rock climbing might be a new tool for conserving the public land that bolsters michigan’s annual $20 billion tourism industry.

the sport is gaining traction as outdoor enthusiasts look to experience nature differently, especially after indoor climbing gyms closed during the pandemic.

already, there are 7 million climbers in america, and the sport’s popularity is growing.

for the first time, sport climbing appeared in the august 2021 tokyo olympics. the word “climbing” peaked in popularity on google during that event.

“the nature of the outdoors user continues to evolve over time,” said brad garmon, the director of michigan’s office of outdoor recreation industry.

“we shouldn’t get stuck in certain ways, where certain activities are legitimized and others not. let’s figure out what people want to be doing in the outdoors and how we can support it,” garmon said.

rock climbing isn’t widely recognized in michigan and the rest of the midwest because most people don’t expect to find exceptional rock climbing here, garmon said. that’s one thing that makes rock climbing so exciting: it can reshape how people perceive the state’s outdoor recreation opportunities.

michigan’s outdoor recreation industry is responsible for 110,000 jobs and $5 billion in wages and salaries annually, according to the agency.

“the outdoors is part of michigan’s heritage. it’s part of our economy and our communities. we’re an outdoorsy state,” garmon said.

michigan’s first climber-owned “crag”: slugg’s bluff

just this year, slugg’s bluff in the upper peninsula became the first climber-owned area in the state.

the popular crag – lingo for a climbable rock face – is about 20 minutes southwest of marquette.

people have been climbing there since the 1970s, said bill thompson, a board member of the upper peninsula climbing coalition, a nonprofit group protecting sustainable climbing.

the arbelius family, who had long owned the 10 acres that is slugg’s bluff, recognized that climbers maintained the land and donated it to them, thompson said.

climbers as environmental stewards

climbers clean up the trash – anything from broken bottles to fridges – that local nonclimbers toss off the ledge.

craig kasmer, a park interpreter at michigan’s department of natural resources and a former rock climber, said the heightened awareness that climbing demands lends itself to a deeper connection with nature. that means climbers can play a key role in conserving an area.

“climbers are aware of their surroundings. with, say, a cyclist, it’s exercise. you need to go from point a to point b and you’re passing by trees and you’re not even looking at them.

“the slower the activity, the better. you have to be slow and meticulous when you’re rock climbing. and so you have time to stop and look at things, to be involved with the nature around you.”

as climbers ascend a wall of rock or ice, their focus is on finding the route. they must be extremely present in the search for different holds, whether with their hands exploring the rock or an ice tool testing the ice.

the michigan ice fest

it’s this awareness and connection to nature that has led organizers of the popular michigan ice fest to set a goal of net zero emissions over the next three years.

the event is held in munising and initially had 10 climbers in 1991.  now, it attracts over 1,000 people from around the world.

“our passion relies on consistently cold weather, and that’s being threatened by climate change,“ said matt abbotts, a co-organizer of the ice fest. “if winters are milder or shorter, that means less ice climbing.”

the festival takes place an hour east of slugg’s bluff, and ice climbers of all levels have come for the past 30 years to climb on the banks of lake superior.

“climbers might not be the biggest community, but it’s a group of strong-willed, passionate individuals who are never afraid of doing the hard work,” abbotts said.

rock climbing in michigan

the upper peninsula has the most climbing opportunities in michigan, with over 300 documented roped routes and a myriad of boulder problems –  unroped climbing at lower heights. but the lower peninsula is home to some crags, too.

in grand ledge, about 10 miles outside of lansing, climbers try to protect one of the only crags in the lower peninsula. the part of the park that allows climbing – oak park – is city-owned, and officials aren’t good about managing the area, said ben poulson, a grand ledge climber.

there are competing demands for public dollars, so city management at the ledges has fallen onto the back burner, said bruce bright, a member of the grand ledge parks & recreation commission.

“in some respects, i would characterize the management of oak park as being one of benign neglect,” bright said.

so, who maintains it? climbers.

rock climbers upkeeping crags

“climbers are the best stewards,” poulson said. “if you ban climbing, you’re banning the best environmental stewards from that area.

“if you allow climbing, you’re allowing people who very much care about that area to be there and to police it,” he said.

bright said members of the climbing community put down wood chips and topsoil and even installed makeshift wooden rails to prevent erosion.

people who spend time outdoors feel a shared responsibility to protect it. that’s why it’s so important to get people outside, said chris winter, the executive director of the access fund, a land trust protecting and preserving crags across america and based in boulder, colorado.

