Category: Great Lakes
Posted by Dave Spratt on Thu, May 15, 2008 at 2:00 PMGreat Lakes compact needs finishing
Finish the job.
That's the message Michigan Legislators need to hear loud and clear when it comes to the Great Lakes Compact.
The compact is the eight-state agreement to keep water within the Great Lakes basin. New York, Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota have approved it. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin haven't yet, for a variety of reasons. Once they do, the measure will go before the U.S. Congress to make it federal law, and hopefully lay to rest the fear of any future water grabs by thirsty states in the west and south.
Ontario and Quebec, which cannot technically join, have agreed to abide by it anyway.
On Wednesday Michigan's House and Senate both unanimously voted to join the compact, but they didn't finish the job. Because there are still squabbles over private water rights, the Legislature did not vote on "implementing" legislation.
In other words, it's still toothless.
So what's the holdup? The compact is written to allow the states to decide how to use water WITHIN the basin. It recognizes that each state has its own views on that. It's very flexible about what they can do within the basin. And that's exactly what those little squabbles are about.
That's why there's no sense in waiting. Signing the compact won't take away Michigan's right to decide for itself. Same with Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
It isn't exactly wild speculation to suggest that water scarcity will be a huge issue in the future. The south and west have little. We have lots.
Their populations are growing. Ours isn't. Over time, those shifts will show up in our political muscle. And we'll be less equipped to fight off any hare-brained schemes to siphon our water to far-off dry places.
And make no mistake: Those folks in the southwest are obsessed with water, or the lack of it, and they're already old pros at moving it around. See for yourself.
That's why there's no sense in waiting.
Finish the job.
Category: Wildlife
Posted by Dave Spratt on Wed, May 14, 2008 at 2:36 PMThe migration is on
If you hunt, you've heard the lame jokes.
You mention any living creature in any context, and some knucklehead chimes in with "Did you SHOOT it?"
Har har.
What a lot of people don't understand is that many of us just love being outdoors and seeing real life happen. It could just be noticing a dogwood in bloom or catching a snake sunning itself. It's amazing what you can see when you sit still and open your eyes.
This is the best time of year to take a close look at who's flitting around our treetops. That's because we're hard in the middle of the spring neotropical migration, when millions of tiny birds make their way back north from wintering grounds in the Caribbean and Central and South America.
They're mostly headed for Canada, and the western end of Lake Erie is renowned for the migration. Point Pelee in Ontario is world famous. But plenty of birds pass by on our side of the border, too.
With that in mind, I took out the binoculars Tuesday morning and trained them on a small bird feeding in an elm tree. I expected one of the usual suspects -- a chickadee or a house sparrow -- but was astonished to see a brilliantly colored male Blackburnian warbler. Right in my yard.
And he wasn't alone. Two other warbler types were working the tree, but they wouldn't hold still long enough for me to ID them.
It happened again this morning, but with all new suspects: chestnut-sided warbler. American Redstart. Veery. Eastern wood-pewee.
I had to look these up, of course. And I know that to serious birders these aren't exactly once-in-a-lifetime species.
But I can't emphasize enough how easy this was, or how cool. I'm talking a grand total of 10 minutes of birdwatching -- from my porch in Ann Arbor.
I can't wait to see who shows up tomorrow.
I'm sure the neighbors will begin to wonder why I'm lurking in the yard with binoculars.
But so far I haven't aimed them at any windows.
Category: Hunting
Posted by Dave Spratt on Tue, May 13, 2008 at 10:56 AMMichigan spoke softly on new doe season
I have to admit I was a little mystified by the DNR's announcement via press release yesterday that we'll get a five-day September doe season in southern Michigan.
That struck me as huge news, but apparently they didn't think so.
The release started mysteriously, announcing "several changes to the Wildlife Conservation Order." Doesn't exactly jump out as "new deer-hunting rules."
