Odds and Ends

Islands Symposium

The Association was the primary sponsor/ organizer for a Great Lakes Islands Symposium that was to have been held at the CMU Biological Station the last weekend in August, co-sponsored by CMU and Michigan Sea Grant. It was intended to bring together Island leaders, stakeholders, researchers and other interested persons throughout the Great Lakes region, with featured presentations on unique biodiversity assets and threats in the islands in all the Lakes. We had great cooperation from both CMU and Sea Grant, the latter especially in creating and managing a special website that enabled people to learn about the event and register for it on-line.

Unfortunately, far fewer people registered to attend the Symposium than we anticipated and, most important, than were necessary to justify the considerable effort and expense that would have been involved in holding it. Therefore we decided in early August to cancel the Symposium this year but keep open the possibility of holding it in 2010. We suspect the main reason for low registration was the weak economy and resulting curtailment of discretionary spending by governmental agencies and other organizations that in better times might have sent representatives to the event at no expense to the people involved. But it also is possible that the program as designed was too broad in scope and not deep enough in substance to attract the target audience, particularly from the further reaches of the Great Lakes Basin.
Through continuing discussions with CMU and Sea Grant we will decide soon whether to revive the Symposium in 2010, perhaps with a different programmatic focus, or not, and when the decision is made we will inform the membership by posting on our website. In the meantime, many thanks to Board Member Craig Schrotenboer, who coordinated planning for the Symposium; former Board Member Pam Grassmick, who worked very hard on program arrangements and other logistical details; and retiring CMUBS Director Jim Gillingham for their many efforts to bring this special event to Beaver Island.

ATVs ... On- and Off-Road

Loyal Currents readers will recall that in August 2008 the BIA Board expressed opposition to potential action by Charlevoix County and/or Peaine Township to permit operation of ATVs on public roads in the Township. But the County Commission, acting pursuant to state statutory authority, adopted an ordinance permitting such ATV operation “on the far right of the maintained portion” of all roads in the county with a few specific exceptions. On Beaver Island the only exception is “Kings Highway, which includes Main Street, from the Light House [in] St. James Township to East Side Drive [in] Peaine Township.”

Also as statutorily provided, the ordinance permits any township board “to close any roads within the boundaries of the township to the operation of ORVs permitted by the county.” Last spring some folks urged the Peaine Township Board to take such action, but the BIA Board reconsidered its position and concluded that would be premature, both because we thought it unlikely that the Island would be “overrun by hordes of ORV riders” from off-Island and appreciated the fact that “some Beaver Island residents operate ORVs on county roads responsibly and for legitimate reasons, and there is no good reason that should not continue.” We thus recommended a wait-and-see position, deferring any possible action to close Peaine roads to ORV use until after the summer tourism season. We also published and distributed a fact-sheet on ORV use on Beaver Island (published in the last issue of Currents) and asked BIA members to tell us their views about this issue and be vigilant for violation of on-road ORV use restrictions and illegal off-road use “on beaches, dunes, and other private and public lands” and report such violations to the Deputy Sheriff, who spoke to members about this subject at the 2009 BIA Annual Meeting.

Few if any BIA members communicated such views to the BIA Board, and apart from a few instances reported individually by members of our board, we do not know how many reports Deputy Williams received. (He said he would keep a log of such calls, but we have seen no mention of them in monthly law enforcement activity reports in the Island papers). In general, however, it seemed clear that there was no more on-road ORV/ATV activity this summer than in the past, nor was there any indication that isolated instances of improper off-road operation were causally related to legal on-road operation. We will be asking the Sheriff Department and the DNR (which has jurisdiction over ORV use on state owned lands) for more effective response to reports of violations (such as driving ATVs on Kings Highway and Main Street). But we have seen no evidence of need to prohibit ORV/ATV operation on other Peaine Township roads and we will communicate this to the Peaine Township Board.

Whose Ax Does BIA Grind?

In some quarters a view may persist – and perhaps understandably so, given its BIPOA origins – that the Beaver Island Association exists primarily to protect and advocate for the interests of “seasonal” Beaver Islanders and off-island property owners. If that ever was the case, it isn't now and hasn't been for several years. As the slogan that accompanies our name is meant to indicate, the Association’s mission is to support the environmental and economic sustainability of Beaver Island, not the narrower interests or concerns of any sub-set of Beaver Islanders. Most (perhaps even most) of our members still may be “seasonals,” but we welcome and encourage all Islanders to join the Association and participate fully in its activities, no matter how long they have been here or how much time they spend here.

– Paul Glendon