- [Narrator] On this edition of "Great Lakes Now."

- You can see some of our builds here, some active builds.

This was all farm at some point.

- [Narrator] How should land be used when we need housing and agriculture?

- [Koffi] The development pressure is happening now.

It's happening as we speak.

- [Narrator] Trying out E-foiling on Lake Huron.

- This is the latest trend and it's an adrenaline rush, super fun.

- [Narrator] And news from around the Great Lakes.

- [Narrator 2] This program is brought to you by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation.

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

- [Announcer] The Consumers Energy Foundation is committed to serving Michigan.

From preserving our state's natural resources and sustaining our future, to continuing business growth, academic achievement, and community involvement.

Learn more at consumersenergy.com/foundation.

- [Narrator 2] The Richard C. Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV.

The Polk Family Fund, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- Hi, I'm Ward Detweiler.

Welcome back to "Great Lakes Now."

Recently some parts of our region have seen housing costs to skyrocket.

That's created problems, especially for seasonal workers and the businesses that depend on them.

It's also raised questions about land use, and what we should do when the demand for housing is at odds with our need for food.

We take you to Traverse City, Michigan to get the story.

- [Narrator 2] North America is dealing with hurricanes, wildfires, and drought, all of which are expected to get worse with climate change.

That along with the work from home revolution and an overall desire for a slower paced lifestyle has boosted demand for housing in the Great Lakes region, especially in places like Traverse City, Michigan.

- Why people are moving here from across the country.

The climate is changing.

It's happening at an alarming rate.

- [Narrator 2] Matt Hodges is a Traverse City broker and developer, an owner of a real estate firm, Kultura Group.

Matt grew up in Traverse City and agreed to show us around the area.

- Although we do have, some would call harsh winter up here, it's still nothing compared to losing everything at any given moment, so.

I think people are looking at our area as a safe haven to what's happening across the country.

- [Narrator 2] Out-of-state buyers are reshaping the local economy.

Recently, Traverse City was named a top retirement city and now ranks number one for millennial millionaires.

In the last two years, the average residential sales price jumped from about $283,000 in early 2020, to well over $400,000 in the first two months of 2022.

Some homes have even been bought in seven figure cash deals.

Locals are getting left behind.

- It's becoming more difficult for locals, especially those in the service industries to afford to work and live in the city or anywhere close to that right now.

So we're in a really difficult transition, and I think that's similar to a lot of places across the country.

- [Narrator 2] The city's zoning ordinances prevent building up in walkable downtown.

So to add housing, Matt doesn't have much of a choice.

Development has to sprawl out, and sometimes that means taking over farmland.

- All this was owned by one family at one point.

So this is called Stafford Meadows, and you can see some of our builds here, some active builds.

This was all farm at some point.

- [Narrator 2] This development is aimed at the affordable luxury market.

Mini versions of luxury homes priced just under the market average.

Demand for these units is expected to keep rising, partly driven by climate migration.

And that's something developers can't ignore.

- People are moving to our area at record numbers.

So we as developers see the same thing.

There is no way that we can sit still and just watch it happen, because we'll be left behind.

So we have to go out, we have to find these tracts of land to offer housing for the majority of people.

- The development pressure is happening now.

It's not a hypothetical, it's not something we think is going to happen in 10 years.

It's happening as we speak.

- [Narrator 2] Koffi Kpachavi is the executive director of the Grand Traverse Conservation District, which oversees land and water resource conservation projects throughout Grand Traverse County.

Another resource he's trying to conserve, farmland.

- You have to think about food production.

Just look at what happened during the pandemic, what happened to our food delivery systems.

And then on top of that, the war in Ukraine.

If we can, we don't want to have to rely on faraway places to feed our communities.

And that's one of the things that I am personally working on.

- [Narrator 2] The Grand Traverse area is a farming sweet spot.

With water scarcity threatening agriculture in the west, Koffi thinks the Great Lakes region needs to become more agriculturally productive.

Lakeview Hill Farm is a 58 acre organic farm specializing in greenhouse and hoophouse production.

- Hello, how are you?

If you look at here, they are growing carrots, they are growing peppers, tomatoes.

A very diverse produce that they take to market.