First, they'll allow severely disabled military veterans to join the September youth hunt. A nice gesture for sure. Those who qualify have made a supreme sacrifice, and no one begrudges them some extra hunting time. Not out loud, anyway.
Next, extra antlerless tags for private-land hunters in southern Michigan. Was three, now five. Good enough. Knock back the herd a little bit.
Then finally, somewhere near the bottom:
Pssssst. Hey, c'mere. Listen: You can shoot does with guns -- before bow season.
The announcement came Monday on a decision rendered last THURSDAY.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the newspaper business we call that burying the lead.
A GUN SEASON IN SEPTEMBER.
Now, let me take this opportunity to acknowledge that we hunters can be, shall we say, somewhat vocal.
We complain when the rules change, and we complain when they don't. So it doesn't surprise me when a big announcement doesn't exactly come with a parade.
But this was a pretty big one, and it just trickled out. There's no reason for that.
Just give it to us straight. We can take it.
And we're still four months from the first shot. That's plenty of time for some serious complaining.
Category: Hunting
Posted by Dave Spratt on Mon, May 12, 2008 at 10:52 AMEarly antlerless deer season gets thumbs up
The deal is done: Michigan's southern Lower Peninsula will have an early private-land firearm doe season this fall, from Sept. 18-22.
The Natural Resources Commission, which sets policy in Michigan, pulled the trigger Thursday, opting for the late September antlerless season rather than the mid-October one that was initially discussed. Its goal, simply, is to reduce the herd.
The early season will also apply to the state's TB zone in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. That includes Alcona, Alpena, Iosco, Montmorency, Oscoda and Presque Isle counties.
There's one other change of note: The number of private-land antlerless tags one hunter can buy for southern Michigan has been increased from three to five.
The entire set of 2008 deer hunting regulations can be viewed on the NRC section of the DNR's Web site. You're looking for Wildlife Conservation Order Amendment No. 7, Option B.
Category: Great Lakes
Posted by Dave Spratt on Fri, May 9, 2008 at 11:21 AMNo quick fix for low lake levels
Remember that study a few months ago that suggested the bottom of the St. Clair River had washed away so badly that it was acting as a huge open drain that was emptying out Lake Huron? It was commissioned by the Georgian Bay Association, a group of homeowners who are understandably tired of powerlessly watching the shoreline and their property lines drift steadily apart (in Canada your property line ends at the high-water mark).
Preliminary findings indicate it isn't true, and a bigger study, the International Upper Great Lakes Study, is under way to see who's right. Those results are due in July 2009.
In the meantime, the Georgian Bay folks have another suggestion that's making more than one set of eyes roll: They're lobbying for a giant inflatable bladder to be installed at the bottom of the St. Clair River. The idea is to inflate it into a temporary dam of sorts to impede the flow when Lake Huron water levels reach "crisis" lows. Like, say, now.
I'm not making this up, honest. And they say it can be done for "only" $10 million.
Of course, that leaves open the question of who decides when the bladder would get inflated -- a simple conversation that would only involve state governments in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario and feds in Canada and the U.S.
Piece of cake, right?
And how, once the Georgian Bay folks are happy, to explain continued dropping water levels to folks on Lake St. Clair. And along the Detroit River. And on Lake Erie. Et cetera.
No biggie.
What to do about all the environmental impacts that would cause. Pffff. Minor!
OK, it's a kooky idea, but their concern over water levels is anything but. The natural 20- to 30-year cycle of rising and falling lakes -- the "they'll bounce back" argument -- is in jeopardy from a much bigger threat: climate change.
Most models point to a continued decline in water levels across the Great Lakes basin over the next 100 years. That's all the lakes, not just Huron.
No inflatable bladder is going to solve that.
Category: Wildlife
Posted by Dave Spratt on Wed, May 7, 2008 at 11:51 AMNature didn't create cormorant explosion
One other note on cormorants, the destroyers of fish populations and uninhabited islands that are currently being culled across the Great Lakes:
Animal rights folks argue that nature should be allowed to run its course, and that it's wrong for humans to intervene, especially when intervention requires actively killing animals.
