Pere Marquette river meeting

[Steeldrifter 0]

I know there are alot of fellow michigan boys on this site and also a few of you folks from south of the MI. state line who enjoy the beautiful Pere Marquette river so i wanted to post a letter that was sent to me from the Baldwin ranger station. The ranger for the town of baldwin(Leslie Russell) was nice enough to forward this letter to me due in part to some work i have been tryin to do with them on getting more trash cans at public access.

 

The letter i recieved is as follows:UPCOMING MEETING CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE PERE MARQUETTE..........

 

In 1978 PL_625 designed a 66.4 mile stretch of the mainstream of the Pere Marquette river as a Scenic River under the Wild and senic rivers act with managment responsibilities delegated to the U.S.F.S. The designation included a corridor of approximatly one-half mile in width totaling about 13,000 acres. Also in 1978,the state of Michigan designated the entire Pere Marquette River and its tributaries as a Michigan Natural River under the authority PA231 of 1970. This resulted in implementation of zoning regulations that restrict development adjacent to the river to safeguard enviormental and aesthetic values.

 

The Pere Marquette is a naturally productive,free flowing,high quality stream that maintains large populations of brown trout and provides spawning grounds for steelhead and salmon. The watershed includes an abundance of wildlife habitat that provides opportunities for hunting and wildlife observation. These qualities are the reason that the Pere Marquette was designated a Scenic River and must be managed under the law to mantain these unique values.

 

 

SCENIC RIVER PLANNING

In 1983 the USFS approved its first managment plan for the Pere Marquette corridor. The plan was updated in 1990 based on an updated process recommended in the 1983 plan. The 1990 update recognized and focused primarily on the increasing recreational use of the river and accommodating that use in an environmentally sensitive manner. It included "hardening" and better screening of some public access sites and campgrounds,placing designated parking areas 100 or more feet from the river,providing walk-in access to better distribute fishing pressure,and developing watercraft user rest stops without public vehicle access to reduce tresspass on private lands.

 

 

13 years have passed since the last update to the river managment plan. Many of the ideas for accommodating river use in the 1990 plan have been implemented and are in place today. However,use has continued to increase. Changes in use,concerns about impacts on the qualities for which the corridor was designed(both social and environmental),and a need for continuous planning are the rationale for an update to the USFS Pere Marquette River Scenic Managment Plan.

 

THE LIMITS OF ACCEPTABLE CHANGE PLAN

The plan update will be developed using a process called "Limits of Acceptable Change"(LAC). This process was initally developed for planning in wilderness areas. However the LAC process applied to the managment of the Pere Marquette will help mantain the soecial values and beauty of the river for which it was desugnated a Wild and Scenic River. LAC is a six step process that revolves around compromise and identifying the priority of multiple managment goals, making it an ideal way to update the managment plan. The steps are:

 

1. Identify concerns,issues and goals,agreeing that some goals may be in conflict.

 

2. Establish that all goals must be comprimised to some extent.

 

3. Decide which goal(s) will ultimatly constrain the others by establishing their effects on one another.

 

4.Define indicators of goals(e.g. dissolved oxygen levels as potential indicator of water quality and the ability to support aquatic life)and standards(lowest acceptable level of dissolved oxygen based on standard sampling practices) and monitor the goal in relation to these indicators.

 

5. Allow the ultimately constraining goal(s) to be compromised until the written standard is reached(the limit of acceptable changes).

 

6.Compromise the other goals so that the ultimately constraning goal(s) limit of acceptable change is never violated.

 

With all that said..... There is a meeting for anyone that uses the Pere Marquette river on November 19th at 7:00pm at the Pleasent Plains township hall in baldwin michigan.

 

To be discussed at the meeting:

 

Water Quality

fish populations

Presence of liter

Public access

Number of river users

level of regulation

sence of personal security

 

 

SD