MSU bus tour, president comes to Ludington State Park | News

A Tuesday afternoon visit to a Ludington State Park beach along M-116 was the seventh of 13 stops in the inaugural 2024 MSU Bus Tour, this year concentrating on west Michigan sites with Michigan State University research ties.
Participants included MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz and faculty and administration employees chosen to get a first-hand look at MSU research projects and other connections beyond the land grant university’s East Lansing campus. MSU reportedly spent more than $840 million last year on research and development.
During the Ludington State Park stop a bit north of First Curve at the park’s southern boundary, MSU Assistant Professor of Geography Ethan Theuerkauf explained research into sand movement in the Great Lakes being done there. He has been collecting sand movement data at two sites south of the Big Sable River in Ludington State Park since 2020 as well as at other Great Lakes sites. (See related story.)
Theuerkauf also told how information learned through the research can be used by community planners and decision makers as they seek to make their shoreline communities more Great Lakes resilient.
With a gusty wind kicking up whitecaps on Lake Michigan, the tour participants climbed off the bus wrapped in a MSU theme, over a small dune before several took off their shoes to get their feet wet in Lake Michigan wave wash. Others used smart phone cameras to record the scene.
Guskiewicz took the time to talk with Theuerkauf asking questions about the project and comparing background notes – both are former University of North Carolina Tarheels turned MSU Spartans.
After a few minutes, Theuerkauf, with help from a lab assistant and two lab technicians, gave a presentation about the research. A portable amplifier used for his brief talk often was at times overmatched by the sound of crashing waves and wind – a common Lake Michigan soundtrack in Ludington.
Using charts held by his assistants, Theuerkauf explained how water level changes lead to erosion, and during low water periods and calm conditions over time can move sand back to the beach.
Planned deployment of a research drone that measures shoreline features, and a boat drone that measures underwater bottom features that change with sand erosion and deposition, had to be canceled because of the wind and surf. The drones were on the beach for inspection by the curious.
At the previous stop at Arcadia Bluffs Golf Course, university research into turfgrass was to be the topic.
Other stops on the tour included Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore at Glen Arbor, the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center – home for 10 MSU agri-science researchers — at Traverse City; Camp Grayling; Camp Wa Wa Sum near Grayling used by MSU Fishery and Wildlife departments; the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways in Mt. Pleasant; M&R Pickling in Leroy that is an award-winning client of MSU Product Center; Martinez Farms in Conklin that is a participant in MSU’s Great Lakes Latino/a Farmers Program; Muskegon Museum of Art and Muskegon High School; PFAS remediation sites in Rockford and Belmont in connection with MSU’s Center for PFAS Research; Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building in Grand Rapids where The MSU Grand Rapids Innovation Park anchors the ‘Medical Mile’ that is home to an MSU research facility; Herman Miller in Zeeland; and the Kellogg Biological Station which is MSU’s largest off-campus education complex and one of North America’s premier inland field stations.
After perhaps 30 minutes on the beach, participants headed back on the bus.
Guskiewicz took a moment to thank Theuerkauf and helpers Rachel Lau, Francisca Nunez-Ferriera and Hannah Griffith, and to talk to the Ludington Daily News.
Guskiewicz said such visits help him and the participants see the research being done around Michigan and how MSU meets its land grant mission. Also, he said, it helps all see how to extend ongoing research in new ways and to help growth in research.
As the bus pulled away and Theuerkauf went to retrieve the drones displayed on the beach, he gave two thumbs up and said of the stop “it went great.”
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