making a positive impact within the snowmobile community.
“I think the message is out there, people are seeing it, and I think that it continues to help draw attention to how riders need to behave on the trail,” LaPorte said, adding that connecting with businesses and having them help share the message is equally as important. “Education is a key piece in helping people understand, and I think that has been a huge improvement, as that campaign continues to develop and grow.”
Middendorp believes the campaign “has taken hold.”
“Riders are used to seeing it and hearing it – it’s making our riders stop and think,” she said. “They know that there is someone waiting for them at home. It’s a consistent message, and it is making a difference.”
For those looking to experience Michigan’s winter wonderland for the first time or ready test out equipment, the DNR offers its annual Free Snowmobiling Weekend. For two days, the requirement for a trail permit or registration is waived (on DNR trails only), providing the perfect opportunity to explore the nation’s premier trail system. The 2027 Free Snowmobiling Weekend dates will be announced soon, likely in July.
Find out more about snowmobiling in Michigan at Michigan.gov/Snowmobiling.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
A busy day job and full life mean it doesn’t happen as often as he’d like, but when the weather and trail conditions are just right – and were they ever this past winter – a certain route on the Keweenaw Peninsula calls out to passionate snowmobiler Ryan LaPorte.
“I’ll take off from Houghton, head toward Gay, then Lac La Belle and Copper Harbor and Brockway Mountain – basically the perimeter of the Keweenaw,” said LaPorte, 37, who has been riding since he was about 8 years old. “There are so many views of Lake Superior, there’s a mix of trails – twisty, turny trails through the woods – and it’s not only a really cool trail, but it’s also in an area with a lot of natural forest, that is a preserved area. In total, it’s about 150-ish miles.”
As a longtime snowmobiler and president of the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club, LaPorte knows western Upper Peninsula trails well – if he’s not out riding himself, he’s hearing from fellow club members about their rides and jumping in to help groom the club’s 230 miles of snowmobile trails when needed. And this past winter, riding and grooming, in the U.P. and around the state, was happening a lot.
The 2025-26 snowmobile season proved to be one of the best ones he’s experienced, LaPorte said, because of consistent snowfall, riders out enjoying the trails not only in the U.P. but all around Michigan, and an ongoing, successful Michigan Department of Natural Resources statewide safety campaign – Ride Right – that he believes is steadily helping shift snowmobilers’ mindsets when it comes to safely navigating Michigan’s more than 6,300 miles of snowmobile trails.
“We had such good snow, equipment ran really well, there was no warm-up and no rain, which tend to make things icier and more treacherous,” said LaPorte, a member of the Michigan Trails Advisory Council, which is made up of members of the public and whose role is to advise the DNR and the governor on the creation, development, operation and maintenance of motorized and nonmotorized trails in the state, including snowmobile, biking, equestrian, hiking, off-road vehicle and skiing trails.
“We did have a rough start with ice over Thanksgiving weekend, and it took almost a month to get trails truly opened up,” he said, “but overall, I think it was really great. I think the snow conditions were just better for everybody. Our local businesses got a steady stream of traffic, too.”
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A winter to remember
The state’s 2025–26 winter was snowiest in the U.P., with some areas exceeding 350 inches, while much of the Lower Peninsula saw totals near or above average.
When Mother Nature provides such conditions, snowmobilers rejoice – and the snowmobile clubs that work with the DNR to ensure safe trails keep busy helping maintain routes. What this looks like: nearly 70 organizations around Michigan helping maintain more than 6,300 miles of designated snowmobile trails.
Michigan enjoys international acclaim for the exceptional quality and diversity of its trails system. Consistently ranked among the top 10 snowmobiling destinations in North America, the state also boasts the fifth-largest trail network in the nation.
“Michigan’s snowmobile program success is largely due to the clubs and volunteers around the state,” said DNR state trails coordinator Tim Novak. “Their dedication builds safer trails, stronger communities and a winter experience that all riders can count on.”
Michigan’s vast network of designated trails and authorized public lands officially opens for the season Dec. 1 and stays open through March 31. Trail grooming occurs when there is enough snow on the ground.
During the 2024-25 snowmobile season – the most recent season for which the DNR has final grooming numbers – snowmobile organizations and clubs groomed a total of 305,287 miles. This amount is expected to be higher for the 2025-26 snowmobile season given the optimal snow conditions.
