River Currents

Michigan Council of Trout Unlimited Condemns Pigeon River Fish Kill
On June 22nd 2008, a massive fish kill occurred on the Pigeon River in northern Michigan east of Vanderbilt.  A discharge of sediment and water from a dam is being blamed for the fish kill.  The Michigan Council of Trout Unlimited voted to condemn this event at their quarterly meeting on July 12th and authorized the Executive Committee to investigate potential legal action.

For further information, here are a couple of links to news articles:
Fish Kill in Pigeon River blamed on dam.
Detroit News: State Officials Meet over Fish Kill

Thanks to the 18 volunteers who gave up a Saturday morning to help out with a stream cleanup and habitat project on the Pigeon River in Hemlock Park in Ottawa County on August 23rd.  The group removed several tires, a couple of rusted out drums, and hundreds of glass bottles from a quarter mile stretch of the river.  The group also removed a couple of log jams that restricted flow and cabled the removed logs to the river banks to protect against erosion and provide cover for trout.  Some rock work was done to improve spawning habitat.  Our plan is to come back to the Pigeon next year for some additional work so join us for another productive outing!  Photos from the day can be found on our SWMTU Photo Gallery at http://www.swmtu.org/gallery/v/Dave+Smith/Pigeon08/

Special thanks to John McCarthy for coming up with the idea for this project and his generous financial support.  Other volunteers included:

Matthew DeVries
Doug DeVries
George Buursma
Dave Fetters
Gerald Hungerink
Don Messinger
Josh Zuiderveen
Gerg Bazain
Peter Liken
Steve Boeve
John Clough
Mike Simcik
Jerry Hetrick
Kim Wikel
Jared Sartini
Roger Miller
Dave Smith

Please join us for the Schrems West Michigan Trout Unlimited inaugural shooting event on Wednesday, October 15, 2008. This year’s outing is to benefit our Salmon in the Classroom program.

The event is located at Kent County Conservation League (KCCL), 8461 Conservation Rd. NE, Ada, MI.

The Salmon in the Classroom program teaches local youth about the importance of coldwater conservation while they hatch, raise, and care for salmon in their classrooms during the school year. In the spring the students get to release the salmon into local streams. Trout Unlimited helps by providing schools with the necessary equipment and assisting teachers with training.

DETAILS
1 Line of Skeet
1 Line of Trap
1 Line of 5-Stand
Raffles and Prizes

6:30pm start — 6:00pm check-in
$75 per shooter
Steak Dinner Included

New and Novice shooters are welcome. We will have Tim Wiley on hand for teaching the fundamentals of the sport.

Download the form by clicking here.

Upcoming Conservation Projects

Saturday, August 9
We will be joined by the Lansing and Kalamazoo TU chapters as we wrap up our work on Tyler Creek for the summer.  The plan is to meet again at the golf course located at 13495 92nd Ave, Alto by 9:00 AM.  Keep right as you enter the driveway till you reach the clubhouse and then turn right down to the rustic campground / zoo area.  Park just past the animals as we have done in the past.

Saturday, August 23rd
Explore some new water as the SWMTU chapter moves to the Pigeon River in Ottawa County for some in-stream habitat work in Hemlock Park.

A typical work day runs from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM with the chapter providing lunch.

To RSVP for any of these events or for further information, contact Dave Smith at davidsmith@chartermi.net or by phone at (616) 394-8765.

Action Alert:  Public Input Sought for Agricultural Procedures Impacting Michigan Streams

Background:
The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) is seeking public input on three GAAMPS by August 18, 2008.  GAAMPS are Generally Accepted Agriculture Management Practices and these are the guidelines that farms and agribusinesses must follow in order to keep the protections provided by the Right to Farm Act.  Two of the GAAMPS under review are critical to protecting our coldwater resources and Schrems West Michigan Chapter of Trout Unlimited with the help of the Kalamazoo Valley and Lansing-Bob Perrin Chapters of Trout Unlimited have developed the following recommendations:

