MAINSTREAM

Fall   2002

I’m baaack … I’ve always enjoyed talking with you about our river activities, so I’ve volunteered to publish the Mainstream newsletter until we reorganize our operating procedures. Much has happened since Jim Bos’ President’s Report last July.  First our administrative changes:

·                  We have three new directors on the Board: Jeff Carpenter,

a dentist from Grand Rapids and member of Kinne Creek

Club has replaced Bob Nicholson who chose not to run for reelection following eighteen years on the Board. We’ll miss Bob.

Ken Sink, a Professor of Horticulture at MSU who has a cabin on the Middle Branch replaces Bill Farr who has moved from the river.

Steve Warfield, resident guide and Manager of Flint Rainbow Club replaces Steve Fraley who asked to step down due to the press of business.

Rick Conney has assumed the presidency after Jim Bos’ four years in the chair.

Fred McLane takes over as Vice-President after Bill Farr.

Jay Barnhart continues as Treasurer and I’ll carry on as Secretary.

                        The annual fund-raising banquet will be chaired by Fred

                        McLane with help from past chairman Dave Gibbs; the Cast     

                        for Conservation® Fishing Tournament will again be run by

                        Steve Fraley. Other committee chair changes include Ken

                        Sink taking over Bob Nicholson’s Water Management

                        oversight, Steve Warfield agreeing to head up membership

                        and communications, and Bob Kennedy taking on programs

                        for youth and education. As an aside, I’ve asked to step down

                        as chair of the DNR’s Natural River Zoning Review Board after

                        over eight years, and Paul Bigford has been elected

                        chairman representing PMWC as Citizens’ Interest

                        representative. And lastly, the Watershed Council’s resident

                        office will move from the Schwikert residence (Touhi Hunt

                        Club) to leased office space in the Baldwin Enterprise

                        Properties building (formerly the Bradford Market) in newly

                        refurbished downtown Baldwin. The move will provide a

                        more central location for our operations while providing

                        more space and less disruption from our increasing phone,

                        postal, eMail, and FAX communications. We are no longer

                        a “Kitchen Table” operation and our activities truly deserve

                        a more professional/commercial approach.

We’ve also begun a few more projects you’ll be hearing more about in the future. We will be selling raffle tickets for a Hyde drift boat and trailer; the boat can be seen at Baldwin Bait & Tackle and will be displayed at several anglers’ outings. Also, the banquet’s auctions and raffles will be adding a wider variety of items including prizes for the ladies and kids. And the C4C will be expanded to add more teams to the competition. If you have any suggestions on improving  these events please give us a call and let us know.

The Restoration Committee working through Kim Balke at Conservation Resource Alliance applied for a Clean Michigan Initiative grant which would be used to complete numerous streambank stabilizations, road/stream crossing improvements, livestock access barriers, and sand removal projects on the mainstem and tributaries. However we have been notified by the State that the fiscal year 2003 budget limits any additional obligations that would exceed the CMI debt service ability, in effect halting any new grants until further notice. We have forwarded the same request on to the federal EPA’s Watershed Initiative noting the PM is a federally-designated Wild & Scenic River, hoping they will consider approval. Criteria are tight but we feel it’s worth a try.

We also have a project proposal for work on the Baldwin River in which contributions would be matched two-for-one by Orvis, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, and the Wolf Creek Charitable Foundation. This could result in $650,000 in habitat improvement on the Baldwin over the next two years. The Orvis Company is giving us national publicity already, and we will be bringing you more details as the project proceeds.

Fred McLane is running a project to assist riparian property owners in maintaining their riverbanks … it’s intended to provide help when a tree has or is about to endanger the bank or riverflow, or to fix or repair natural riverbank problem sites. Landowners will be asked to help out financially but the burden of the cost will be covered by grants or contributions. Dow Chemical of Ludington has graciously committed grant funding for the initiation of this project. The intent is to encourage property owners to act early-on rather than delaying until a major problem exists. If you or other landowners want more information, please contact us.

Last July’s Mainstream included photos of the DNR’s crawler-hoe atop the sand removed from the Bell sandtrap on the Little South branch. To date, in nine years we have removed a total of 10,806 cubic yards of sand, equivalent to covering a football field to a depth of  116.7 inches (9.73 feet), or 69 two-car garages top to bottom. And it just keeps coming … reminds me of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Fantasia! We asked for quotes to update the inventory of erosion sites upstream of Bell’s, but your Board felt the money could be better spent on locating a few of the worst sites identified in the ’93 and ’96 inventories. From here it looks like we’ll be focusing on the best methods of reducing the source of the Bell’s golden grains.

And finally, the Great Lakes Fishery Trust Big South Demonstration project is nearing the end of its five-year goal of increasing the numbers of salmonids going into the Lake Michigan basin. By all measures it seems we will be able to prove our methods are successful. Our contract firm, Mainstream Resources, is in the process of analyzing the data and will have their preliminary report ready about the first of the year. I think we will all be surprised to find out what’s been effective, maybe even some quantifying of the types of models we’ve been working with. As soon as we have the results we’ll pass them on to you.

It’s good to be back!

Dick Schwikert

Scribe