So it doesn't get any more fresh than this.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- [Narrator 2] Koffi envisions Lakeview Hill as a model.

This is what the future of farming in this area could look like.

- [Koffi] This is a greenhouse they're using to grow tomatoes and peppers, helps them extend the season.

- [Narrator 2] But the average age of farmers and ranchers in the U.S. is 58.

So moving toward a future that looks like Lakeview Hill Farm, requires fostering a whole new generation of farmers.

And Koffi has a plan for that.

- This is the Meyer Farm, and this is going to be the site of the incubator farm program.

- [Narrator 2] In 2020, Koffi founded the Great Lakes Farm Incubator program.

Soon this plot of land will become a classroom where beginning farmers will learn how to start a sustainable farming business.

- I've been fantasizing over this program for a long time, but now it's happening.

- [Narrator 2] The inaugural class will start training in spring 2023, but they face a big barrier to farm ownership.

Competition from developers is making it harder to keep farmland in farming.

- So land acquisition is the biggest barrier for a beginning farmer.

The cost of land is pretty high, and then on top of that the equipment.

Whereas the developer has deeper pocket.

- [Narrator 2] There's the dilemma.

By developing farmland for much needed housing, are we threatening our own food supply?

It's estimated that 70% of farmland will transfer ownership over the next 20 years, as more farmers and ranchers enter retirement.

And farmers have good reason to cash out.

- Farmers are not known for investing in the stock market.

Their wealth is in their land.

So when it's time for them to retire, they need something to retire onto.

So they have to find a way to get a return from the land that they've been farming all these years.

And if a developer comes in and say, "Hey, I can pay you twice or three times what your land is worth."

And there is a beginning farmer saying, "Oh, I can only pay 60% of the value of your farm to you."

I think the math, the decision is fairly easy.

You can't blame them.

- [Narrator 2] Lewie Rasho is a third generation farmer and owner of Rasho Feed.

His grandfather settled the land in 1900, passed it on to his father.

And now that Louis is considering retirement, developers are making offers.

- They wanna see us feeding the chickens.

You wanna hand feed 'em?

Chick, chick, chick.

Chick, chick, chick, chick.

Close to a 120 years now the land's been in the family.

It's a little cliche perhaps, but I kind of feel like this isn't my farm, it's my grandfather's farm, and I am now the caretaker of it.

Those woods are mine to that set of pines down there out to the road.

This used to be an 80 acres, but we sold off some down in the south end.

- [Narrator 2] Koffi wants Lewie to lease his land to the farm incubator program or put it in a conservation trust, but Lewie is on the fence.

- I say my roots run pretty deep here.

It's hard to pull 'em up and move away.

I thought about putting in a conservancy situation where it couldn't be developed, but then I felt that wasn't fair to my children, or Holly's children.

If someone gets in a medical emergency and they need money to survive on, they have this as a resource.

So as much as I wanna see it open, once I'm gone, it's up to the next generation I guess.

- [Narrator 2] If climate change drives more people to the Great Lakes, the region will need more housing and more food.

The next generation will decide how land gets used.

- The issue of growing food and the issue of housing humans.

We have to do both and we can do both, right?

You can only grow food in certain spaces, and it behooves us to preserve those spaces that can be used for growing food and keep them in agriculture.

We're not just talking about keeping farms where they are, the way they are, in perpetuity.

We're talking about better farming, better farmers, and I think we can do it.

- This looks like a weed field, but it actually has pumpkins and and squashes in it.

- [Narrator 2] Developers like Matt are weighing the highest and best use of land.

- When we talk about farming, if it's not producing a yield that makes sense, then the highest and best use is no longer farming.

It becomes something where, is it gonna be better for housing?

Is it gonna be better for commercial activity?

A shopping center?

Where do the dollars land in it, yeah.

Yeah, once the farm is gone, in houses or commercial whatever, it goes up, you can't go back.

There's no opportunity to go back to a farm once it's sold.

I don't know the answer to that.

That's a big question.

That's a big one.

- For more about housing, agriculture, and economic development in our region, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

There are lots of ways to have fun out on the lakes.

For our next segment, "Great Lakes Now" contributor Ian Solomon headed to Tawas City, Michigan to try something new.

