BIA Board Member Pam Grassmick contributed to this report.
The Northern Lake Michigan Islands Collaborative meeting was well attended yesterday at the BIC BIC Center. New coordinator for the Collaborative is Matt Priesser, who has has been active in other island initiatives—including the Great Lakes Islands Alliance. He’s the Lake Coordinator for the new EGLE Department in their Water Resources Division. He introduced other state staff and explained some changes in roles that have occurred with the change up in Lansing—but it appears that the collaborative will largely carry on as before. One topic of discussion for the group was the question of additional input on land management activities by the DNR in areas that the Collaborative has identified for active management on the island. The consensus was that the extent of further public input and notice depended on the scope of the management. The DNR staff said they would come up with a framework for that and present it for review at the next meeting. In the meantime, no management activity—cutting, clearing and so on—are expected to occur. The Group also received reports on a number of pending projects—including proposals for a fishing dock at Lake Geneserath and further trail developments.
The afternoon session of the NLMIC moved to the auditorium for three 15 minute presentations. Those included surveys of natural communities on North and South Fox Islands by Josh Cohen of the governmental group, Michigan Natural Features Inventory. Noah Jansen from the Little Traverse Bay Bands discussed invasive species treatments and work on Garden and High. Noah updated the group on the successful fledgling of the 4 Piping Plovers chicks. Beth Leuck and Pam Grassmick finished with the Beaver Island Association’s summer work on the control efforts of the Emerald Ash Borer. Joe Moore’s News on the Net has video coverage.
Upon returning upstairs, Bill Markey spoke of the Dark Sky Project with the first site being formally developed at Little Sand Bay. Kitty McNamara gave an update on the Anderson Marina acquisition and Don Tritsch discussed the Lake Geneserath boat dock proposal which will need approval by Peaine Township.
