Pigeon River Country Association
Annual Meeting Minutes
July 12, 2009
Pigeon River Country State Forest Headquarters

After lunch, provided by the Association, the meeting was called to order by President Ray Hoobler at 1:04 pm.  He welcomed everyone and asked those in attendance to introduce themselves.

Board Members Present:
 Ray Hoobler, President; Rick Kropf, Treasurer and Immediate Past President; Mike Brown, PRC Advisory Council Representative; Lance Weyeneth, Internet Website/Membership Committee Chair

Board Members Absent: 
 Rudi Edel, Vice President; Greg Keith, Secretary

PRC Association Members Present: 
Frances Hoobler, Jude Jarecki, Joe Jarecki, Eugene Horan, Larry Kleinhardt, Judy Kleinhardt and Ivan Wikman

Others Present: 
Scott Whitcomb, Pigeon River Country State Forest Unit Manager; Matt Storey, PRC Association Student Intern

Approval of 2008 Annual Meeting Minutes
Motion by Lance Weyeneth, support by Eugene Horan to approve the July 6, 2008 Annual Meeting minutes as amended (copy attached).  Motion Carried.  (The two amendments were to correct the spelling of Tim Cwalinski’s name and that Eugene Horan had served as the Association’s PRC Advisory Council Representative for five years.)

Treasurer’s Report
Rick Kropf passed out and discussed the Treasurer’s Report for the period July 1, 2008, through June 19, 2009 (copy attached).  Expenses totaled $1377.31, income totaled $7600.28, and net assets totaled $20,946.65.

Motion by Lance Weyeneth, support by Eugene Horan to accept the Treasurer’s report as presented.  Motion Carried.

President’s Comments
President Hoobler discussed long time Association member Jerry Myer’s passing.  He said that memorial donations to the Association have been made and details about how it will be spent will be discussed later in the meeting.

Hoobler introduced Scott Whitcomb, the new Pigeon River Country Unit Manager and welcomed him to the Association’s Annual meeting.  He said that Eugene Horan resigned as the Association Representative on the PRC Advisory Council and, as authorized at the 7/6/08 Annual meeting, the Board chose Mike Brown as the new Representative to the Advisory Council.

Regarding the Song of the Morning Court Case, Hoobler said the DNR Fisheries Division report about the impacts of the dam release is out and available on the Association website.  He said the Association and the Michigan Council of Trout Unlimited have joined the lawsuit with the State of Michigan.  He said the Board hopes a settlement will be worked out, but the legal process takes a while to play out, so it will be a while before an outcome is determined.

Due to a recent Supreme Court ruling, groups like the Association cannot participate in a lawsuit unless individual group members can show they were impacted.  The Association has identified a couple of members who regularly use the Pigeon River and were impacted, so the Association has standing and can participate in the suit.

Hoobler was asked if he thought the dam would be taken out.  He said the state is asking for over $650,000 in costs plus penalties, and also for removal of the dam.  Song of the Morning/Golden Lotus, Inc. has not committed to taking it out, but individuals at Song of the Morning have made that commitment.  The state has made it clear that they want the dam out.

There was discussion about the funding for removal of the dam and who would pay.  Hoobler said those details would probably be discussed during settlement negotiations. 

Regarding the proposed Antrim Gas wells on the Song of the Morning Ranch, Hoobler said the state has refused to grant access across state land for a pipeline to take the gas to market.  He said some easements have been signed for the start of an alternate route that does not cross state land, but the price of natural gas might be low enough to not make it a viable project.

Hoobler said that MUCC is coordinating a drive to block the “Horseback Bill” which is an effort to require the DNR to develop horseback trail systems on state lands throughout the state.  He read the bill and said MUCC’s concern is that the bill is an effort to get around the DNR administrative decision.  Groups who support the MUCC effort include: Anglers of the AuSable, Michigan Bear Hunters Association, Michigan Bow Hunters Association and the Resource Stewards.  MUCC concerns are that the bill puts $25 million of federal Pitman-Robertson funds in jeopardy and it is not based on scientific management.

There was discussion about Pitman-Robertson funding; horseback riding (Larry Kleinhardt said they bought property near the PRC so they would not be camping illegally when the offsite horse camps were full and thus be a bad example when they had their grandson along.); and the potential negative impacts of horses on fish and game.

