Grand Traverse Bay: A Time of Choice Recreation

Abstract

In large metropolita n areas such as Detroit, and even in suburban areas, opportunities for water oriented public recreation are limited or nonexistent. Those facilities which are available require careful planning and constant upkeep. There are usually too many people and too little space. Traverse Bay citizens have benefited from this situation. Much time, money, and effort are spent in telling the world of the abundance of scenic amenities and recreational opportunities with in the bay area. Highways designed to increase the incoming flow of urban visitors are proposed. Motels and private camping grounds flourish, along with state and federal parks. New form s of recreational activity and equipment have made recreation a year-round local industry, and there appears to be a good potential for continued growth . But as the area becomes increasingly popular, local citizens may gain a false sense of having generated this growth , and feel that somehow they are in control o f it. W e suggest that it might be more m eaningful in this context to say that Grand Traverse Bay has been subjected to increasing recreational pressure, and that local efforts to stimulate demand can only partially account for this pressure. This paper suggests that there is a need to re-examine the benefits of shorelands-based recreation as a major bay-area industry. We feel that increasingly, some forms of recreation can become a local financial burden, diminish the quality of the shorelands and water of the area, and result in increasing regional, state, and federal control.