Streamside

The last few weeks have been busy ones in Michigan environmental news. The big story out of Lansing is Thursday’s announcement by Gov. Jennifer Granholm of the merger of Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). By merging the departments Granholm reverses the actions of prior Governor Jim Engler, who created the DEQ by separating its functions from that of the DNR.

As reporting in the Traverse City Record-Eagle makes clear, the merger will result in the creation of a new joint department to be called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. The decision goes into effect on January 17th. Under the conditions of this new order, the governor will hold the power and authority to appoint both the department’s director, along with the state agriculture director.

In general, Michigan environmental groups are supportive of the governor’s decision to pursue the merger, although several have specific concerns with the details of the operational consolidation and also with the decision to leave the appointment of the director in the hands of the governor.

Also in environmental news impacting Michigan anglers, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that, “Huron-Manistee National Forests officials will complete a court-ordered environmental impact statement for a proposed natural gas well near the Mason Tract, a remote state wilderness area along the South Branch of the Au Sable River in Crawford County, east of Grayling.”

This has been a keystone issue for the Anglers of the Au Sable and the Michigan Sierra Club, who have been pursuing vigorous court action to keep Savoy Energy of Traverse City from drilling wells in the boundaries of the Mason Tract — specifically, “the Anglers group had concerns about noise, spills, loss of old-growth forest and the well’s proximity to wetlands near the Mason Tract, a 4,679-acre parcel donated to the state in 1954 under the condition it remain wilderness.”

Sabin Dam

As reported in Saturday’s edition of the Traverse City Record-Eagle, Traverse City officials are starting to move forward on plans to remove most of the dams on the Boardman river. City commissioners on Monday will be discussing a proposal to release $25,000 as initial seed money for the Boardman River Dams Committee’s Implementation Team. A similar amount is being requested from the Grand Traverse County Commissioners, a request which will be considered on Tuesday. In addition there is another $50,000 request before the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. If approved, the $100,000 total that will be raised is a drop in the river compared to the funding which will actually be needed, but it will get the Implementation Team started down that long road.

Keystone Dam

The four dams that have fallen within the scope of the study are the Union Street Dam (located within the city of Traverse City), Sabin Dam, Boardman Dam (also known as Keystone Dam), and Brown Bridge Dam. Almost from the beginning, a great deal of controversy has surrounded the issue of what to do about these aging and ailing structures on the Boardman River, with proposals ranging from removing some or all of the dams entirely to full restoration of the dams as working hydroelectric generators.

The Boardman River Dams Committee has been communicating with the public throughout this process both by using their website as a communication tool and by holding a series of public informational meetings.

As noted on their site, “due to impending regulatory issues, Traverse City Light and Power decided that continuing to generate hydroelectricity has become too expensive and has relinquished its licenses to generate hydroelectric power at the Boardman, Brown Bridge and Sabin dams.” At this point removal of the dams above Union Street is on the docket, though the issue of who will fund the removal is not clear.

"Boyhood rivers are home rivers."

Twice per year the Michigan Department of Natural Resources offers anglers a chance to take their non-angler friends and relatives out for a free fishing weekend. This year the M-DNR free fishing weekend is this weekend — June 13th and 14th. Both residents and out-of-state visitors can fish for all species this weekend without a license, though all other fishing regulations still apply.

Sporting traditions, as most anglers know, are ones that are largely passed down from friend-to-friend and generation-to-generation, and so the future of sport fishing and the traditions of American fly angling depend on a willingness of anglers to share their knowledge and experience directly with others by personally involving them in the sport. This weekend represents a great chance to do precisely this with a young person, teenager, or friend. Invite a friend, relative, or young person out to fish with you this weekend and you might start or restart a passion and commitment that will last them throughout their lifetime.

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“Boyhood rivers are home rivers. Their images and lessons last all our lives, and mine were summer rivers flowing over pale bottoms of sandy gravel. Pines and swamp cedars and hardwoods sheltered their pools and runs. There is still the bittersweet sound of their names in my mind: the gentle Manistee and the strong Pere Marquette and the tea-colored Two Hearted in the Hemingway country of upper Michigan, and I struggled against their currents in huge man-sized waders that accordioned comically down my legs.

“Their memories still crowd the mind. Twilight has a well-remembered softness on the Little Manistee, and its trout still dimple softly in the hemlock shadows. Mating spinners swarm on the Pere Marquette, filling the late afternoon sunlight with the butter-colored sparks of their egg-sacs, and the dark swamp-colored currents of the Black conceal many secrets. There is a tumbling kind of lyricism in rivers, and their moods are as varied as April weather on the storied Au Sable.” -Ernest Schwiebert, Remembrances of Rivers Past, 1972, p. 12.

Take a minute to read the details of the proposal and get your comments to the DNR.