- [Ian] For years, water sports enthusiasts have been chasing the wind on the Great Lakes, wind surfing, kiteboarding, even surfing.

But I heard about a new trend in water sports.

One that doesn't depend on a strong breeze.

It still uses a board, but the board is powered by a small electric motor.

It's called E-foiling, and it's been riding a wave of popularity all along the Great Lakes.

- This is the latest trend and it's an adrenaline rush.

Super fun.

- Mark Kuban has been coaching and teaching water sports for nearly 20 years.

He's a native Detroiter, and owner of Motor City Kiteboarding in Tawas City, a town in Michigan along the shores of Lake Huron.

He said he'd be willing to let me try out E-foiling, so I decided to pay him a visit.

Mark, how are you doing?

- Good, how you doing?

Mark Kuban.

- Nice to meet you.

Thanks for having us out here today.

- Thanks for coming.

- So this space, Tawas Bay, does this have a significance in this sport specifically?

Is there something special about it?

- Shallow water, sandy bottom, localized wind conditions.

We get thermal winds even when it's not forecasted.

We usually get a nice little breeze that kicks up early afternoon.

So anything hydrofoil related with a kite doesn't require high winds.

And Tawas is incredible because any wind direction works depending on where you're coordinated.

So we're bayside here, Tawas Bay.

If you drive into the state park you're lakeside.

So we get varying wave conditions, flat water, wave, small wave, medium wave, big waves.

It's awesome.

- Mark teaches traditional water sports like kite boarding, where the wind propels a surfer on a board with a kite, a great sport in the summer, and Mark teaches snow kiting in the winter too.

But he also teaches this new thing in water sports, hydrofoiling.

So the board has a wing that extends into the water, and as the board gains speed, an upward force lifts the board, making it literally glide over the water.

It can be propelled using a kite or a wing.

- Wing foiling.

You have a wing, you hold it like a boom, kinda like a windsurf sale, and you're on a board with a hydrofoil attached to it, and you pop up on foil and the wing pulls you around and you surf the wave.

Kite foiling, there's a lot more gear involved.

You have a waist harness, you have a control system, you have four lines that are connected to a kite that's 24 meters in the sky.

Kite foiling, you need a big area to set up.

You need consistent breeze.

The wind speed has to be just right.

- [Ian] And with E-foiling, you don't need a kite or wing, or even the wind.

Just that small electric motor.

- The foiling element of water sports right now, these are trending.

Definitely difficult to do, but at the same time it doesn't require wind.

Like what I'm gonna teach you to do today is E-foiling, electric foiling.

I think it'll be a blast.

- [Ian] Awesome, well I'm excited to get into it.

- Excellent.

- Let's do it.

I was ready to get started.

So we headed outside where I could get familiar with the equipment.

- It's a personal water craft.

You have a wireless remote like this guy, and you put that in your right hand.

- Wow.

- And you have a motor here based on your... Yep, your trigger.

- Perfect.

- Press this button.

(remote beeps) There we go.

- Oh wow, there we go.

- Go ahead and hit the... (rotor whirring) How cool is that?

- I'm excited.

- Yeah?

- I'm excited That excitement comes at a cost.

E-foiling boards start at around $10,000 and can be customized for the rider.

Today, Mark will be giving me pointers remotely.

Okay, so there's a mic and a headphones set.

So there's a headphone set in this helmet.

- Yep, and I can be a long distance away from you and I can coach you on the fly.

- Wow.

- And kinda tweak your skill sets, what you're doing right, what you're doing wrong.

- Okay.

Gonna need it.

- Yeah, for sure.

- The battery life on the board is about 90 minutes, and it'll go up to 30 miles per hour.

Now that's pretty fast, but it wasn't the speed I was concerned about.

I'm nervous.

It's about 65 degrees.

That water looks like cold water.

And from what Mark told me, I am going to fall.

So right now I'm just preparing to be very cold, but equally excited because this thing is so cool.

- You can ride it on your stomach, you can ride it on your knees.

The hard part is going from your knees to a standing position, and actually going up on foil.

So.

- Imma take baby steps, but mark my words, Imma stand up today.

- I like it.

- Almost out deep enough water, but not quite.

Hello, away we go!