Site Selection and Odor Control for New and Expanding Livestock Production Facilities GAAMP
The procedure starts out by laying out 3 primary objectives:  Environmental Protection; Social Considerations (neighbor relations); and Economic Viability.  The procedure then goes on to contradict this statement by saying, “Groundwater and surface water quality issues regarding animal agriculture production are currently addressed in the “Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices for Manure Management and Utilization”, and are not duplicated here”.  By deferring most discussion about potential impacts of production facilities on groundwater and surface water to the GAAMP for Manure Management and Utilization, water resources are relegated to a matter of secondary importance after other issues.  Fish and wildlife resources should be considered as well during site selection.  We feel that this procedure needs to have the following protection added:

1.  New or Expanded operations should not be allowed within the 100 year flood plain or within 1,000 feet of any public surface water.

Manure Management and Utilization GAAMP
The current procedure calls for incorporation (mixing) of manure into fields where it is spread within 48 hours.  We feel this time limit does not adequately protect our lakes and streams from run-off if a heavy rain should occur.  A more protective time frame would be to require incorporation within 24 hours, but this is not likely to be supported by the agricultural community.  With these factors in mind, our recommendation is:

2.  Inject or immediately incorporate any manure spread within 300 feet of public surface water, or on any sloped field that directly drains into public surface water.  Immediate incorporation shall be defined as within 6 hours.  Any manure spread within 300 feet of public surface water should have appropriate buffers installed to prevent run-off.

Many southern Michigan streams suffer from high E-Coli bacteria levels, but very little is being done to control or improve this situation.  As you may recall, a major fish kill occurred a few years ago on Tyler Creek when a significant amount of manure entered the stream.  The source of the manure was never conclusively proven, but continuing high levels of E-Coli in these agricultural areas point to the need to improve some of our agricultural practices.

3.  Any operation located within 1,000 feet of a public lake or stream, where that body of water is currently not meeting the DEQ standards on water quality for E. Coli on partial or total body contact shall be required to obtain an external assessment of their Conservation Practices similar to that of the MAEAP program.  The operation will also submit to the County Drain Commission an updated survey of the drain tiles on any fields where manure is being spread, or where livestock is grazing.

Please write the to MDA and express your concerns with the current agricultural practices and include these three specific recommendations to protect our streams and rivers.

Written comments may be submitted to MDA’s Environmental Stewardship Division, P.O. Box 30017, Lansing, MI 48909, or via e-mail to kizziara@michigan.gov by 5 p.m. on August 19, 2008. MDA will forward all comments received by the due date to the respective GAAMPs Task Force chairpersons for consideration prior to final review and adoption.

For a copy of any of these GAAMPs including the proposed revisions, please visit www.michigan.gov/gaamps, or contact the MDA’s Environmental Stewardship Division at (517) 373-9797, or toll free at (877) 632-1783.

The golf scramble scheduled for Friday, July 25 has been cancelled.

Congratulations to our newly elected board members and officers for SWMTU!

Elected to the board for the first time are:

• Jim Flamming
• Jason Cook

Reelected were:

• Andy Milnes
• Dave DeJonge
• Rob Fox
• JR Hartman
• Jim Scott

Officer Elections were:

• President - Andy Milnes
• Vice-President - Jason Cook
• Secretary - Rich Steketee
• Treasurer - Marc Montpetit

Committee Chairman are:

• Communications - Rich Steketee
• Conservation - Dave Smith
• Fundraising - Marc Montpetit
• Membership - Larry Risbridger

Thank you all for your volunteering to help Preserve, Protect, and Restore our Coldwater Resources.

Dave Smith
Past President SWMTU

Senate Bill 860 (S-6) - the less protective option for our aquatic resources.  This bill was voted on May 15, 2008.

