Chairman’s Report

Michigan Trout Unlimited just completed a successful fieldwork season. Aquatic Ecologist Kristin Thomas led a major riparian/instream habitat improvement initiative in the upper Manistee River - installing over 150 trees via helicopter to reshape an overly broad, shallow, and sandy 2.5-mile stretch between Yellow Trees and Roger’s Landings. This project was funded by large contributions from an individual donor, the Upper Manistee River Association, and through grants from the Michigan DNR, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. To all the donors, stakeholders, and contractors who flew the helicopter, piloted the boats, and cut and anchored the trees - Great Job, Thank you!

This past year Michigan TU also removed a dam within a tributary of Big Creek near Luzerne and partnered with the Anglers of the Au Sable to develop a plan, which received MDNR approval, to improve fish passage around the Grayling Fish Hatchery.

Michigan TU was proactive on the policy and legislative front, addressing a broad, growing, and ever-changing list of issues facing Michigan’s coldwater habitat. Examples from this past year include:

• Developing and publishing programs to deal with invasive aquatic species such as New Zealand mudsnails and the microscopic alga called Didymo (a/k/a rock snot).

• Assessing Consumers Energy’s recent announcement that it is evaluating the long-term viability of the 13 hydroelectric dams it owns around the state.

• Highlighting problems and risks of splake stocking in Lake Superior and emphasizing the need to do more for coaster brook trout.

• Opposing the proposed expansion of Camp Grayling based on its magnitude and the need for more formal documentation details.

As this list shows, our stream restoration initiatives are growing in size, scope, and complexity each year. During the next fiscal year, your Michigan TU team will be engaged in two conservation projects with a combined cost of more than $1 million. The first, with MDNR funding, will be working with the Anglers of the Au Sable to eliminate barriers

by Tom Mundt

within and around the Grayling hatchery, thus allowing fish to move freely in the entire length of the East Branch of the Au Sable River. The second will implement the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s “America the Beautiful Challenge.” This initiative will be funded through the MDNR and is focused on dam removals around the state.

This growing workload has led Michigan TU to search for an additional staff member, specifically a stream restoration project manager. This individual will be responsible for managing and supporting stream enhancement projects (e.g., in-stream habitat enhancements, roadstream crossing replacements, dam removals, and resource assessments), including all phases from project identification, partner collaboration, grant acquisition and management, design, permitting, oversight, monitoring, and reporting. The position has been posted with appropriate agencies and universities. Applications have been received, and the vetting process is underway. We expect to have the new team member in place in advance of the summer fieldwork season. This position will be partly funded by a benevolent donor and grants Michigan TU receives to execute the aforementioned conservation initiatives.

Michigan TU will also be rolling out TU National’s “Shared Priority Waters” initiative in the fiscal year 2024. This initiative creates a framework to direct our conservation efforts and define metrics to measure success. This initiative aims to create a strategic portfolio of watersheds where the TU team can make positive changes on a meaningful scale. This was not an easy task as our state is blessed with over 35,000 miles of coldwater rivers and streams. But our team, in partnership with the Michigan-based TU national staff, got the job done.

Over the past six months, a workgroup employed a Geographic Information System mapping tool to capture and analyze scientific/socioeconomic data and develop the Shared Priority Waters watersheds list. In the Lower Peninsula, the list includes the Au Sable, Manistee, White, and Pere Marquette River watersheds. In the Upper Peninsula, Michigan TU identified coastal Lake Superior (coaster brook trout protection/ restoration), the Manistique River watershed, and the western UP Wild Trout Area (East Branch of the Ontonagon, Brule, Paint, and Cooks Run rivers) as Priority Waters. You will hear more about this initiative in future issues of Michigan Trout. I must add that I participated in this process and was impressed as well as humbled by the Priority Waters workgroup’s combined mental horsepower and work ethic. I thank each one of you for your contributions to this daunting process.

In closing, thanks to all our grantors and donors for providing Michigan TU with the resources to make a real difference. We have much to do with a team up to the task. I look forward to reporting on the team’s progress in future issues of Michigan Trout. In the meantime, get out on a river and please enjoy this issue of the magazine.