Here we go from our belly to our knees.

This is definitely harder than it looks.

I was worried about the water temperature when I should have been worried about staying on the board.

You have to maintain a certain speed, so taking it slow isn't much of an option.

But after a while, I got the hang of it enough to cruise around.

Standing up, not so much.

Man, that is the most fun I have ever had on a great lake.

That is the first time I've ever been on a motorized watercraft moving on the water that way, just on your body.

Inexplainable feeling, and wiping out of course, another inexplainable feeling.

Didn't know which way was up, which way was down, but I'm so thankful to Mark.

It was an amazing lesson.

I almost got on my legs.

I wanted to stand up so bad, but I couldn't.

And I definitely want to try that again.

- I think Ian did great.

Like in the early stages, there's nothing easy about the hydrofoil.

Every little stance position, every weight shift, you gotta keep consistent speed.

The more speed you have, the more balance you have, and I think you realize that.

- Yeah.

- But we got you to where you were attempting to stand, right?

And we were only out there not even an hour probably.

- Yeah, probably not.

- So it'll get easier if you proceed from here.

- Listen, don't be surprised when I come back.

(both laugh) - Sounds good.

This is blowing up all along the Great Lakes.

It's just an extension of all water sports.

But this is super fun, and you do it on any lake, any body of water.

- That was amazing and equally difficult, but I will certainly be back to give E-foiling another try.

I'm getting on my feet next time.

- For more ways to enjoy the lakes, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

And now it's time for The Catch, which takes you around the Great Lakes to hear from reporters about the issues they're covering.

- [Narrator 2] Michigan Radio's Briana Rice has some good news about Great Lakes piping plovers.

- These birds have been on the endangered list since the 1980s when they were having as little as 12 to 17 pairs of breeding parents.

And then we're not really sure how many babies come from that, 'cause sometimes they don't all make it.

- [Narrator 2] Chicks become fledglings if they live longer than 23 days and can fly.

- They have to face a lot of obstacles, humans, dogs.

As more people move along the Michigan Lake shoreline, there are raccoons and other animals coming with them.

So in addition to just elements coming in.

- [Narrator 2] But in 2022 there were 150 fledglings born to 72 breeding pairs.

That's the biggest brute of fledglings since Great Lakes piping plovers were listed as federally endangered in 1986.

Briana says researchers and conservationists have played a big role in the comeback.

- They're trying to get back to at least 150 breeding pairs, but the real hope is to get back to the heyday of 200-300 breeding pairs in parents.

- [Narrator 2] Of the Great Lakes region's 72 breeding pairs, 48 were in Michigan.

And Michigan's nests produced a record number of chicks.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore alone had 31 plover nests and produced 66 fledglings, almost half of the fledglings from the entire region.

- This year we had so many babies because the water levels were a lot lower, and the piping plovers like to lay their eggs on the shoreline.

So when the water gets high, they can't lay their babies there.

- [Narrator 2] Briana says researchers and others are hopeful this year's plover count is a step in the right direction.

- It's definitely a sign that the population might be stabilizing.

So right now it's unclear if they will ever be able to do this on their own, but they've got researchers watching them, people are looking for them every year, people are counting them.

So they have a lot of support, and that support does not seem to be wanting to change anytime soon.

- [Narrator 2] In Duluth, Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Crocker has been looking into a growing sector of Great Lakes tourism.

- This past summer was a record setting year for cruise ships in the Great Lakes, and that's meant a lot more tourists coming to the region, and it's also meant economic development for cities in the region like Duluth, Minnesota, where I'm based.

- [Narrator 2] While the cruise industry isn't new to the Great Lakes, it's been modest up until this year.

Estimates indicate nearly 20,000 people will cruise the Great Lakes this year on more than 100 cruises.

- A big change this year that's helping to drive the growth is that a new player came into the Great Lakes, Viking, which is a really big name global brand in the cruise industry.

Viking made a commitment to the Great Lakes.

They have a specific ship called the Octantis that they've built, and that's a big deal experts tell me, because when a player like Viking comes into the market, that means that other large cruise companies could also be looking to follow suit.

- [Narrator 2] And while more cruises are a big deal, the cruise ships themselves are small, or at least smaller than the massive ocean liners many people equate with cruises.