Senator Prusi offered an amendment to SB860 to reduce the allowable damage to coldwater fisheries from 3% to less than 1%.  The amendment was not passed, it received a tie vote, 19-19, with the following votes cast:

Yeas – Anderson, Clark-Coleman, Kahn, Scott, Barcia, Clarke, Olshove, Switalski, Basham, Gleason, Prusi, Thomas, Brater, Hunter, Richardville, Whitmer, Cherry, Jacobs, Schauer

Nays – Allen, Cropsey, Jansen, Patterson, Birkholz, Garcia, Jelinek, Sanborn, Bishop, George, Kuipers, Stamas, Brown, Gilbert, McManus, Van Woerkom, Cassis, Hardiman, Pappageorge

This vote should very clearly show which Senators favor protecting our coldwater fisheries (Yeas) and which do not (Nays).  This was a very specific amendment, and an opportunity for senators to support protecting Michigan’s coldwater fisheries.  Those voting Nay were only voting against our coldwater fisheries.  Please take note of this.

On the overall vote for the SB860 the following votes were cast (24-14 passed):

Yeas – Allen, Cropsey, Jansen, Patterson, Barcia, Birkholz, Garcia, Jelinek, Richardville, Sanborn, Bishop, George, Kahn, Kuipers, Stamas, Brown, Gilbert, McManus, Van Woerkom, Cassis, Hardiman, Pappageorge, Switalski, Gleason

Nays – Anderson, Clark-Coleman, Scott, Clarke, Olshove, Basham, Prusi, Thomas, Brater, Hunter, Whitmer, Cherry, Jacobs, Schauer

HB5065 contains the language which defines “adverse resource impacts”, and limits the amount of impact that can be caused to fish in coldwater streams to a less than 1% predicted decrease in abundance.  Essentially this states that large-quantity water withdrawals can expand in the future, but only up to the point where they are predicted to cause damage.  The votes cast on this bill yesterday (passed 57-50) clearly indicate where Representatives stand on protecting coldwater fisheries in Michigan.  Please take note on who supported it and who didn’t, and let them know that you were watching.  Representatives who voted Yeas stood in favor of protecting our coldwater resources while those voting Nay supported other causes.

Yeas – Accavitti, Cushingberry, Jackson, Miller, Angerer, Dean, Johnson, Polidori, Bauer, Dillon, Jones, Robert, Rocca, Bennett, Donigan, Lahti, Sak, Bieda, Ebli, Law (K), Scott, Brandenburg, Espinoza, LeBlanc, Smith (A), Byrnes, Farrah, Leland, Smith (V), Byrum, Gaffney, Lemmons, Tobocman, Cheeks, Gillard, Lindberg, Vagnozzi, Clack, Gonzales, Mayes, Valentine, Clemente, Hammel, McDowell, Ward, Condino, Hammon, Meadows, Warren, Constan, Hood, Meisner, Wojno, Corriveau, Hopgood, Melton, Young, Coulouris.

Nays -  Acciavatti, Green, Meltzer, Proos, Agema, Griffin, Moolenaar, Robertson, Amos, Hansen, Moore, Schuitmaker, Ball, Hildenbrand, Moss, Shaffer, Booher, Hoogendyk, Nitz, Sheen, Brown, Horn, Nofs, Sheltrown, Calley, Hune, Opsommer, Simpson, Casperson, Jones (R), Palmer, Spade, Caswell, Knollenberg, Palsrok, Stahl, Caul, LaJoy, Pastor, Stakoe, Elsenheimer,  Law (D), Pavlov, Steil, Emmons, Marleau, Pearce, Walker, Garfield, Meekhof.

This past week the House finished passing all of the bills in their water withdrawal legislative package.  Both Senate and House water bill packages now stand even in progress, and remain to be negotiated.  Among the remaining points of difference are:

Adverse Resource Impact Definitions for Coldwaters: The Senate is now at 3% reduction to thriving fish abundance (21% reduction in summer low water flows) for Coldwater “streams”;  and “less than 1%” reduction in thriving fish abundance (20% reduction in summer low flows) for coldwater “small rivers”.  The House calls for “less than 1%” reduction of coldwater fish abundance in the coldwater “streams” as well as the “small rivers”.

Permitting: the Senate calls for permitting only for new withdrawals over 2 million gallons per day average.  The House calls for permitting for new withdrawals over 1 million gallons per day.

Recognition of the public’s trust in groundwaters: Senate package has no recognition of this, House package has compromise language recognizing it.