“when you connect to the larger landscape, you start really caring about conservation and stewardship,” winter said.

liability concerns with rock climbing

still, some landowners with crags on their property resist climbing.

a section in michigan’s natural resources and environmental protection act protects landowners from liability for those injured on their land if they were there without paying and for recreational purposes. it mentions activities like hiking, hunting, fishing and camping but groups remaining outdoor activities as “any other outdoor recreational use.”

the vague language fails to mention rock climbing, thus raising questions of liability.

the climbing coalition’s thompson said rock climbing is often perceived as dangerous.

but it’s one of the few activities that has never seen injury or death in presque isle, one of marquette’s most visited parks. other allowed activities – scuba diving, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking – all had injuries and deaths at the park, thompson said.

even devil’s lake state park in baraboo, wisconsin, which has what some climbers consider the best climbing in the midwest, isn’t maintained for climbing.

it has over 1,600 climbing routes and 1,500 boulder problems detailed in numerous guidebooks.

despite that kind of exposure, officials neither permit nor punish climbing in the park.

climbers maintain the crags there, too.

the local wisconsin climbers association partners with the access fund to ensure access to climbing spaces. they keep the crags free of graffiti and trash, in addition to implementing erosion control.

in michigan, the grand ledge climbers coalition and the upper peninsula climbing coalition both partner with the access fund to conserve local climbing crags.

the access fund’s winter said, “it’s not only the specific places we like to spend time as climbers, but also the larger landscapes around those places. it’s those larger landscapes that are so inspiring.”

like any outdoor activity, climbing can adversely impact an area. but instead of banning an activity, we ought to bolster management efforts to accommodate it, bright said. after all, resources have long been exploited in the name of economic development.

“sometimes i think people are overly critical of our visitors. if the rock is damaged by overuse, is that really such a crime compared to what’s taken place over the last 100 years?” bright said.

winter said that climbers have always played an integral role in protecting the lands that all people – climbers and non-climbers – love and enjoy.

“as we look to the future, in the bigger picture of conservation, we have to be tackling these big environmental challenges of our time,” winter said.

“we have to do that both to protect outdoor climbing but also to protect the environment more broadly.”

reporter cameryn cass has climbed at grand ledge in michigan, devil’s lake state park in wisconsin and the red river gorge in kentucky.

corn and soybeans once covered josh payne’s farm as far as the eye could see. tidy rows of green and brown marched across his 600 acres from spring to fall, kept in line by tillage, and herbicide. though payne’s operation was the picture of modern agriculture, he could not shake a general dissatisfaction.

today, payne calls his farm in missouri “a messy, complex, diverse life worth living.” gone are the corn and soy, replaced by a diversified farm that includes various animals, nuts and fruits. young chestnut trees reach their limbs skyward. dozens of sheep, bleating and plodding, graze on native grasses in payne’s front yard. and several brown cows lounge on rolling pasture in the distance.

“we’re trying to rethink our food, and we’re trying to regrow our land,” payne said.

payne is one of a small but growing number of midwestern farmers re-evaluating how to manage their land as they face climate change, market shocks, and other threats. diverse farms like his made up only 10% to 15% of the roughly 2 million farms in the 2017 u.s. agricultural census. yet researchers predict these farms will become more common across the midwest as climate change redraws the american agricultural map. already, the corn belt – which traditionally spanned from kansas to ohio and from missouri to the dakotas – has shifted northwest, a trend that’s expected to continue.

the midwest hasn’t frequently seen wildfires or hurricanes, but subtle shifts may make the cornfields that comprise traditional corn-soy rotations less productive. already, heat waves, intense storms, droughts, and other weather changes are causing crop damage of increasing magnitude.

although many farmers would scoff at the idea of moving away from corn, some researchers are encouraging them to consider diversifying their crops.

linda prokopy, a professor who studies sustainable farming at purdue university in indiana, puts it in stark terms: “growing corn and soybeans exclusively in the midwest is not sustainable in the long run,” she said in a january magazine interview. “as the climate continues to change, corn is not expected to yield very well in this area.”

dennis todey, director of the midwest climate hub, a usda research center in ames, iowa, says the main reason for the corn belt’s agricultural productivity is regular rainfall during the summer. this rain can make up for a lack of regional irrigation, when corn and soy need it most in the growing season.

