Little Manistee Watershed Conservation Council

9 Mile to 6 Mile - Raucous! Little Manistee 

Nate Winkler, Biologist, Conservation Resource Alliance, June 29, 2009

As a lifelong paddler and trout fisherman in northern Lower Michigan, I’d heard and read about the Little Manistee River.  What was especially intriguing was the raucous stretch between 9 Mile and 6 Mile Bridges.  However, it wasn’t until I came to work for the Conservation Resource Alliance (CRA) that I made the trip down M-37 and then west to that particularly sporty section of the Little River.  Tim Phillips and Dave Gendler of the Little Manistee Watershed Conservation Council were my hosts that June day.  I was a pretty giddy at the prospect of seeing a new stretch of river, especially one with a reputation for oil-canning canoes, escalating marital discord, and forcing extended hikes through the boonies to find the nearest road out.  

After Tim and I spotted a rig at 6 Mile Bridge we drove up and met Dave at the 9 Mile put in.  The docile current we shoved off into gave little indication of what was coming up.  We floated along, taking photos of eroding stream banks and recording their aspect (direction the bank was facing) and GPS coordinates, all the while negotiating increasingly more frequent dog leg corners as well as sweepers, jams, and snags (all of which spell “high quality trout and insect habitat”.)Dave was much more nimble in his solo canoe than Tim and I in our tandem and we frequently met him coming back upstream to see where we were.

In total, we recorded the aspect, coordinates, and took photos of 40 eroding banks for consideration of future restoration projects.  Some banks were extremely unstable and clearly depositing large amounts of sand into the river (“Hopper Junction”) while others were not actively eroding and were better-vegetated.  And we saw examples of everything in between. 

Tim and Dave - Hoppers Junction                      Nice jam, bad bank just above 6 Mile Bridge

Overall, I found that stretch to be among the prettiest, troutiest, and technically challenging sections of river I’ve had the pleasure to paddle.  With the exception of the eroding banks and some evidence of wood cutting and removal, the Little River in that section looked healthy with its clean gravel substrate, deep holes, large woody debris composition, and robust vegetative community along the banks.

 Evidence of great work by the LMWCC, looking good.  If you have any questions for me or would like to suggest and participate in a future float, please feel free to contact me here at CRA (231-946-6817).