Two big state grants are on the way to Leelanau County, including a six-figure spend from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to continue culvert replacements at key river and stream crossings, and a first-of-its-kind investment from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) in a local farm cooperative. The Leelanau Ticker has the scoop on both grants, and what they could mean for Leelanau County going forward.

Stream restoration projects continue in Leelanau County

Last month, the Michigan DNR announced more than $1.1 million in Fisheries Habitat Grants, including a $200,000 grant to the Conservation Resource Alliance (CRA) for “Restoring and reconnecting aquatic organism passage on Cedar Run and Victoria creeks” in Leelanau County.

“The Cedar River watershed in Michigan, recognized as a brook trout ‘stronghold’ by the Great Lakes Brook Trout Conservation Portfolio, is impaired but holds high potential for ecological recovery through targeted restoration,” reads a project summary provided to the Leelanau Ticker by CRA Project Manager Michael Seefried. “The proposed project addresses four severely degraded road-stream crossings…that fragment habitat and pose flooding and public safety risks.”

CRA has been working for years to restore the natural flow of rivers and streams, in Leelanau and beyond. In the county, the nonprofit has partnered with the Leelanau County Road Commission and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians to replace several aging culverts, mostly notably along Crystal River. Two more Crystal River culverts will be replaced this year, effectively reconnecting that river’s upstream habitats to Lake Michigan.

Per Seefried, the new grant funding from the DNR will go toward a “four-site watershed initiative to increase aquatic connectivity to Lake Leelanau.” Specifically, the money will fund two culvert replacements: one at the spot where South Cedar Road passes over Cedar Run Creek, and one where Good Harbor Trail bisects Victoria Creek.

The other two crossings involved in the four-site initiative are a pair of aging culverts on Cedar Run Creek, one at White Road and the other at Alpine Road. As the Leelanau Ticker reported in February, those two crossings were supposed to be paid for by a pair of federal funding sources: Natural Resources Conservation Services, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While initially set to move forward this year, both culvert replacements were stalled due to federal funding freezes – and remain in limbo now.

“We are not yet able to move forward on those sites,” Seefried says. “We are still unsure when/if those funds will become available.”

According to the CRA, the replacement of all four culverts will ultimately “reconnect 15 upstream miles to 14 miles downstream,” restoring “full access to Lake Leelanau” for brook trout and other species. The organization also touts other ancillary benefits to the watershed, such as stopping “an estimated 2,000 pounds of sediment per year from entering the creeks,” and improving county road infrastructure “to withstand 25 and 100-year storm events.”

MDARD announces first Farm to Family Program recipients, including Leelanau-based co-op

Hot on the heels of a $44,080 MDARD grant for the purchase of a new delivery truck, Leelanau County’s MI Farm Cooperative has landed another $50,000 as part of MDARD’s first-ever Farm to Family Program grant program. MI Farm Coop is one of eight “food hubs” in Michigan to get money as part of that inaugural grant distribution, which MDARD announced last week. According to co-op president Jim Bardenhagen, the money will allow MI Farm Co-op to implement a new online system, making it possible for CSA customers to customize their boxes.

Announced earlier this year, and funded by a $4 million earmark in Michigan’s 2025 state budget, the Farm to Family “Food Hubs and Farm Stops” program was described by MDARD as “Michigan's first-ever grant program aimed at strengthening the state's middle-of-the-supply-chain agri-food systems.” Speaking to the Traverse City Ticker in February 2024, MDARD Director Tim Boring called the Farm to Family program MDARD’s “top-line item” in the new budget, touting it as an opportunity to build more secure, sustainable, and self-sufficient food economies in Michigan.

“I look at [the Farm to Family Program] as a way to link a lot of the different pieces of the agricultural system in our state, so they function better together,” Boring told The Ticker. “We don’t always think of agriculture as a collaboration, or as a ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ kind of effort, but we’re doing that here.”

Notably, Boring said at the time that the Farm to Family Program was partially inspired by northern Michigan’s success in establishing a strong local network of growers, farm markets, CSA programs, restaurants, and retailers, all of which work together to make local food a key aspect of the region’s identity and value proposition. “We can take your local example and use it as a model for how we replicate this kind of work across the state, the region, the country,” he said.

Fittingly, MI Farm Co-op is one of two “food hubs” in the Grand Traverse region to secure funding as part of this initial grant announcement. The other, The Weinrich Farm, is a 78-acre farm in Traverse City that uses regenerative agricultural practices and emphasizes the ethical treatment of animals. Weinrich, which is better known for its customer-facing brand, Anavery Fine Foods, also received $50,000 as part of the food hubs program. The other recipients are located in Ludington, Holland, Muskegon, Jackson, Kalamazoo, and Flint.

Bardenhagen says MI Farm Co-op – which encompasses more than 25 local farms – has known for a while that CSA customization was the most in-demand feature among past, current, and prospective customers. But actually offering that customization capability will require a total overhaul of MI Farm Co-op’s online system – a “big undertaking” that Bardenhagen says will prove costly. The MDARD grant will cover that expense.

“The grant is going to get us all switched over to a new online ordering system,” Bardenhagen tells The Ticker. “We’re going from something called Local Line to something called Local Food Marketplace. We’ve been getting some training on that, and we’re hoping that, in about a week or so, we can turn the valve on and start using it.”

Residual grant funds, after the tech changeover is done, will go toward establishing new in-house food processing capabilities for MI Farm Co-op’s member farms.

“We’ve always wanted to do a little bit more in the processing arena,” Bardenhagen says. “A lot of the schools we sell to, they don't really have the staff or the facilities to do a lot of cooking. We wanted to look at providing some lightly processed products. So, for example, instead of just getting the carrots that our growers grow, our customers could order carrot sticks. Or, instead of getting whole potatoes, we can produce diced potatoes or shredded potatoes. Part of the grant is going to purchase processing equipment, to make that possible.”

Pictured: S. Cedar Road crosses over Cedar Run Creek (credit: CRA)