Ludington Daily News
7/21/2007
Little Manistee River gets a helping hand
Progressive group
watches over premier trout stream
JOE BOOMGAARD -
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A trickle flowing westward out of a swamp north of Luther in
northeastern Lake County eventually forms the Little Manistee River, one
of the premier trout fisheries in the nation, if not the world.
The river’s
pristine, clear waters travel nearly 60 miles from its headwaters
through Lake, Mason and Manistee counties to its outflow in Manistee
Lake. Its waters are home to populations of trophy brown trout, the
quality of which surpasses most of the other well-known rivers in the
state, including the Pere Marquette, Au Sauble, and upper Manistee
Rivers. The Little Manistee serves as the broodstock waters for
steelhead production in Michigan and other nearby states, including
Indiana and Ohio.
“In terms of
biomass, the Little Manistee for resident brown trout is one of the best
rivers in Michigan, if not the world, in terms of pounds per acre,” said
Mark Tonello, a fisheries biologist for the Michigan Department of
Natural Resources who’s studied the river.
The river,
which is surrounded mostly by sandy geology, is fed largely by
groundwater sources and flows through mostly forested land, which makes
the stream “among the coldest, most stable streams in Michigan,”
according to Tonello’s 2005 survey on the river.
It’s a
complex ecosystem for such a “little” river.
Keeping the
river in such a good condition, however, requires the work of dedicated
stewards, men and women who live or fish on the river — the members of
Little Manistee Watershed Conservation Council.
Many in the
conservation movement say the LMWCC is akin to the river itself: small,
but quality. Don’t let the group’s size fool you. For a small watershed
organization, it’s one of the most proactive, progressive groups in the
state, they say.
Starting
small
The idea to
start an organization to help protect the Little Manistee River began in
1996 when John Gorys and the late Howard Roberts were angry over the
Luther Dam situation.
First, some
history. The Luther Dam was originally constructed in 1880 to operate a
sawmill in the lumber-rich area. It was later converted to a
power-generating dam and remained in place despite not being used as a
power source. During the fabled flood of 1986, the dam failed, sending a
plume of sand and silt downriver. Despite opposition from the DNR, the
dam was rebuilt and again failed in 1993. It was fixed and fitted with a
bottom-draw to tap into the cooler water on the bottom of Luther Pond.
As the
sediment moved through the system, it threatened to choke precious trout
spawning gravel, much like poor logging practices did in the 1800s,
about a century earlier. Back then, the river’s overflowing Arctic
grayling stocks — “in quantity that now would be shocking,” according to
W.B. Mershon’s 1923 memoirs — became extinct and were replaced by brook,
brown and rainbow trout, none of which were native to the river.
Fast forward
to 1996. People in Luther had rallied behind replacing a non-functioning
dam, the only purpose of which was to create Luther Pond — an unnatural
feature that warmed the trout stream and threatened its famed fishery.
“Howard and
I sort of spearheaded it,” Gorys said. “We just didn’t like what was
happening with the dam and elsewhere on the river, so we got a select
group together.”
The initial
meeting attracted about 25 people, including current President Dave
McIntire.
“We had a
core group of about eight that became the board of directors,” Gorys
said.
The
organization wanted to be more than just a property owners group,
although they make up about two-thirds of the current membership. The
rest, he said, were fishermen and people from all over the country who
had some connection to the river.
“It’s
amazing how many out-of-state people are on there, from California to
the east — Washington, D.C., Tennessee, the Carolinas,” Gorys said.
McIntire
said the group has a steady membership of just over 200 people whose
vision is driven by the board.
“They have a
very progressive way of thinking,” said Tonello. “They think of the
future of the Little Manistee River, not just ‘my’ piece of property.
They think of the river and the land around the river as a whole.”
Big projects
Since its
inception 11 years ago, McIntire said the LMWCC has thrived on
partnerships. The group meets quarterly with a broader Little Manistee
Partnership, which also formed in 1996, that is comprised of government
agencies — the DNR, Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Forest
Service, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Natural Resources
Department and county road commissions — and non-profit conservation
organizations, like Trout Unlimited and Conservation Resource Alliance.
“Having
gotten into partnerships has been a big asset,” McIntire said. “It gives
you a lot of support.”
Those
agencies working together for the benefit of the river has resulted in
many successful and ongoing projects on the Little Manistee.
