Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance

10/01/2026

09/15/2026

Protecting wetlands means understanding what happens beneath the surface, too.

On September 24–25, SDCA Executive Director Elaine Sterrett Isely will join Great Lakes advocates, scientists, policymakers, and community leaders at the Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition’s 2026 Great Lakes Conference.

Elaine will moderate a panel exploring “Policy Tools for the Protection of Groundwater and Wetland Hydrology” alongside:

• Dr. Anthony Kendall, Michigan State University, whose work focuses on Great Lakes water resources and hydrogeology
• Liz Kirkwood, Executive Director of FLOW (For Love of Water)
• Lena Pappas, Groundwater and Geologic Services Section, Michigan EGLE

Groundwater and wetlands are deeply connected. What happens below ground can shape the health of wetlands, rivers, dunes, wildlife habitat, and ultimately the Great Lakes themselves. Protecting these interconnected systems requires good science, thoughtful policy, and people willing to bring both into the decisions that affect them.

We’re grateful to be part of that conversation and to bring what we learn back to our work protecting the Kalamazoo River Mouth and the Wild Heart of Saugatuck.

Advocacy is stewardship. And sometimes stewardship begins by bringing the right people together to ask better questions.

09/10/2026

It was a privilege to partake in this celebration with the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi. We are honored to work alongside them to protect the Kalamazoo River Mouth.

09/05/2026

Long before maps, marinas, or property lines, this landscape was home.

For thousands of years, the place where lake meets river, forest meets dunes has provided food, shelter, transportation, and spiritual connection for Indigenous peoples. Those relationships continue today.

09/03/2026

Stewardship begins with noticing.

Notice where rainwater travels after a storm. Notice which plants attract butterflies and bees. Notice the wildlife that depends on the river, dunes, forest, and wetlands as one connected home.

Attention creates relationship. Relationship deepens responsibility.

09/01/2026

A lovely celebration took place at New Richmond Bridge Park honoring one of North America’s most iconic and important indicator species. Amazing work by the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish (Gun Lake Tribe) with their dedicated work in rearing and releasing Lake Sturgeon

The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi (Gun Lake Tribe) will be releasing 21 lake sturgeon into the Kalamazoo River on Tuesday.

09/01/2026

A healthy landscape is filled with relationships we may never see.

Native plants feed insects. Insects feed birds and other wildlife. Each species plays a role in sustaining the larger ecosystem.

Protecting biodiversity begins with protecting the habitats and native plant communities on which life depends.

08/29/2026

Places are protected because people choose to show up.

They attend public meetings. Share what they know. Volunteer their time. Support the attorneys, scientists, advocates, and stewards doing the work.

Every contribution strengthens a community committed to protecting the place where lake meets river, forest meets dunes, and generations meet their responsibility to care.

08/26/2026

A dune may appear still, but it is always being shaped. Wind carries grains of sand across the landscape. Plant roots stabilize the ground. Water, weather, and time continually reshape the terrain.

The Saugatuck Dunes are living systems. Protecting them means respecting the natural processes that have formed this landscape over generations.