PRC Advisory Council Representative’s Report
PRC Association Advisory Council Representative Mike Brown said that oil and gas issues in the PRC are becoming active again.  There are a couple of proposals to drill wells from private property into Green Timbers.  Brown expressed frustration with the rules that essentially force mineral owners to become part of a drilling unit in certain circumstances.  He said he had nothing to add to the discussion about horseback use and the Song of the Morning dam.

PRC Unit Manager’s Report
PRC Unit Manager Scott Whitcomb passed our and discussed his written report (copy attached).  He introduced himself saying he grew up in the Wolverine area, worked on a wildlife (elk) research project out of the former Osmun Lake cabin, and is very happy to get the opportunity to come back to the PRC.  He is a wildlife biologist by training and worked in West Virginia before returning to Michigan to work for Wildlife Division in Lansing.  He is still getting his feet under him with the transition from Wildlife to Forest, Mineral and Fire Management Division (FMFM) plus learning to deal with special PRC issues like oil and gas, the PRC Association, the Advisory Council, etc.

Topics discussed by Whitcomb included:

Whitcomb was asked if the buildings at the PRC Headquarters are available for rent.  He said they are not.  The staff house is used by the Unit to provide housing for the student intern or others who are temporarily working on projects in the PRC.

Student Intern Report
Student Intern Matt Storey thanked Association members for funding his scholarship as the PRC Student Intern.  His major at CMU is in recreation.  Matt said he will graduate after his internship is completed in December.  The major project he is working on is roads.  He is determining what areas need to have barriers repaired on installed.

ORV Use on County Roads
Joe Jarecki passed out and discussed a report (copy attached) about the 2008 state law that allows counties in the Northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula to open all, some, or none of their county roads to ORVs.  The law is complicated and Jarecki’s report discussed some of the complications.  Montmorency and Otsego counties closed their county roads to ORVs in the heart of the PRC and Cheboygan County opened all of its county roads in the PRC to ORVs.  Jarecki said that ORVs continue to be banned on all state lands in the PRC, including all numbered DNR roads.  During discussion of this issue, the point was made that violations of the ordinances are a certainty.  Association members were urged to complain to the appropriate county sheriff about illegal ORV activity so the activity is documented.  A record of ORV problems in the PRC is especially important if Cheboygan County reviews its ORV ordinance in the future since one reason ORVs were not restricted was that the Cheboygan County Sheriff had no record of ORV problems in the PRC as a result of the former ordinance that allowed them on Cheboygan County Roads.

Old Business
The newsletter costs about $160 an issue or about $640/year to publish.  People who have not paid dues recently have been pruned from the mailing list.  There has been discussion by the Board to encourage the use of email to distribute the newsletter, but many members do not have email.  The Board will be considering how best to deliver the newsletter to members.  Possibilities mentioned include: go to email; stick with hard copy; printing in black and white only; and stay with color.

During the discussion about these issues, folks said email is okay if people want it, but it is important to provide a hard copy to those who want it.  Advantages of hard copy newsletters include: people see it as something of value that they get for their membership; people can set it aside and read it when it is convenient and they may not open the email version if it is not convenient at the time it arrives; soon after the newsletter is published, there is an up tick of membership renewals and product purchases.  The consensus was that the Board would decide how best to deliver the newsletter after further deliberation.

Jerry Myers Memorial Fund
At this time, there is $1610.00 in the Jerry Myers Memorial Fund.  The family is interested in doing a renovation project at the PRC Headquarters Information Center.  Some possibilities that Scott Whitcomb had for updating materials in the information center were:

Whitcomb is also open to ideas for other themes.  He said Matt Storey would help with implementation of the ideas.  Another theme idea suggested was: Why do we want gravel roads (not hard surfaced) in the PRC?

Election of Officers
President Hoobler opened the nominations and Rick Kropf nominated the following slate of officers:

 

Motion by Eugene Horan, support by Larry Kleinhardt to close the nominations and cast a unanimous ballot for the nominated slate of officers.  Motion Carried.

President Hoobler reminded everyone that the PRC Association Board of Directors is made up of the slate of officers that were just elected as well as Immediate Past President Rick Kropf, PRC Advisory Council Representative Mike Brown, and Internet Website/Membership Committee Chair Lance Weyeneth.

Adjournment
President Hoobler adjourned the meeting at 3:25 pm.

Respectfully submitted by Joe Jarecki