Still Time to Comment on Manistee NF Quiet Areas

Bowman Lake Semi-Primitive Area (photo by jhy)

by JHY

You have until December 23 to comment on the following situation in the Manistee.

Some people may be aware of a lawsuit brought against the Manistee National Forest which has required them to consider increasing the number of acres set aside for quiet sports. This has set off a huge firestorm among hunting, snowmobiling, and ATV interests. These groups have strongly organized to oppose the proposals. From the Forest Service perspective, it has created a huge amount of paperwork and chewed up time which could not be spent doing other things.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I deplore the amount of money it has taken the Forest Service to prepare alternative solutions and all the accompanying documentation. However, I do agree with the basic idea that quiet recreation often gets the short end of the stick.

You may have seen media coverage of this issue if you live in Michigan. All the news reports I've seen have made it sound as if hunters and motorized vehicles will be banned from the whole forest. The media seems to have worked hard to make this as hot of an issue as possible.

In truth, only 70,000 acres, out of a million in the forest, will be affected. That's less than 1% of the land!

In addition to recreational uses, the Forest has included rare plants, wildlife management, and timber management in their SEIS (Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement), but these are outside the scope of this blog post.

It's really hard to sift through the documents to the crux of the issue, but I believe I've got it right... I made a couple of phone calls, and have searched the web for info from others who have read all the paperwork. The Forest has prepared three alternatives:

• A. Do nothing. This would leave all areas as they are- open to the same uses.
  
• B. Combine all semiprimitive nonmotorized areas into a single management area and ban hunting in addition to the current ban on motorized vehicles. This is the FS preferred alternative because it creates the least amount of additional work (about 64,000 acres). See additional comments below.
  
• C. Change all semiprimitive motorized areas to nonmotorized, thus increasing the nonmotorized areas by 17,000 acres. This would ban both hunting and motorized use.
  

The North Country Trail passes through all three of the existing semiprimitive nonmotorized areas. These are the Manistee River SPA, Bowman Lake SPA, and Condon Lakes West SPA. Therefore, with either B or C, there will be increased places where one can walk on the NCT without encountering hunters. If Alternative C is implemented, then the Loda Lake Motorized SPA would also become nonmotorized, creating a fourth "quiet" area along the NCT. Condon Lakes East would also become nonmotorized, and this is adjacent to the trail.

Opponents say that there is so much noise encroaching from adjacent properties that this whole idea is silly. And of course, there has been the huge outcry that the Forest is trying to ban "noisy" users from the whole Forest. It's just not true.

The court decision stated that "the [Forest] Service failed to identify the various recreation preferences of user groups. Specifically, just because the Forest Plan may allow a variety of "activities" (i.e., snowshoeing, snowmobiling, hunting, cross-country skiing, bird watching) does not mean that the Plan is adequate. Rather, the Service should focus on the "quality" of those recreational opportunities and the recreational preferences for the users." Finally, someone noticed that low-tech users do not receive a quality experience in shared areas!

This post has gotten long. There is a nice table comparing the alternatives at The Alternatives. This is a pdf which lists the alternatives, and has a chart near the end.

If you would like to see more of a quality experience for hikers, with little actual impact on hunters and motorized users of the Forest, please send a comment and endorse Alternative B or C. The deadline is Dec 23, 2011.

HOW TO COMMENT • U.S. Mail - Send written comments to Lee Evison, Forest Planner, Huron-Manistee National Forests, 1755 S. Mitchell Street, Cadillac, MI 49601 • Fax - 231-775-5551 • Electronic - comments-eastern-huron-manistee@fs.fed.us (Comments sent via email should contain the subject line "Forest Plan SEIS"

This segment is on NCTA map MI-04, and MI-05

See Index to all the Manistee National Forest Documentation on the SEIS.

State Forest Camping in Michigan

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by JHY

I'm getting ready for my next and final round of NCT hikes (that count toward an end-to-end total). I'll be doing dispersed camping in some Michigan State Forests. Did you know that you are supposed to have a permit to do that, and that if you get caught without one it can be a $100 fine? Well, I knew it, but I'm actually trying to comply this time.

First of all, let's be clear. This is not the same as State Game Areas. They have completely different rules. It is also not State Parks. The rules are also slightly different for Designated State Forest Campgrounds. This post only addresses dispersed camping.

The Michigan State Forests through which the NCT passes are: Pere Marquette State Forest (map MI-05), Mackinaw State Forest (map MI-06), Lake Superior State Forest (map MI-09), Escanaba River State Forest (map MI-11), and Copper Country State Forest (map MI-12).

It is both easy and a pain in the neck to get these free permits. You can't download them on line or have them faxed or emailed. They say it's because they are made in two parts and printed on waterproof paper. Well, I won't rant, but anyway, you have to go to a DNR office to get them. Their web site says that you must go to a regional office. That's not true. Any field office will have them. For example, I don't have to go to Cadillac, but I will have to go to Baldwin to get the permit forms. Supposedly there is a box outside the door with forms in it that you can get even when they are not open. But of course, there is no guarantee that anyone has filled the box.