The problem with that argument, of course, is that the explosion of cormorants is a direct result of human intervention in the first place, and now the birds are having a devastating impact on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
I just spent nine days traveling around Lake Erie with the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources. I and a group of other journalists met with scientists, policy-makers, business people, environmentalists and others to discuss a number of environmental issues surrounding the Great Lakes.
One thing that became abundantly clear is just how much humans have altered the lakes. We've dumped toxic chemicals, manipulated shorelines, altered the flow from the upper lakes to the lower and introduced invasive species that have fundamentally changed vast ecosystems.
The idea of letting nature take its course at this point is pretty laughable. That ship sailed decades ago.
Cormorants have thrived because of species humans introduced to the lakes. The filtering activities of zebra mussels and the introduction of alewives and round gobies have created an easy close-to-shore feast for the birds.
As their numbers grew exponentially, native fish stocks collapsed and beautiful islands became stinking guano heaps.
I admit as a hunter and angler that I tend to side with the ecosystem. Balance is crucial to the health of all kinds of species, not just the ones we prey upon.
And when our activities disrupt that balance, sometimes adjustments are necessary.
Letting nature run its course didn't create the cormorant problem. It isn't going to solve it, either.
Category: Wildlife
Posted by Dave Spratt on Tue, May 6, 2008 at 10:21 AMMichigan moving on cormorants
Jim Johnson is a fish guy.
As director of the DNR's Alpena Fisheries Research Station, his job is to know what's swimming around Lake Huron.
These days that means he pays very close attention to birds, specifically double-crested cormorants. They eat fish. Lots of fish. And the best way to see what's in the lakes is to open up a few cormorants.
Johnson says there's good news in those bird bellies. Just a couple years ago the cormorants in the Les Cheneaux Islands, east of St Ignace, were full of round gobies. These days the Lake Superior State University scientists who open up the birds are finding perch, pumpkinseeds and other natives that indicate a fish community regaining a much better balance.
Not coincidentally, Michigan has been knocking back the Les Cheneaux cormorants since 2005 with a combination of egg oiling, which keeps the young from hatching, and sharpshooters who kill off the adults.
There were roughly 3,200 cormorant nests in the Les Cheneaux a few years ago, and anglers threw up their hands in disgust. The fish, they said, were gone.
Now there are somewhere between 500 and 1,000 pairs of Les Cheneaux cormorants, and a heck of a lot more fish.
"The Les Cheneaux (fish) population is right on target," Johnson said. "We're pretty upbeat about that outcome."
Things aren't quite as rosy in Thunder Bay, near Alpena. There, some 4,000 pairs of cormorants have denuded islands and decimated fish populations. What's left are gobies, which now make up about 96 percent of cormorants' diets in Thunder Bay. There's nothing else left.
"It's not just an apocryphal statement," Johnson said. "The whitefish are virtually gone."
Not surprisingly, cormorant reduction is farther behind in Thunder Bay. Islands have been so devastated by cormorant colonies that it's nearly impossible to tell what kinds of trees their poop -- guano to the more civilized -- has killed.
But the biologists have a plan for Thunder Bay and elsewhere, and they're working it. They believe that fewer cormorants equal a more diverse, vibrant aquatic community.
The science of the Les Cheneaux seems to support that. So pass the oil and sharpshooters, please.
Category: Wildlife
Posted by Dave Spratt on Mon, May 5, 2008 at 2:04 PMCormorant cull puts ecosystem first
They're shooting cormorants in Ontario today.
Just like they did last Wednesday. And Thursday. And will again tomorrow and beyond.
The fish-gobbling water birds have had a huge impact on ecosystems across the Great Lakes, including colonies on the Les Cheneaux and Thunder Bay islands on the Michigan side of Lake Huron. Once nearly a DDT casualty, the birds have come screaming back in huge numbers due in large part to human activities such as introducing invasive species that feed them.