They’ve
studied macroinvertebrate populations and water quality and completed an
erosion assessment of the entire river as well as a large woody debris
census. They’ve enlisted the help of public and private funds to install
three sand traps along the watershed, as well as numerous habitat
improvements. They’ve terraced and replanted eroding banks that were
spewing sand into the river and constructed fish cover, much of which
was paid for through the Howard Roberts Fish Cover Memorial Fund.
They’ve also been slowly working to replace many sediment-introducing,
outdated road-stream crossings.
McIntire and
Gorys say the work wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperative
efforts of all the partners involved. The projects aren’t cheap. An
upcoming fish cover effort near the Old Grade Campground will likely
cost $15,000, while the replacement of DeWitt Bridge will top $60,000,
according to Mark Johnson, a biologist with CRA, who helps administer
grants and oversee the projects.
“The way the
partnership functions on the Little Manistee is a model of how these
arrangements can work,” Johnson said. “An independent watershed council
that represents riparian owners helps CRA fundraise and prioritize
restoration efforts, and CRA raises matching grant funds and coordinates
the implementation of the work.”
The
membership picks up the slack in the era of cash-strapped government
agencies. Gone are budgets of the 1950s when the Michigan Department of
Conservation, the precursor to today’s DNR, installed 1,700 stream
improvement devices.
“The days of
the big, bad DNR are over. We have far fewer people and resources,”
Tonello said. “It takes citizens to get things done.”
One major —
and expensive — LMWCC project is the Wagley sand trap located midway
between Driftwood Valley Campground and 18 Mile Bridge. The project has
cost more than $50,000, but has removed 2,000 to 2,500 cubic yards of
sand from the river each year since it was installed in 2002.
The trap
uncovered nearly a mile of long-buried spawning gravel in the river’s
midsection, as well as increased the flow and narrowed and deepened the
channel upstream of the project, all of which improves fish habitat,
McIntire said.
With funding
for such labor-intensive projects limited, the group has been focusing
on placing fish cover in the river. With the help of CRA, LMWCC pays for
the state permits for its members to install fish cover, as well as
erosion control projects — aside from the work LMWCC does throughout the
river along public lands. The land owners pay for the contractor and the
materials.
“As good as
the Little Manistee is, it has certain stretches that are all deserts,
just 50-foot wide and sand,” Tonello said. “You want to add more channel
diversity.”
That’s where
the fish cover projects come in. The structures are built with wood and
natural logs and covered with rocks and sod. They can either be islands
or tied to banks, especially where erosion is present.
The
structures create undercuts and current breaks — features trout love,
McIntire said. He’s caught respectable-sized browns off structures he’s
helped install.
Looming
issues
In a county
that doesn’t have zoning, almost anything goes.
Little more
than half of the Little Manistee flows through Lake County, which has no
zoning, and owners can cut trees right to the river’s banks, increasing
the chance for erosion and reducing the tree canopy which keeps the
river cool.
McIntire
recounted the story of one realtor who thought his property would sell
better if potential buyers could see the river, so he cut down all the
trees. It’s a practice that happens all too often, he said.
“We need to
keep over-enthusiastic property owners from making things look like
downstate,” Gorys said. “There are still people who say, ‘I want to do
what I want to do.’ But we need that vegetation.”
“Improper
development and poor land use are the number one threat to the Little
Manistee River,” Tonello said.
In response,
LMWCC has lent support toward Natural Rivers designation for the river,
a move which would put in zoning ordinances and best management
practices along the river corridor. Despite the backing of the LMWCC,
the DNR has yet to push forward with moving the Little Manistee into the
Natural Rivers program.
“Without the
protections afforded by Natural Rivers, the Little River is vulnerable
to development that could impair its cold water value,” Johnson said. “I
think the way we address that issue is to work with townships that are
interested in zoning, or work on Natural Rivers designation. Both are
long-term projects with obvious political implications.”
LMWCC also
recognizes its role as an educator, and McIntire and Gorys said they
continue to help inform the membership about what should be done to
protect the river. They’ve specifically aimed to teach riparian owners
about what is harmful to the river and what practices they should avoid.
“We’ve found
a group of pretty devoted people who are willing to put some time into
it,” Gorys said. “That’s what makes any successful group. It takes a lot
of time.”
Contact
information:
Little Manistee Watershed Conservation Council
P.O. Box 52
Irons, MI 49644
www.lmwcc.org
Conservation
Resource Alliance
0850 Traverse Highway, Suite 1111
Traverse City MI 49684
231-946-6817
www.rivercare.org