“if we start to move to where we are more frequently drier in the summertime, then corn and soybean yields will likely suffer,” todey said.

prokopy said that this is the time for corn belt row-croppers to plan for the future of their farms. “i would tell them to start thinking about transitioning now,” she said.

the change of business models was not a light lifestyle decision for payne. it was a big risk, a commitment to his children’s future on the farm and the health of the mississippi river basin. it was a chance to blaze a trail in his community and find future prosperity by looking to the past.

a cinching corn belt

corn-soy rotations take up 75% of the farmland area in the corn belt region. close to 90 million acres of corn were planted in the corn belt this year, taking up an area nearly the size of montana. that corn is mainly used for biofuels (roughly 40% for ethanol) and as animal feed (roughly 36% is fed to cattle, pigs and chickens). so much corn is grown in the midwest that “corn sweat” contributes to high humidity. drive across the region, and the miles of leafy green blend together.

climate change is putting that landscape at risk. corn is notoriously fertilizer-dependent and sensitive to temperature and moisture changes. one report projects regional crop yields to decrease as much as 40% from early-century levels by 2055.

missouri, at the southern end of the corn belt, is a bellwether for a changing agricultural landscape. current projections suggest it will be harder to maintain productive corn crops in missouri’s future. a 2020 missouri soy report suggest missouri may be the hardest-hit midwestern state by climate change.

todey said the concerning projections have farmers looking for options. “i would say missouri probably is going to be one of the places where we’ll see that sooner,” todey said.

farm diversification is being held up as one answer. diversification is the process of adding additional cash crops, livestock, or other income sources to one’s land. farmers might add a few acres of pecan trees to go with a cattle operation, or add tomatoes and chickens to cornfields. farmers also might double-crop wheat and soybeans, or add winter wheat to a corn-soy annual rotation.

prokopy was given a $10 million usda-nifa grant in october of 2021 to lead study on-farm diversification as a climate solution for the corn belt. her five-year research project will evaluate alternative farming systems, three-crop rotations, and their environmental impacts for midwest farms. her emphasis will be on farms in illinois, indiana, and iowa.

the usda is pumping an additional $1 billion into climate-resilient agriculture over the next five years. in february, u.s. agriculture secretary tom vilsack rolled out the partnership for climate smart commodities program in jefferson city. the program is designed to finance partnerships between government and community institutions for “climate-smart commodity” projects. projects eligible for funding include alternative crop market development.

“when you talk to farmers about diversification, they’ll often say, ‘well, that’s what my grandfather used to farm,’” prokopy said. and of course, the original inhabitants of this land practiced diversified agriculture too, she said.

diversified farms often use less chemical fertilizer, land and fuel than conventional farms. the model also offers prospects of improved profits, robust local food security, new jobs and economic resiliency in a changing climate.

“diversifying across a larger set of crops helps to spread the risk,” said sarah lovell, director of the mu center for agroforestry. “so [farmers are] not all reliant on conditions required by one certain crop.”

a seed of change

with diversification, the payne family is, in a way, returning to its roots.

josh’s grandfather charlie payne bought the family land in concordia more than 60 years ago, pulling out a pasture and an orchard to plant corn and soybeans.

as a child, josh’s job was to pick up rocks and sticks in the rows as his father and grandfather planted seeds. “the work was literally symbolism for drudgery,” he said. “my family always said, ‘this is why you’re going to college.’”

after josh graduated high school, his father jon told him to never return to the farm. there wasn’t enough money to support him, nor his sister jordan, working there. josh payne became a high-school english teacher in kansas city.

but after jon died in a farming accident, josh returned part-time to the farm in 2010 to help 81-year-old charlie. josh loathed the monotonous planting season and the feeling that he was killing the earth with herbicides.

