'Flintstone Park' Is Being Assembled on DNR Marina Land
To the Editor:

Visitors stroll past a new fence being installed at the stateoperated marina. The cast pillars are made to look like stone. Synthetic cross pieces are meant to resemble wood. (Becki Barnwell photograph)

The Department of Natural Resources is spending $4.5 million to improve the Mackinac Island State Marina, a project that includes re-landscaping the surrounding area. If you have not yet seen what is happening, I encourage all of you to stop and take a look.

This landscape project is changing the vista of Mackinac Island dramatically because the DNR is using man-made products, such as poured concrete pillars and plastic fence boards. They told our Planning Commission that the simulated rock would resemble limestone, but it looks more like a Flintstone cartoon. Our community and visitors will have to live with this because the DNR wanted to save 50% in costs.

Fake rock and fake wood do not compliment Mackinac Island's otherwise authentic appearance. In addition, the landscaping will be a long-term maintenance nightmare. Who is going to care for this park? Where is the storm water to go without grass to absorb it, in the lake?

While the Department of Natural Resources may contend it doesn't need our approval, I think that when a state agency redesigns the harbor in the center of any town, there should be posted plans, materials, and conversation in order to get the feedback from the community most affected by the project. Simply dropping all 51 pages of plans at a Planning Commission meeting is not enough. With nearly a million visitors a year, everyone who visits and pays taxes in the State of Michigan should have a voice. Beyond Michigan, visitors from all 50 states and many countries visit here, with certain expectations.

This landscape project drops the ball. The challenge all of us are faced with is the protection of our uniqueness. This unique character is what we love and what we promote.

Our Planning Commission is designed to protect Mackinac, but it is also up to all of us to help. This landscaping at the marina does not reflect our character. It is not historic, not natural, and far from a thing of beauty.

Today, people ride by and want to know why these monstrous, simulated rock pillars and fencing are replacing the wood fencing found throughout the state park. The message we will send to our visitors is that we did not protect our natural resources, we did not appreciate our history, and we dropped the ball when we should have stood up and said, "No, please, not on Mackinac Island." It's not because we're better than any other marina, it's because we're different, and should be applauded for being so.

I hold myself accountable for this disaster by not being aware, for not speaking up. I didn't speak before, but I can now. It might not make a difference, but I cannot sit back and take a dismissive or apathetic attitude, and then listen to the woe-is-me cries from the business community and the residents as they see their community diminish. Ever hear of killing the Golden Goose? Well, the neck is in the noose.

Please take a look at this. We can petition the DNR to review this and ask for change in this hard landscape. Please join me. If you agree with this letter, please write or call the DNR at this address: Director, Dept. of Natural Resources, Mason Building, Sixth Floor, P.O. Box 30028, Lansing MI 48909, (517) 373-2329.

Becki McIntire Barnwell

Mackinac Island