Andrew and Amy Kohlmann, owners of Signs Now Traverse City, have announced a new partnership with the Watershed Center to support a key recycling program. When recyclable signs, graphics or banners are ordered from Signs Now and are returned after their useful life, Signs Now will recycle the material and donate a percentage of the original product sale to the Watershed Center.  Signs Now is also generously donating a percentage to TART Trails.

“We are very grateful to Signs Now for protecting our Up North water quality,” says Denise Baker, Advancement Director.  “And Signs Now gets two giant thumbs up for providing clients with the opportunity to recycle their signs and for its green printing process being zero-waste.”   

The team at Signs Now Traverse City, located at 741 Woodmere Ave., hopes this will encourage recycling while also giving back and helping in efforts to keep the region’s natural resources intact.  “I feel an obligation to help keep our area beautiful so our children and our children’s children can enjoy the natural resources that we are so blessed to have. I also strive to keep Signs Now on the cutting edge of technology by continuing to offer new and innovative products,” says Signs Now Owner Andrew Kohlmann. “On top of allowing us to offer green signage, this technology allows us to turn around products faster, as the prints are fully cured when removed from the printer. It also allows us to print on a variety of unusual materials such as uncoated fabrics and Tyvec.”

The recycling initiative comes on the heels of Signs Now 2010 purchase of the HP L25500 60” Large Format DesignJet printer, utilizing HP’s Latex Ink technology. Signs Now is the first in the area to acquire true green sign-making technology.

The L25500 produces stunning indoor quality prints with state-of-the-art outdoor durability.  However, unlike traditional solvent based ink technologies, the L25500 does this without producing any harmful levels of VOC’s or any hazardous air pollutants, providing Signs Now and its clients with odor-free printing and no need for external ventilation equipment.

Besides being odor-free, all prints come out of the L25500 dry and ready for immediate use, with no wait times for solvent outgassing or ink drying. This significantly speeds up production time. And, with the HP Planet Partners Program and HP Media Take Back Program, Signs Now will be able to recycle 100 percent of the waste generated by the printer, from print heads to empty ink cartridge!  In addition, Signs Now will now offer a 100 percent green solution with free recycling of other medias offered by HP, including large format banners and PVC-free wallpaper products for interior décor.

“Signs Now of Traverse City has made the right choice not only for their production needs, but for the environment and all of the businesses and consumers that will make sustainability an issue when choosing where to go for their sign and graphics needs” says John Stevens, Strategic Account Manager at Hewlett Packard.

The Signs Now Traverse City service base includes business solutions for outdoor and indoor signage, banners, window and vehicle graphics, exhibit and trade show graphics, ADA signage, dimensional letters, directional systems and other visual communications tools.  For more information about Signs Now, call 231~933~7446 or visit its website.

Fishing in the Chain of Lakes is about to get even better!  We’re part of a partnership to install 80 fish shelter structures Bellaire, Clam, Elk, Intermediate and Torch lakes.  These shelters will provide crucial protection for smaller forage fish, which is vital because shoreline development has decreased natural shallow-water structures.  This will increase the diversity and number of fish.

Shelters will use all-natural materials that are approved by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.  If any shelters are placed in front of a waterfront owner’s property, written permission will be obtained before placing the structure.  Shelters will be installed in 15 to 25 feet of water.

You can download a brochure to learn more about the fish shelter project and how you can get involved.

This project is a collaboration between the Watershed Center, Three Lakes Association, Friends of Clam Lake,  Antrim Conservation District, Elk-Skegemog Lakes Association, Intermediate Lake Association and Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council.

Photo:  Stephanie Lockman shows off her record Muskie for Elk Lake.  Photo by Kyle Anderson.

We’ve partnered with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Traverse City to upgrade a runoff drain in Bryant Park. Funding comes from EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

The storm drain cap on the old system would often blow off during a rain, allowing runoff to flood the beach and flow right into West Bay. A brand new storm drain lid was installed and all the old piping was replaced so the lid no longer blows off during rain storms.

A new runoff filtration system will be installed in spring 2012 that will decrease the amount of bacteria and other pollutants entering the bay. “The goal of this project is to reduce beach closures at Bryant Park due to high E.Coli counts, and to also remove this beach from Michigan’s Impaired Waters list,” said Sarah U’Ren, Program Director.

The winners of the Watershed Center’s 2011 photography contest are~drumroll please:

• First Place~Trout Trinity by Christopher Morey
• Second Place~Sleeping Ducks by Jenny McKellar
• Third Place~Cass Underpass by Bridget Johnson

The winners, plus these photographers, appear in our 2012 calendar:

• Emily Beyer
• Terry Clark
• Cherie Correll
• John Gessner
• Craig Goodrich
• Debra Ott
• Dana Vannoy
• Robin Webb-Bransky

All the above-mentioned photographers, plus these, will be featured in the upcoming Art of the Watershed exhibit:

• Laura Burmeister
• Fred Keeslar
• Mark Lindsay

The opening reception is Thursday, December 1 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Watershed Center office, 13272 S. West Bay Shore Dr. in Greilickville.  All photographers who entered the contest will have their photos displayed in a Power Point presentation at the opening reception. 

We’re the bright blue building on the bay, across the parking lot from the Children’s Museum.  RSVP Denise at dbaker@gtbay.org by Wednesday, November 30 if you can attend. 

Calendars will be on sale to give you a head start on purchasing holiday gifts!

Dick and Pat Sanderson see threatened species every day.  Plant species, that is.  Right in their own back yard. 

The Sandersons have a naturalized back yard between their home and the water’s edge, which works as a giant buffer of sorts.  Their natural shoreline contains threatened pitcher’s thistle, Lake Huron tansy and Houghton’s goldenrod.  They live near Elk Rapids on East Bay. 

“We need natural vegetation to help purify the water,” Dick says.

Pitcher’s thistle and Houghton’s goldenrod grow nowhere else in the world but the Great Lakes shoreline.  Pitcher’s thistle grows in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Ontario, with most of it being in Michigan.  Houghton’s goldenrod grows primarily along the tip of the mitt and along the southeastern shore of the U.P. 

Dick’s love of the natural world and plants began as a child.  He grew up as a birder; his parents banded wild birds.  “I would look at every wild plant I could find,” he says. 

He and Pat have several naturalized gardens on their property.  They have purchased some of the plants, and others they have transplanted from the woods.  “Wild plants need little water and little fertilizer,” Dick says.

Dick and Pat’s two grandchildren, now in college, spent a lot of time on the property when they were growing up.  Dick says that when his grandson Andrew was five, he swore that his grandpa knew exactly which logs to turn over to find red-bellied salamanders.  “If you get out and walk and let them learn, they’re sponges,” Dick says about children exploring the natural world. 

The Sandersons love their copy of Guide to Great Lakes Coastal Plants by Ellen Elliott Weatherbee, published by University of Michigan press.  It details where specific plants grow and lists state-endangered species.

Photos by Dick Sanderson.   Top:  Houghton’s goldenrod.  Center and bottom:  pitcher’s thistle.