“i really, really just hated it,” he said. “i just sat on a tractor for hours.”

charlie regularly rebuffed josh’s ideas to change the farm by pointing out the financial risks. the family had bought into commodity agriculture. now, they were finding it hard to justify change.

researchers point out that existing financial systems serve to support monocultures. “we’re within a system that doesn’t necessarily incentivize using different practices,” said kelly wilson, assistant director of mu’s center for regenerative agriculture.

high input costs and risk of poor returns have discouraged farmers from playing with more diverse business models. haphazard government funding for alternative crop market development has also made it hard for farmers to sell other products. grain co-ops proliferate the region, and harvesting machinery is predominantly designed for corn and soy.

the revenue protection plans under the federal crop insurance system—which can cover up to 85% of a farmer’s projected income from yield and price decline—focus on a handful of commodity crops. multi-crop revenue protection and specialty crop insurance policies can be significantly more expensive.

“this (system) can go on in perpetuity,” josh payne said.

making change pay

what does it take for a farmer to make the leap? for payne, it was a health crisis, a massive storm, and a spiritual insight.

one day about 12 years ago, bored while on his self-driving tractor, payne began reading the book surprised by hope by theologian n.t. wright. the book rethinks the construct of heaven and bringing it about on earth. “it helped me realize that the things that we do should be a part of bringing about hope and healing and regeneration to the world,” payne said.

the book inspired payne to begin looking into cover crops, or crops planted to cover the soil and prevent erosion. he got approval from his grandfather in 2012 after a massive storm destroyed a beanfield and had success increasing yields with the system.

life handed him a new challenge in 2020. payne discovered he was severely allergic to a common herbicide and petroleum-based fertilizers. it was an untenable situation for a conventional farmer. “it was either go back to teaching or change the way we farm completely,” payne says.

in response, payne began working on a plan for a regenerative sheep-and-chestnut farm – leading to where he is today.

payne has become a convert, speaking at conferences about diversified farming. farmers often ask him: does it pay? just two years into his new system, payne said his margins are similar to what he had before with row crops. he earns a good profit from his livestock with lower costs than with row crops. he stands to gain as much as $6,000 per acre once the chestnut trees mature. payne rents out the remaining 300 acres to a neighbor.

the farm currently supports two full-time jobs, and payne hopes to add another 10 positions as he does his part in restoring the rural economy.

“when you get down to net profit, we’re doing better than we did in row crops,” payne said.

planning the future of corn

not everyone believes farmers will need to consider such drastic changes.

ray massey, an mu professor and agricultural economist, said he is skeptical of an impending row crop climate crisis. he argued most climate models “are more pessimistic than they need to be” because they account only for worst-case scenarios, and not for technological advances like new genetics or high-tech precision planters.

jay schutte, president of the missouri corn growers association, said that climate change effects have been incremental and that corn can adapt. he also said that genetically-modified corn seeds are more resistant to climate change than they’ve ever been.

for example, dupont pioneer, syngenta, and bayer have developed seeds for increased extreme weather tolerance and nitrogen efficiency. bayer will be commercially testing its short-stature corn in 2023, which grows to only two-thirds the size of conventional corn and is expected to enable better efficiency and extreme weather resilience.

while climate change is a concern, schutte said farmers should keep growing corn because there’s a market for it.

“if i’m not paying my bills, i’m not going to be a farmer,” schutte said. “it’s just that simple. and corn and soybeans pay my bills.”

at the missouri maize center, a multidisciplinary plant biology group, usda corn geneticists norman best and jacob washburn are exploring tools like predictive crop modeling, double haploid induction and crispr gene-editing technology to design the corn of tomorrow. yet solutions will be pressed between the pace of climate change and the time needed for adaptive plant breeding.

“for the foreseeable future, i think corn is still the answer,” said best. “but i mean, we still don’t know exactly how fast and quick this climate is going to change that.”

prokopy said technology advances don’t eliminate the need for broad-scale change.

“technology is part of the solution, and we will keep growing corn and soybeans,” prokopy said. “but there’s so much about climate change that we can’t predict. and if the only outcome of climate change was that our temperatures go up a little bit every year, that we can plan for, right? but it’s these extreme weather events that we can’t plan for.”

washburn said intelligent choices will have to be made about what to plant and where.

“i think we can make corn that will grow and do well in pretty much any climate in the world. as of now, we’re always going to need to,” he said. “but there are also many other crops that can possibly do well in those climates. and maybe even do better in some cases.”

rethink our food, regrow the land

making choices is exactly what payne is doing.

speeding through the pasture on his four-wheeler, he radiates an infectious hope as he gestures to a row of plots. he explains he is developing a horticultural “forest” of native missouri fruit and nut trees. his sister jordan plans to build an apiary that houses pollinators while selling honey. his daughter reina will be helping to get their hog operation up and running this coming autumn.

and after more than a decade away from the family farm, jordan, josh, josh’s wife larin, and their three children have all returned to work with 93-year-old charlie payne.