Cormorants made Parks Canada's hit list when biologists and park officials decided the ecosystem trumps the species. So after years of research and a legal challenge by animal-rights groups that cleared last week, sharpshooters on Wednesday and Thursday began culling cormorants from Middle Island, a western Lake Erie island in Point Pelee National Park.
Three shooters with .17-caliber rifles took out 72 cormorants over the two days, a pair at a time. It's a mere fraction of what's coming. The island is home to 4,000 pairs of nesting cormorants (minus a few now), and Parks Canada's five-year plan calls for a number closer to 500.
Parks officials call it "active management," but let's face it: It's large-scale carnage. I'm not convinced that's a bad thing.
I toured Lake Erie last week on a fellowship with the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources. One of our stops took us to East Sister Island, a province-owned island near Pelee.
East Sister is exactly what parks officials don't want Middle Island to become. The islands that dot western Lake Erie are Carolinian forest, a rare remnant of ancient times that more closely resembles the forests of the southeastern United States. But East Sister looks more like the moon, thanks to the relentless shower of cormorant poop. The trees there are almost all dead. The ground is bare. The number of other nesting bird species is dwindling to nothing. Great egrets and black-crowned night herons once competed as equals on East Sister. Now a few hardy stragglers claw for what little barren space remains.
The Lake Erie cormorant situation is a little different from that in Lake Huron, where the birds were chowing down on whitefish and other species that are more important to humans. Erie cormorants feast almost strictly on round gobies, a plentiful and unwanted species in their own right, while desirable species such as yellow perch and walleye thrive. So it's less about fish loss and more about how many other species of flora and fauna are being crowded out of their habitat. The answer: plenty.
That's why they're shooting cormorants in Ontario today.
Category: Fishing
Posted by Dave Spratt on Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 2:19 PMSome good news: DNR to stock Michigan game fish
Thanks to plenty of proactive testing and a heap of new understanding about the fish disease viral hemmorhagic septicimia (VHS), the DNR will resume stocking several varieties of Michigan game fish this year.
That will include 2 million walleye (that's normally about 10 million, but hey, it's a start), 50,000 muskies and about 5,000 lake sturgeon. Northern pike will not be produced this year.
The fish-killing disease essentially shut down Michigan's stocking program last year. With no reliable way to disinfect eggs, wildlife officials chose not to run the risk of spreading VHS into the hatcheries.
Now the wild brood stocks have tested negative for the disease and that testing will continue. The agency will also hold off on stocking fry (newly hatched fish) because the four-six week testing process wouldn't catch a positive VHS test in time.
They're also being a lot more careful about mixing species, draining hatching ponds and placement of reared fish.
It's good to hear they're taking so many precautions. There's a lot to lose if VHS is allowed to spread.
The complete DNR Coolwater Production Strategy for 2008 can be viewed online.
Category: Fishing
Posted by Dave Spratt on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 3:20 PMTrout time
If your sport is trout fishing, you already know that Saturday is the traditional last-Saturday-in-April opener.
We may not have the snow-capped peaks that make fishing out West so scenic, but Michigan still does pretty well. From the legendary Holy Water of the Au Sable to the teensiest Upper Peninsula creek packed with wild brookies to a stocked suburban downtown stream, we've got plenty of options.
I know guys who are strict fly types, and I know plenty who are inveterate worm-dunkers. And while they may not agree on terminal tackle, they're still after the same magic that comes from trying to coax trout out of fast-moving water.
It's mesmerizing to spend a day away from the world, letting the river flow past and trying to get into the fishes' heads. I've found that to be true regardless of what you're throwing or how you're throwing it.
News photographer Dale Young will be in northern Michigan on Saturday, chronicling the opener with photos and video. Check back in to detnews.com this weekend.
And keep those lines tight.
