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