Despite an unusually warm October (on the 7th. the day I took a picture of a bull elk cooling himself in the Black River — see photo below) temperature hit 88’F!), a foretaste of winter arrived in the Pigeon River Country on Thanksgiving Day with nearly a half a foot of snow followed by a night when the temperature hit close to 1 above zero. A second taste of winter followed just a week later with high winds and about 4” more snow. It seems that those who think that overall global warming means uninterrupted balmy winters had better think again.
The PRCA and the NRC
On November 7th., your newsletter editor also dodged some winter-like weather by driving down to Lansing to represent the Association at the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) meeting held on Nov. 8th. At stake at this particular meeting was the final presentation of what was intended to be the final revision of updated Concept of Management (COM) for the Pigeon River Country Forest for some years to come. Although the actual decision to implement the document is that of the DNR Director (Rebecca Humphries) to make, it is considered essential that the NCR be on board. Accordingly, a “Power-Point” introduction to the COM was presented, followed by a commentary by the Director who stressed the following points.
First, it was stressed that the revised plan must be enforceable and realistic, which necessarily involves both clarity and flexibility.
Second, the Director mentioned that changes had been made in the section of the COM concerned with forest management. Additional attention has been given to northern hardwood and lowland conifer management.
Third, the Director spent a considerable amount of time commenting on the Recreation and Law Enforcement section of the revised COM. She stressed the need for more law enforcement, as well as the importance of the specific criteria listed in the plan that are meant to guide the Forest Manager in making decisions regarding recreational activities. The criteria (eight) are listed as follows.
“The activity or use should…
…have a low impact, leaving a minimal footprint on the PRC.
…not be detrimental to sustaining wildlife populations.
…not create noise that interrupts the solitude of the PRC.
…not concentrate larger groups of people and/or vehicles.
…not create the likelihood of user conflicts.
…not lead to more facilities or infrastructures.
…not degrade or be inconsistent with the wild character of the PRC.
…be associated with experiencing the wild character of the PRC.”
With these guiding criteria in mind, the Director specifically pointed out that no cross-country snowmobile travel will be permitted on the lands comprising the PRCF. Other than for forest management tasks, snowmoblies will be permitted only on the county roads (i.e., county right-of-ways) and on those forest trails open to motorized vehicles.
No commercial livery use of the Forest will be permitted.
Likewise, no cross-country horseback riding will be permitted. Horses will be restricted to the same routes as snowmobiles, plus the north extension of the Shore-to-Shore Riding & Hiking Trail. Camping with horses will be permitted only at the two campgrounds established specifically for that purpose (those at Elk Hill and Johnson’s Crossing). The fifteen small “dispersed” horse-camping sites will be closed. Opening up of any new horse campsites will depend on additional acquisition of forest land.
Similarly. bicycle-riding will be restricted to the same roadways, and, for the present, to the High Country Pathway. However, the Director pointed out that these closures are to be postponed until a new land-use order is prepared and put into effect. This includes a reworking of the Vehicle Access plan
for the PRCF.
While the Director admitted that this portion of the revised COM has proved to be the most controversial, she is determined to go ahead with the plan in the face of the fact that the Pigeon River Country Forest is being “loved to death” and that while she realized that there are bound to be objections from certain groups of users. But she reminded the audience that the bulk of the lands that make up the Forest was purchased with funds supplied by hunting and fishing licences, and that other recreational uses which interfere with those activities need to be especially controlled.
Almost needless to say, it was the announcement of the above restrictions that has drawn the most comments, objections, and even outright protests. And it was for this reason that the Association’s board need to be represented before the NRC, especially when it seemed that these specific restrictions had been added to the final version of the revised COM only few days before the Pigeon River Country Advisory Council meeting on October 19th. giving the Council members no time to read the final draft and to discuss the changes that had been made.
Not unexpectedly, during the public comment portion of the NRC meeting, late in the afternoon, many protests were voiced by various members of the horseback riding groups, both by individuals and by representatives of their various organizations. Issues of safety, especially as involving horses and motor vehicles, were particularly raised.
Likewise, several members of the Michigan Mountain Bike Association spoke. This group especially stressed the considerable amount of time that they have spent over the years, especially maintaining the eleven-some miles of the Shingle Mill Pathway, on which (with the exception of the portion that is also part of the High Country Pathway) they are, according to the decision announced by the Director, forbidden to ride.
However, it should be noted that no members of the snowmobiling fraternity spoke up. It may be, that after several Advisory Council rebuffs, that they have given up on their repeated attempts to have a special snowmobile route established for them across the PRCF. If so, we must commend them for their having finally realized that the PRCF is special place and that keeping it wild doesn’t mean seeing how fast one can go while traveling through the woods.