Grandfathering of Capacity (versus Use):  all current users’ water use is grandfathered, and new withdrawals will be subject to the limitations of the “adverse resource impact” lines.  However, existing users still have rights to their full (currently unused capacity for withdrawal).  So the ARI lines could be reached and then an exisitng user could expand their use - utilizing their capacity and push the level of resource impact beyond what is allowed.  The Senate bill states that this unresolved loophole will be taken up by the Groundwater Advisory Council in the future, with no explicit deadline  (the “council” majority are water users, and would have no incentive for taking this up).  The House would like to see capacity of existing users built into the water now available for use (explicitly recognized and treated to prevent illegal levels of resource impact).

Date of Effect:  House recommends immediate effect (consistent with existing law in effect that prevents an “Adverse resource impact”).  The Senate recently introduced a last minute exception to allow for 1 full year before this law takes effect.  This would allow new uses of water to be exempt of causing damage for a one year period.  This would create a large incentive for future users to rush in and register large quantity withdrawals before these laws (and existing ones) would apply to them (aka: be without rules for a year).

There are also a few smaller issues of difference between the two bills, but they are less significant than those mentioned above.

During the past week, their has been indication from the leaders of both parties, and the Governor’s Office, that a formal conference committee may be purposefully avoided.  The intent would be to drive the stakeholder groups involved in this to a final compromise faster (with less regard for the actual outcome).  The indications and information recieved recently suggest that the politics involved on this may not have the compromise coming out evenly, with a forced settlement possible, as early as next week.  This possible outcome is not certain, but is a possibility.

This may be our last chance to advocate for no impact to our coldwaters.  The Senate is still holding at 3% impact to coldwater fisheries (a dangerous precedent to set).  Now is the time to speak up and/or use whatever political means you or your chapter may have, to advocate for no allowed damage to coldwater streams (less than 1% reduction to fish abundance).  At this point, calls to your legislators may still be helpful.  More helpful may be focusing on Senators, and urging them to do whatever they can to get the compromise to “<1% impact to coldwater streams”.  Better yet would be calls or emails to party leaders, bill sponsors, legislators who have claimed to be fishermen (ex: Sen. Patterson, McManus), and the Governor’s office.  Also, at the last Natural Resources Commission meeting (June 5) the MDNR portrayed the difference in damage to coldwaters between the two bill packages as trivial, and suggested that it shouldn’t be a point of contention.  This is a very dissapointing attitude coming from the state agency charged with protecting these resources.  Contacting your local MDNR Commissioner or the DNR Director about the importance of this for coldwater fisheries would also be appropriate.  The links to websites where you can find the contact information to these people are below.

http://www.house.michigan.gov/find_a_rep.asp
http://www.senate.michigan.gov/SenatorInfo/find-your-senator.htm
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995—,00.html
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-39002_11862-26986–,00.html
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10366-31226–,00.html

Things appear to be evolving and progressing quickly.  If you are to help affect the best possible outcome for our coldwaters, action must be taken now.  What is at stake amounts to; allowing a precedent that our coldwaters are open for degradation, and either 21% or 14% less water in our streams during their lowest and most vulnerable point during summer.

A full-time TU staff person may be hired in the next year for the Rogue River as part of Trout Unlimited’s Home Rivers program.

Laura Hewitt, the Watershed Programs Director from TU is putting together a draft plan which she will share with the SWMTU chapter sometime in June.  After the plan is approved, TU will prepare applications for grants to secure funding for the program.  Once funding for 1 years worth of operations is secured, the hiring process for a local TU Home River Coordinator will begin.  Based on past history, it will take anywhere from 3 months to a year to secure the necessary funding for the project.

SWMTU President Dave Smith and Treasurer JR Hartman met with Laura Hewitt and Bryan Moore (VP, Volunteer Operations & Watershed Programs) on May 5th for a tour of the Rogue watershed.  Laura stated, “The Rogue provides a nice opportunity to explore issues related to urbanization and growth planning and hopefully the potential to make a big difference in the health of the fishery.”

The project does not officially become a TU Home River until the funding is in hand and the coordinator hired.