“i think grandpa is really proud that we decided to come back to the farm,” jordan said. “it’s something that gets him choked up.”

while he knows not everyone would want to make wholesale changes like he did, josh payne says farmers should consider at least a gradual shift towards more diverse crops. after years of doubt, the operation has reinvigorated payne’s faith.

“growing up in a conservative christian tradition, the goal of everything was to get to heaven,” he said. “[but] maybe what we’re supposed to do is work out our own little spot, and bring about heaven here. that’s a complete paradigm shift. then, everything matters.”

“this latest capture is disturbing,” said mark fritts, a u.s. fish and wildlife services ecologist based in lacrosse, wisconsin. “we’ve never seen that many fish caught at the same time in this region.”

in the upper mississippi and illinois rivers, asian carp reproduce rapidly, have no natural competitors and out-compete native fish for food supply and space, which devastates native fish populations – in some streams, they make up 75% of fish biomass. asian carp, which can weigh between 60 and 110 pounds, are also notorious for jumping up to three meters out of the water when spooked by boat motors or loud sounds – creating a public safety risk and threatening a $7-billion sport-fishing market.

despite prevention measures, like government-contracted asian carp fisherman and dam barriers, asian carp have been slowly spreading upstream to the upper mississippi river and the great lakes. prior to this, fritts believed that most of the population in the upper mississippi river was confined below the quad-city region in illinois and iowa. now, he’s not so sure.

james lamer, a large river ecologist with the illinois natural history survey, said heavy flooding in the mississippi river basin last spring may have caused the fish to spawn upstream.

or, it could’ve been sheer luck.

according to lamer’s research, asian carp play favorites. from 2013 to 2016, lamer and his team in illinois tagged and tracked asian carp migration through the illinois and mississippi rivers’ channels in search for some sort of pattern. they found that carp species and hybrids are more or less mobile based on different water temperatures, flow and volume, which makes their spread a little bit more predictable.

“the water temperatures are still really low, and that’s when they can aggregate,” lamer said. “lacrosse might have got lucky and just got a lot of fish in that one haul just because the carp tend to congregate during those cold-water temperatures in certain areas.”

from his research, lamer knows that april weather brings favorable conditions to asian carp in illinois’ contained backchannels, which is a crucial time for government-contracted fishermen and researchers to extract invasive carp from the streams.

but due to the spread of coronavirus throughout the united states, lamer said they might not be able to get out on the water and curb their spread.

“the only thing that we can do in the meantime is analyze data and try to figure out what we have going on with the data we have,” he said.

but lamer isn’t too concerned – his research gives some hope to midwestern waterways. asian carp are finicky about their environment. their preference for deep waters could keep them out of uninfected areas if the water levels continue at their current low levels, like they have been for the last couple of weeks.

“long story short, i think any damage of not fishing for the one to two months off the water due to coronavirus can be mitigated when fishermen return to the water,” he said.

even if water conditions are perfect, history shows the mississippi’s unpredictable environment can be a natural barrier to carp mobility. for example, lamer’s tagged carp had an abundant year in 2016, but had barely any sign of reproduction the next two years. lamer and his team think it’s because changing water flow pushed unhatched carp eggs out of the upper mississippi’s uninfected waters.

lamer is keeping a positive attitude, but the “ifs” are adding up. in the worst-case scenario, asian carp spread to uninfected waters and decimate native fish populations and the fishing economy.

the midwestern waterways’ fate is up to mother nature.

“asian carp have very variable recruitment and reproduction, and so if we had the water conditions are stable for them like they were in 2016, then it could be problematic if we’re not out there removing fish,” lamer said. “if conditions aren’t conducive to spawning or movement and all of the gates stay in the water because we don’t get major flooding, it may not be as problematic.”

“it’s kind of a gamble – we’re hoping for the latter,” he added.

fritts is less concerned, too. last year mississippi’s flooding set back his team’s research, and he said every year has its own challenges.

“my rocket is set on launch as soon as they give me permission to get back out there. but we’ll just do what we can. these forces are bigger than us and we’ll just do our best,” he said.