- Great Lakes ships are much smaller.

And that is because they have to be smaller because they have to fit through the locks in the St. Lawrence Seaway.

So these ships hold on average about 200 people.

The Viking ship I mentioned holds nearly 400 people.

So they're a lot smaller, and that actually is a big part of the appeal.

- [Narrator 2] The cruises offer passengers a chance for binational sightseeing, with stops in small resort towns and larger cities in the Great Lakes region.

- They all go to cities both on the American side and the Canadian side of the border.

- [Narrator 2] Investment in new customs facilities in Cleveland and Duluth is another factor adding to the recent growth in the cruise industry.

- These are permanent sites, and that's a big deal for these cruise companies, because in the past, they often had to work individually with customs to set up sort of these temporary facilities to have their passengers go through customs.

- [Narrator 2] Dan says many cities in the region, including Duluth, are betting on economic growth from the cruise industry itself, and the influx of visitors aboard these ships.

- I know Milwaukee, Wisconsin for instance, has really invested in having their city be a place where cruise ships can depart from and also end their trips on.

And that's sort of the next step up for cities, is when they can have cruises beginning or ending at their cities.

Then that really brings folks in before their trips or after their trips, and can really increase the spending.

So there are different levels of economic benefit that these cruise ships can bring.

And another thing I should point out is that the ships also the themselves spend money in these communities.

They have to buy fuel, they have crew members coming and going, so there's also economic development that way.

- [Narrator 2] In Madison, Wisconsin Public Radio reporter Sarah Lehr has a story about the discovery of an ancient Great Lakes artifact.

- A team of archeologists and divers pulled a 3000 year old canoe out of Lake Mendota in Madison.

- [Narrator 2] It's believed to be the oldest canoe ever discovered in the Great Lakes region, and the second to be found in Lake Mendota.

Both were spotted by maritime archeologist and scuba diver, Tamara Thomsen.

- She saw a piece of wood sticking out with kind of a curved end, and I think to you or me it wouldn't look like anything special.

It would be like, "Okay, this is just a piece of driftwood."

But her being very skilled at spotting these kinds of things, she felt that it was something more, and basically was like, "Wow, this is another dugout canoe."

- [Narrator 2] The first canoe was raised from Lake Mendota last year and is thought to be around 1200 years old.

Researchers believe both boats were made by ancestors of the Ho-Chunk Nation.

The canoe that was just raised this year was probably made by hollowing out a single piece of white oak.

- Archeologists believe it was mostly buried under the lake bed for the last three millennia.

They did radiocarbon dating on a piece of it and discovered that it dates back to the year 1000 B.C.

- [Narrator 2] The age of the canoe is part of the reason it took months of planning before archeologists and divers could safely remove it from the water.

- It's very water logged.

The archeologist who first discovered the canoe actually said it now has the consistency of wet cardboard.

So they had to be very, very delicate with it when they pulled it out of the lake.

They actually pulled it out in pieces, so they didn't manage to keep it totally intact.

But as part of the preservation process, they're expecting that they'll be able to put it back together.

- [Narrator 2] Sarah says The next stop for the canoe is the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, where it will undergo a two year long preservation process.

- It will be preserved and then it will be freeze dried, and then it can be displayed in a museum.

- [Narrator 2] In the meantime, researchers with the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Ho-Chunk Nation are already working on plans for a comprehensive search of Lake Mendota to see what other relics might be hiding there.

- There are a lot of depths that still need to be explored, which I think kind of raises interesting questions about what history is there for us to discover, and what more can we learn.

- Thanks for watching.

For more on these stories and the Great Lakes in general, visit GreatLakesNow.org.

When you get there, you can follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter to get updates about our work.

See you out on the lakes.

(gentle instrumental music) - [Narrator 2] This program is brought to you by: the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

- [Announcer] The Consumer's Energy Foundation is committed to serving Michigan, from preserving our state's natural resources and sustaining our future, to continuing business growth, academic achievement, and community involvement.

Learn more at consumersenergy.com/foundation.

- [Narrator 2] The Richard C. Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV.

The Polk Family Fund, and viewers like you.

Thank You.

(gentle instrumental music)