Controversy Over Nat’l Park Lease Agreement

For two decades, the park service has worked to return populated areas back to their natural state through a policy of land purchases and lease backs. In 1970, federal legislation designated more than seventy-thousand acres of land along Michigan’s northwestern coast as a national park. In most cases, the park service allowed those residents to "lease-back" their properties for as many as 40 years. But now that many of their leases have expired, many residents are refusing to leave. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports: