~ General Info ~

Our PAST

The Pigeon River Country Association began in 1971 when a group of local citizens, sportsmen, and environmental activists banded together to save the last great tract of undeveloped land in Michigan's lower peninsula. This land, which Ernest Hemingway called the "pine barrens east of Vanderbilt" and what Michigan pioneer conservationist P.S. Lovejoy liked to call "The Big Wild", is home to the largest herd of wild elk east of the Mississippi and forms a major part of the watershed of three of Michigan's premier trout streams, the Sturgeon, the Pigeon River, and the Cheboygan Black. Left a shambles by early logging and the fires that followed, by the rapid expansion of the oil and gas industry and facing the threat of other forms of overdevelopment of the northern lower peninsula, the efforts of this grass-roots association, working in concert with other concerned organizations, were to result in the official establishment, in 1974, of the Pigeon River Country Forest as a special management unit of over 100 square miles in four counties administered by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources according to a special Plan of Management overseen by a special state-appointed advisory council. The association's efforts, backed by law-suites and court decisions, also led to the precedent-setting Hydrocarbon Development Plan that has served as a model for responsible oil and gas drilling and production practices that are now being implemented throughout the rest the state of Michigan.

Our MISSION

As defined by our original mission statement...

Today we see this original mission as ever more necessary as demands, whether recreational or industrial, made on the forest increase. This at a time when government staffing has decreased. We wish to note particularly that the Association is not an advocate for any particular recreational interest, industry, or even citizen advocacy group, but that our primary, even sole interest is for the health and integrity of the forest itself. We, and especially the forest, need your help.

ACTIVITIES

Even today the Association continues to remain active, first of all by trying to make sure that these agreements and precedents which have been reached are kept and by assisting the forest managers in every way we can. Among the Association's activities are:

- Making sure that a representative of the Association serves on the Pigeon River Country Advisory Council and its various committees. Because the Advisory Council is made up, by statute, from groups representing many varied interests -- including the industries posing a threat to the forest in the first place -- it is essential that the Association's representant is there to represent you. But you too can be present to make your concerns known.

- Funding the hiring of a university level student intern to assist the forest manager each summer.

- Recruiting weekend volunteer staff for the forest Headquarters and Visitor Center.

- Supplying a quarterly Newsletter to the association members and other interested parties reporting the deliberations of the Advisory Council, the positions taken by the Association, and reporting other matters of importance regarding events affecting the Forest.

- Giving whatever other assistance we can with other tasks that need to be accomplished, such as various wildlife and forest recreation surveys, sign repair, trail maintenance, and trash removal.

- The Association also plans to organize a kind of "neighborhood watch" for the forest, thus hoping to increase public awareness of the special qualities of the forest and the need for the public to take special care to preserve these assets as well as to notify the forest management as well as various law-enforcement agencies when necessary.

In these ways we hope to continue to serves the needs of the forest as well as of the public which continues to value it as a very special place. We invite you to join us, both by your financial support and if you wish, by volunteering your time and efforts in some of the activities listed above.

MEMBERSHIP

Any person interested in helping protect the Pigeon River Country and its resources and wildlife is invited to join us. Individual memberships are $15 per year, or family memberships are $20 per year (federal tax deductible).

Members will receive a quarterly newsletter and are invited to the annual open membership meeting, held at the forest headquarters building, usually on a Saturday during June.

You can become a member by sending your check payable to P.R.C.A. at:

The Pigeon River Country Association, P.O. Box 122, Gaylord MI, 49734-0122

To contact us by e-mail: info@pigeonrivercountryforest.org