Chairman’s Report

On behalf of Michigan TU’s Executive Committee, I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2022. I am pleased to report that your Michigan TU team shed the shackles of COVID-19 isolation this past spring and waded feet-first into the Upper Manistee River, kicking off the first phase of a major multiyear habitat improvement plan by installing hinge-cut woody-habitat along several miles of riverbank. The team also set the stage in the summer of 2022 to remove the Murray Dam on Hunt Creek within the Big Creek watershed near Luzerne, which will improve fish passage and eliminate a significant source of thermo-pollution. We are also partnering with the Anglers of the Au Sable and numerous other stakeholders to develop a plan that will allow fish migration around the Grayling Hatchery and reconnect more than 20 miles of the East Branch of the Au Sable River with the mainstream of the Au Sable River.

In the policy arena, Michigan TU has developed programs to deal with invasive aquatic species such as New Zealand Mudsnails and the microscopic alga called didymo (a/k/a rock snot). These nuisance algae, which produces thick mats with the consistency of wet paper on hard surfaces in stream beds, was first identified in 2015 within the St. Mary’s River near Sault Saint Marie. Unfortunately, it has found its way into the Upper Manistee River in Kalkaska County. It is up to all of us to take the steps necessary to stem the spread of invasives. Dr. Bryan Burrough has authored an article on the topic for this issue of Michigan Trout, and TU members should be on the lookout for an upcoming “How to Prevent/Limit the Spread of” pamphlet covering these invasive species, which will be published and distributed shortly.

Our fiscal year will close on March 31, 2022, and I want to thank our members and chapters who supported Michigan TU during fiscal 2022 by donating more than $160,000. I also send a big thank you to those who donated at least $1,000 to Michigan TU to become or remain members of the Aquifer Club, whose donations accounted for nearly 70 percent of the unrestricted funds raised during the year. Unrestricted funds provide the financial resources your team needs to tackle a broad and everchanging list of regulatory/policy issues facing

by Tom Mundt

trout habitat. Examples from the past year include:

• Participating in a task force that recommended new dam safety and licensing rules and addressed funding needs. • Advocating for significant improvements to evaluate large-quantity groundwater withdrawals. • Promoting reduced seasonal steelhead harvest limits as a first step in addressing declining steelhead numbers.

With approximately 35,000 miles of coldwater streams and rivers statewide, there is more work to do than our chapters and professional staff can manage in a lifetime. To that end, TU National has established a significant and welcomed presence in Michigan by deploying a highly-talented team of specialists, who are augmenting the work being done by chapters and Michigan TU. You can read about one of these projects in an article by TU National’s Great Lakes Stream Restoration Manager Jeremy Geist, whose team replaced aging culverts and bridges along Bigelow Creek, a coldwater tributary of the Muskegon River. We are also partnering with the Michiganbased TU National team to implement its Priority Rivers Initiative. This science-based program will help prioritize future coldwater conservation/habitat projects statewide. You will hear more on this topic in future issues of the magazine.

Finally, Michigan TU recently lost several leaders from the coldwater conservation/trout fishing community, including one of the founders of the Headwaters Chapter and a tireless advocate for the Pigeon River, Dave Smethurst. Dave, featured on the cover of this issue, was one of the notable Michigan TU coldwater conservationists who left us this past year. Unfortunately, to name but a few, this list also includes Denny Douglas and Ron Hamilton of the Pine River Chapter and the Mason Griffiths Founders Chapter’s Gerry Lake. All of these folks directed their passion, vision, and energy to the protection of Michigan’s unique coldwater resources. Speaking on behalf of the Executive Committee, we thank these visionaries and others like them for laying the foundation for Michigan TU’s past and future success. I hope everyone will instill these same values into the next generation of Michigan’s coldwater conservationists.

Have a great winter, get outside and chase steelhead and trout or any species of green fish of your choice, and enjoy this issue of Michigan Trout.