It was with all this in mind that your PRCA representative finally had his say, first pointing out the role that the Association has played from the beginning of the establishment of the Forest, our involvement in the rewriting of the COM, and urging, that after this rewriting process has taken three years, that the revised COM be finally approved and implemented. However, I also suggested that, to the two sentences restricting horseback and bicycle usage to the county roads and the forest vehicle access roads and to the two trails or pathways specifically mentioned, that the following phrase be added; “and to those trails that might be designated by the DNR Director in consultation with the PRCF Manager and the PRC Advisory Council.” In other words, we were asking for the Director’s promise of further discussion to be put in writing as part of the revised COM. As to how it finally turned out, you can compare this with the finalized document linked to the DNR website at www.michigan.gov/dnr or to the link to it on our website at www.PigeonRiverCountryForest.org
However, a letter from Forestry Director Lynne Boyd that accompanies the final version of the revised COM explains how “a workgroup will be formed to conduct a more in-depth review of the current recreational uses within the PRC” and to “examine various recreational uses and identify potential conflicts and opportunities based on the guiding principles established in the 2007 update.” Those interested in participating in such a workgroup should send an email to www.dnr-2007prc@michigan.gov or notify the Department by writing the Department of Natural Resources, PO Box 30452, Lansing MI 48909-7952, and should be marked Attn: Pigeon River Country Recreation Workgroup. (Report by R W Kropf)
Advisory Council Matters
As mentioned above, the Advisory Council held its final regularly scheduled meeting of the year on October 19, just two days after the final draft of the revised Concept of Management that was to be taken before the Natural Resources Commission had been posted on the DNR website. The Advisory Council chairman, who was also on the COM steering committee, was able to report that most, but not all, of the changes recommended by the Advisory Council had been included, but also alerted the Council members that other changes had been made as well. However, without prior notification of these changes, there was little or no chance to review them. Concern was expressed that the Advisory Council be represented at the NRC meeting on November 8th.
Mike Brown, standing in for Oil & Gas Committee chairman Ken Glasser, briefed the Council on the latest developments especially regarding Aurora Energy and the Blue Lakes tract, plus CO2 underground sequestration experiments in the southern part of the Forest.
Among the usual ex-officio reports to the Council, the matter of further State Forest campground closings was mentioned, due to the current State budget crunch. However, no specifics were given regarding the PRCF, which has already seen the closing of the campground at the bridge over the Pigeon River on Sturgeon Valley Rd. A report was given on the completion of the “Tin Bridge” replacement over the Pigeon River near the Cornwall Flooding on Grass Lake Rd.
Toward the end of the meeting, nominations were taken for next year’s Council officers. Council meeting dates for 2008 were set for January 18th., April 11th., July 25th. and October 17th. The meetings are held at the PRCF Headquarters and Information Building in the middle of the forest on Twin Lakes Rd. They begin promptly at 6:30 pm and generally end at 10:30 pm. The public is invited to attend. Comments from the public are generally taken soon after the meeting starts. We urge PRCA members to attend and voice their concerns.
Re. Books and Maps
We are pleased to announce that the new edition of Dale Franz’s book, The Pigeon River Country: A Michigan Forest, was released by the University of Michigan Press for distribution on November 27th. this was a couple of weeks later than had been originally scheduled when we began accepting orders for the book following our last newsletter.
Likewise, the printing of the new combined High Country Pathway and Pigeon River Country topographic map also fell behind schedule, this time because of last minute changes to the designated Forest boundaries and usage rule in the final version of the revised Concept of Management for the PRCF. The maps were made available us only on November 30th.
We are sorry for these delays, but if you have already ordered the book, or map, or both, your order should be in the mail by the time you receive this newsletter.
December Book-signing
We were very much pleased by the local turnout for the book-signing event held at the Otsego County Library the evening of December 3rd. — this despite the nasty weather (which saw this editor completely snowed in for several days and prevented his attendance). But the report is that forty-some persons turned out and that a similar number of books, plus several dozen of the new High Country Pathway/Pigeon River Country Forest maps were purchased. Many thanks to Maureen Derenzy, the head librarian, for graciously hosting the event, and of course, to Dale Franz, the author, for coming all the way up from Ann Arbor to talk about his book and most of all, our beloved Forest. Thanks also to Rudi Edel, our Vice-President for officially introducing Dale, Lance Weyeneth, who was in charge of book and map sales, and to Joe and Judi Jarecki who made sure the new maps were on hand, hot off the press located in or maps can be ordered from the Association Traverse City.
For those who were unable to attend or who wish for additional copies, more books using the form printed on page 5 of this newsletter, or placed electronically through the Google payment system found on our website at: www.PigeonRiverCountryForest.org