What’s more, the greater amount of snowfall not only in the U.P. but throughout the Lower Peninsula meant grooming and riding was spread across the state, said Karen Middendorp, who lives in the Grand Rapids area and serves as executive director of the Michigan Snowmobile and ORV Association.
“We had good snow for several weeks, and clubs were grooming more down here (in the Lower Peninsula),” said Middendorp, who also serves as chair of the Michigan Trails Advisory Council Snowmobile Advisory Workgroup. “The volunteers did a great job this year with the trails. The snow was plentiful, and it was consistently good.”
For LaPorte, the amount of grooming his western U.P. snowmobile club completed was the most he’s seen in at least the past five years. All told, 25,948 miles in the club’s region – south of Houghton to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula – were groomed throughout this past snowmobile season.
“The amount of consistent snow certainly made it much easier for our operators who were out there,” he said.
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Supporting statewide snowmobiling
Significant snowfall, coupled with increased miles of grooming during the past two years, has led to back-to-back snowmobile seasons with more than 140,000 trail permits sold. This represents a welcome resurgence in permit sales following the disappointing 2023-24 winter riding season.
Snowmobile trail permits go on sale Sept. 1 each year, and they can be purchased online through the DNR’s eLicense or via the Michigan Snowmobile ORV Association or in person at a number of DNR license agents and dealers. The snowmobile license year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
Michigan’s snowmobile program is 100% funded through snowmobile trail permit and registration dollars. Every dollar is directly reinvested into the program through snowmobile clubs and DNR program support. These funds support critical operations, including:
• Trail brushing and grooming by 67 snowmobile clubs.
• New equipment grants for snowmobile clubs.
• Trail signage and maintenance.
• Trail bridge and culvert construction.
• Trailhead amenities, such as restroom maintenance and plowing of parking lots.
• Other snowmobile-related expenditures.
Residents must also register snowmobiles with the Michigan Secretary of State (unless sleds are used solely on private property). Nonresidents must display a valid registration from the operator’s home state or province. Michigan registration is good for three years, and those dollars support the purchase of trail easements, law enforcement on trails and safety education.
“Our snowmobile clubs are paid through the snowmobile program and are a vital component of successful, quality operations,” Novak said. “The revenue from every trail permit sold is funneled directly into the snowmobile program, providing essential funding needed to groom and maintain these sought-after trails.”
The DNR recently announced a required five-year Consumer Price Index adjustment for snowmobile trail permit fees. Starting this year, the fee will increase from $52 to $65 and will remain in place for the next five-year period.
This change follows a statutory requirement (Public Act 400 of 2008) to adjust snowmobile trail permit fees every five years based on the CPI as determined by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, ensuring funding keeps pace with inflation.
Each $65 snowmobile trail permit pays to groom 12.2 miles of trail.
“The adjustment helps offset the rising costs of equipment and maintenance,” Novak said. “It ensures we can sustain our vast snowmobile trail system, which supports a $1 billion economic impact for the state and fuels the work of 67 volunteer clubs maintaining 6,300-plus miles of trails.”
Ride home safe to family and friends
In the past couple years, the DNR’s Ride Right safety campaign – a campaign that runs year-round, during both snowmobile and off-road vehicle riding seasons – has gained momentum with more robust messaging seen throughout the state. This includes safety reminders at gas stations where riders are fueling their machines, on highway billboards, on posters distributed to businesses and placed at trail intersections, and in social media posts.
Among the campaign’s main messages:
• Speed is a contributing factor for off-road vehicle and snowmobile crashes and fatalities. Operate within the limits of your snowmobile and your own abilities.
• Ride sober.
• Stay on the right side of the trail.
• Ride home safe to your family and friends.
“The DNR’s commitment to promoting safe riding on the state’s snowmobile trails is a top priority, and the Ride Right campaign is a key component of that effort,” said Jon Spieles, DNR Marketing and Outreach Division chief. “We just want everyone to have a ton of fun and make it home safe.”
According to current available data, fatalities were down slightly this most recent snowmobile season. The DNR is tracking at least 13 fatalities that occurred during the 2025-26 season, which compares to a total of 16 fatalities during the previous season.
Both LaPorte and Middendorp are hopeful the Ride Right messaging is making a positive impact within the snowmobile community.
