Why I Created Michigan Eco Travel

Finding a good jacket for outdoor sports from REI (now my favorite “big” store) wasn’t an option when I was growing up in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They didn’t have a store in Michigan until 1997. The same goes for guide services and outfitters. To be honest, I’ve rarely needed a guide. For most of my life, my father, grandfather, or an uncle was my guide. I could be fishing in 10 minutes (I knew the best spots for the annual salmon run) or in 30 minutes I could be hunting the same land my family had hunted for generations. That said, too often I was cold or wet or both because, back then, good gear was often a five-hour drive away.

I created Michigan Eco Travel to help increase the accessibility and awareness around the guides, gear, outfitters, and experiences that put the Great Lakes and surrounding lands first. The goal is to make it easy for visitors to the site and readers of our Field Notes to find planet-friendly clothing and activities. Not to take anything away. Not to preach. Not to plan or choose for you. Instead, I want to make it easier for my friends, which now includes you since you’re reading this, to make a sustainable pick. Why? Because a lifetime of travel choices and too many hours spent researching gear have turned from fun to work when I started thinking more about the impact my own activities were having on the trails, rivers, streams, and lakes that I adore.

I know my way around some great locations in Michigan and today I have much more capable and responsible gear. Over time, with the influence of friends and a growing interest in conservation, I’ve become much more conscious of my impact on the planet. I want to make sure that the guide service I hire doesn’t just see the outdoors as a place to be or use, but a place to steward. I want to make sure that, like me, they had woken up to sustainability, to fair trade, to animal welfare, and similar issues. There are great programs out there, like Leave No Trace, which teaches how trash and footprints impact the environment. There’s 1% For The Planet, a program that actively funds activities that protect ecosystems, and Patagonia clothing and gear, whose “only stakeholder is the planet,” who puts their words and profits into action across the world. There are also many guides, outfitters, and small gear and clothing makers whose practices align with caring for the planet. I want to point the way to them, too. Because they don’t just care for the planet, they are the backbone of the outdoors industry, offering great trips and great gear that’s often still too hard to find.

I am not a pro athlete or a maker of outdoor goods. I am, however, a former investigator and CIA operations officer. I am using the skills gained in those roles, and a lot of borrowed knowledge about sustainability and environmentalism, to carefully vet what’s on this site. In short, I see my role as doing the due diligence that helps readers make a decision that respects the planet, rather than exploits it. Why? Because as I speak with others about my own decisions about gear and guides, I find that many are just as frustrated as me with endless scrolling, empty marketing speak, and just plain lack of information. I’ve found that, like me, most everyone is willing to make choices that put the environment first, if only the information were accessible and plainly spoken.

So, what you will find on this site reflects plainly spoken and clear standards. For example, with guide services: are they packing out their trash? Using sustainable materials and gear when possible? Giving back to environmental organizations? We also vet the gear so that a visitor to the site gets a head start when they wonder if marketing terms like “natural” or “eco-friendly” mean anything, or if it’s just empty words. (Hint: these are often, but not always, buzzwords that mean nothing.)

The goal is not to make the choice for readers, but to help inform the reader by doing the work to see through the marketing speak and point the way to a decision that is better for the planet and that respects the people that make the gear. None of us is going to “save the planet” because we choose to wear less polyester. But we can help protect the wildlife, the land, and the water we drink by making it easier to pick a sustainable jacket or activity. Welcome to Michigan Eco Travel!