Economic Growth & the Environment: Challenges & Opportunities

Beaver Island’s limited economy affords meager year-round work opportunities, so its economic recovery and future growth depend less on summer tourism than on increasing the number of non-summer tourists and permanent Island residents not dependent on the Island for their livelihoods.

More people want to “get back to nature,” and Beaver Island could be an ideal place for year-round eco-tourism.  The serenity of the Island’s natural areas and its timeless small-community social structure have attracted retirees looking for hospitable places to spend their “golden years,” and continuation of that trend can and should be encouraged.  Another potential source of year-round residential growth is younger people (hopefully with children to more fully populate our new school) who still work but may prefer “virtual employment” at home in an environment less hectic, friendlier, safer and more pristine than most urban areas.  This would let us tap into a trend in which many companies use virtual employment to cut costs and boost productivity and employee satisfaction in occupations such as sales, consulting, technical service, programming and website development (details at www.2work-at-home.com/telecommute.shtml).

Until recently, lack of rapid Internet service on Beaver Island made most such employment here difficult if not impossible.  With DSL now available on most of the Island, that problem largely has been solved.  However, most jobs require the employee to report to a non-virtual office every so often and others require travel to client sites, and the Island’s lack of regular, affordable transportation to anywhere but Charlevoix is another impediment that still exists.

Attracting any significant number of new permanent residents to Beaver Island as a virtual workplace therefore will require development of improved transportation options.  Ideally, the Island would have regular flight service to a major airline hub, most likely the Chicago/Milwaukee area.  With over ten million residents, it could be a good source for virtual employees (and families) to relocate to Beaver Island.  Great Lakes Air already flies to Manistee and Ironwood from Milwaukee.  To improve economic development, we believe that establishing such service at least weekly between Beaver Island and Chicago and/or Milwaukee with either or both of our existing air services or another carrier should be a priority for Island leadership.

For retirees, the biggest reservation about permanent residence on Beaver Island may be limited access to a full range of health care.  Blessed as we are with the services and care-givers of the BI Rural Health Center, it is a fact of life that advancing age brings more need for emergency and/or specialty services of a major hospital, and getting to one of those quickly from Beaver Island can be difficult or impossible depending on weather and other uncontrollable factors.  Thus it seems another point of emphasis for Island leadership should be to develop a system for faster, more reliable flights to off-island emergency medical services and more comprehensive on-island capacity to attend to persons pending such transport.

Island Airways is working toward being designated as an air ambulance service, which requires extensive development of pilot training and airport operation manuals and demonstrated proficiency for pilots and ambulance service personnel.  Paul Welke reports that the manuals are written and await FAA approval and he is coordinating this process with Beaver Island EMS and expects Island Airways to be certified as an air ambulance service in six to twelve months.  This will be an important development, as will the Health Center’s pending affiliation with Northern Michigan Hospital.  But even when Island Airways is air ambulance certified, Welke notes, it will not be able to guarantee year-round 24/7 medical transport availability given weather, crew and equipment limitations, so additional work needs to be done on this.

Potential permanent BI residents are likely to experience the Island first as visitors/tourists.   They may be avid hunters, fishers, boaters, hikers, campers, birders, marathoners, golfers, or sunrise/sunset watchers.  But those who seriously would consider moving here would be attracted by what they perceive as a safe, friendly, welcoming small-community social environment and serene, pristine and diverse natural environment.  Internet advertising may be the most effective way to promote the attractions of Beaver Island to such people, emphasizing both the Island’s natural environment and infrastructure.  But to be effective the message must include improvements discussed above and capture and promote the full range of BI’s natural wonders, which in turn means Island leadership needs to do everything possible to preserve, protect and promote the rich biodiversity of Beaver Island’s forests, bogs, lakes, shoreline and wildlife.
Improving deer hunting is an important part of this, and local wildlife/hunting groups and the township boards have made significant strides in this regard with the Quality Deer Management (QDM) plan.  But the deer herd is only one of the Island’s natural wonders, and it is unlikely many people would move to Beaver Island just to hunt deer, no matter how magnificent the antlers, so this should be just one part of a whole-system approach to the Island’s natural environment.

With this in mind, the BIA recommended that the Michigan DNRE grant Biodiversity Stewardship Area (BSA) status to the whole island and establish a Wildlife Certification program to collaborate with township government, civic groups and private property owners to responsibly manage and protect all aspects of our uniquely diverse natural environment.  BSA designation is to represent commitment to conserving the state's biological heritage, focusing on maintenance and restoration of ecosystems within such areas.  As such, it seems appropriate for Beaver Island, which is recognized as having some of the best examples of natural communities in the state and being one of the ten most threatened Great Lakes islands in terms of biodiversity.

Beaver Island’s shoreline and interior initially were nominated for BSA designation, but the DNRE later indicated the interior could not be so designated because most of those state lands are dedicated for “game management research.”  Talks with DNRE officials last summer suggested a Wildlife Certification program unique to Beaver Island could accommodate both improved game management and research (a la QDM) and ecosystems protection and research (a la BSA); thus our advocacy for that approach.
It now appears BSA status won’t happen, because DNRE Wildlife Division Chief Russ Mason recently stated it “cannot be applied to Wildlife Division lands because of their official designation as ‘state experimental game areas’ [which] requires that management treatment of these lands focuses on the promotion of game species and fur-bearers, although these treatments would be calibrated to benefit as many other species as practical.”  But he also reiterated the hope that the DNRE could collaborate with the two townships and local groups in a plan for “coordinated wildlife management across ownerships (public and private)” that “would allow islanders more opportunity and special privileges to achieve desired wildlife population characteristics” and be “something absolutely unique . . . to promote tourism.”

We also support development of a comprehensive local plan for conservation, ecotourism and economic development that incorporates these principles and concerns.  The Natural Resources and Ecotourism Commission established by the township boards has made progress on this, but much remains to be done and we will stay involved in those efforts.  We ask hear BIA members’ views on these topics, particularly as to proper balance between hunting and broader environmental interests, and we encourage you to make those views known to township trustees and other Island leaders.

-Jim Jones & Paul Glendon