“I think the message is out there, people are seeing it, and I think that it continues to help draw attention to how riders need to behave on the trail,” LaPorte said, adding that connecting with businesses and having them help share the message is equally as important. “Education is a key piece in helping people understand, and I think that has been a huge improvement, as that campaign continues to develop and grow.”
Middendorp believes the campaign “has taken hold.”
“Riders are used to seeing it and hearing it – it’s making our riders stop and think,” she said. “They know that there is someone waiting for them at home. It’s a consistent message, and it is making a difference.”
For those looking to experience Michigan’s winter wonderland for the first time or ready test out equipment, the DNR offers its annual Free Snowmobiling Weekend. For two days, the requirement for a trail permit or registration is waived (on DNR trails only), providing the perfect opportunity to explore the nation’s premier trail system. The 2027 Free Snowmobiling Weekend dates will be announced soon, likely in July.
Find out more about snowmobiling in Michigan at Michigan.gov/Snowmobiling.
DNR?Funds Boat Launch Upgrades in Grand Haven
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
Grand Haven is one of seven Michigan communities that have been awarded grants to improve public access to recreational boating by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
The Flahive Boating Access Site, which is owned by the city of Grand Haven, received a $163,813 grant through the DNR’s Waterways Grant-in-Aid Program. The city must provide a dollar-for-dollar match for the state grant, according to a DNR news release.
The grant will be used to pay for upgrades to the boat launch, including “new concrete planks, new skid pier, access drive pavement, shoreline rip rap and shoreline cofferdam,” the DNR said.
Overall, the DNR awarded $4.035 million in Waterways Grand-in-Aid funding. Besides the Flahive Boating Access Site, grants were awarded to projects in Benzie, Emmet, Mackinac, Marquette and Sanilac counties. Projects included marina dredging, an engineering study and various site improvements.
The funding is made possible through the DNR Parks and Recreation Division’s Waterways Grant-in-Aid Program, which began in 1949 with the goal of expanding the harbor system along the Great Lakes and boating access sites throughout the state.
“Michigan is home to more than 1,200 state-sponsored boating access sites, 19 state-managed harbors and 64 local state-sponsored harbors of refuge along the Great Lakes,” DNR Parks and Recreation Division chief Kristen Kosick said. “As boating remains a cornerstone of Michigan’s outdoor recreation, the DNR is committed to investing in and funding these vital waterways for the benefit of all.”
The Waterways Grant-in-Aid Program provides matching funds to help support quality recreational boating infrastructure. Communities are asked to match 50% of required funds.
The grants are funded through the Michigan State Waterways Fund, a restricted fund derived primarily from boat registration fees and a portion of Michigan’s gas tax.
Zeeland Record
Grand Haven is one of seven Michigan communities that have been awarded grants to improve public access to recreational boating by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
The Flahive Boating Access Site, which is owned by the city of Grand Haven, received a $163,813 grant through the DNR’s Waterways Grant-in-Aid Program. The city must provide a dollar-for-dollar match for the state grant, according to a DNR news release.
The grant will be used to pay for upgrades to the boat launch, including “new concrete planks, new skid pier, access drive pavement, shoreline rip rap and shoreline cofferdam,” the DNR said.
Overall, the DNR awarded $4.035 million in Waterways Grand-in-Aid funding. Besides the Flahive Boating Access Site, grants were awarded to projects in Benzie, Emmet, Mackinac, Marquette and Sanilac counties. Projects included marina dredging, an engineering study and various site improvements.
The funding is made possible through the DNR Parks and Recreation Division’s Waterways Grant-in-Aid Program, which began in 1949 with the goal of expanding the harbor system along the Great Lakes and boating access sites throughout the state.
“Michigan is home to more than 1,200 state-sponsored boating access sites, 19 state-managed harbors and 64 local state-sponsored harbors of refuge along the Great Lakes,” DNR Parks and Recreation Division chief Kristen Kosick said. “As boating remains a cornerstone of Michigan’s outdoor recreation, the DNR is committed to investing in and funding these vital waterways for the benefit of all.”
The Waterways Grant-in-Aid Program provides matching funds to help support quality recreational boating infrastructure. Communities are asked to match 50% of required funds.
The grants are funded through the Michigan State Waterways Fund, a restricted fund derived primarily from boat registration fees and a portion of Michigan’s gas tax.