There are a bunch of rules, of course, but only a few are really pertinent to NCT hikers. I've linked to the complete list below, but here are some that may be relevant.

• Everyone who stays overnight needs one, whether using a tent, hammock, RV, trailer, or even a sleeping bag, etc. For designated sites, no more than 4 unrelated persons can stay in a site, but I don't see any regulations about this for dispersed camping.
• You must be more than 1 mile from a designated State Forest Campground.
• You cannot camp for more than 15 consecutive days, and if you move your site it must be at least 1/2 mile from the previous one.
• You can't leave a campsite unoccupied for more than 24 hours

Here's what you do with those permits. You need one for each campsite you plan to use. Fill it out, tie it on a tree or some permanent feature. When you leave the site, leave the permit. Yes... they claim that one of their rangers will find it. No comments about understaffed state agencies and their inability to police unlawful ATV use, shooting of signs, etc. But they will find your little scrap of waterproof paper tied to a tree.

So when you get the blank permits, take a few extra so that you are sure to have a new one for each campsite you think you might use.

There is one huge exception in a Michigan State Forest, which is the Jordan River Valley of the Mackinaw State Forest on MI-06, where dispersed camping is not allowed. In fact, the only place NCT hikers can camp in that segment is at the Pinney Bridge SF Campground. This makes it very difficult to hike through that area without support.

This segment is on NCTA maps MI-05, MI-06, MI-09, MI-11, MI-12

See Michigan State Forest Camping Regulations

Could Alternative Energy Affect the North Country Trail?

harvesting biomass (Creative Commons photo by _Asea on Flickr)

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based on a news story in the Michigan Messenger

June Thaden, secretary of the Grand Traverse Hiking Club, has noted that "East of Guernsey Lake there’s a portion of the trail that we can’t even find because there was a clearcut."

It is possible that if the Renewable Portfolio Standards for alternative energy is adopted by Michigan, more areas of state forest could be not only clearcut, but clear cleaned.

State Forester Cara Bouchard commented that only about a third of the new growth that occurs each year is being removed. She felt that much more could be harvested each year to help meet energy needs without harm. One-fifth of Michigan is preserved in state forests, with about 55,000 acres logged each year.

However, even clearcut logging leaves slash and debris on the ground. Biomass harvesting takes all organics out of the forest. Because of the technology of biomass burning, all parts of the tree can be used for energy generation.

Generation of energy by burning biomass is not a completely new idea in northern Michigan. Cadillac has one wood burning plant, and Traverse City is considering the idea. Mancelona is definitely planning to build one. Fuel would need to come from nearby locations.

Ultimately, the question is going to be whether this type of harvesting is compatible with the recreational uses of state forests. This tension is no stranger to trail volunteers. State forests have been managed primarily for timber harvesting, and the NCT has usually been routed along section lines rather than in ways which will appeal to hikers. The reasons given have been directly related to the desire to maintain "timber management units" intact.

Thaden added that the state sometimes mandates logging buffer zones to protect recreational areas, "but even if they specify that in the contract, it doesn’t always happen." It can be noted that the buffer zones are often silly, consisting of one row of trees on each side of the trail. Trail volunteers have also seen many logging operations where, despite agreements, the logging company has used the trail as a skid road, obliterated all traces of the thru-route, and left mountains of slash which must be cleared.

Let's hope that if biomass harvesting is undertaken, that better agreements and monitoring can be worked out to protect recreational interests, including the North Country Trail.

This segment is on NCTA maps of Michigan

New Regulations on State Land in NY

from the New York DEC

On May 13, 2009 the DEC finally adopted the proposed amendments to the lands and forest regulations that had first been proposed in May of 2008.

These new rules apply to both the forest preserve (a/k/a the Adirondack Park) and all state lands under DEC control outside of the forest preserve, a/k/a unique areas, state forests, reforestation areas, multiple use areas, environmentally sensitive lands or those rights owned and managed by the State as conservation easements.

Here are the highlights that might have an impact on Finger Lakes Trail hikers and the FLTC:
1. Mushroom picking is prohibited except for personal consumption.
2. Snowmobiles and bikes can be used on any trail or forest road outside of the forest preserve except those specifically designated or posted by the DEC as closed to snowmobiles or bikes.
3. Any activity involving more than 20 people now requires a permit, including "sponsored hikes."
4. Weddings and commercial film making need a permit from the DEC to be held on state land.
5. The storage of personal property on state land is prohibited with a few exceptions:
     (A) a geocache that is labeled with the owner's name and address and installed in a manner that does not disturb the natural conditions of the site or injure a tree;
     (B) a camping structure or equipment that is placed and used legally pursuant to the regulations;
     (C) a legally placed trap or appurtenance that is placed and used during trapping season;
     (D) a tree stand or hunting blind that does not injure a tree, is properly marked or tagged with the owner's name and address or valid hunting or fishing license number, and is placed and used during big game season, migratory game bird season, or turkey season; or
     (E) a wildlife viewing blind or stand that is placed for a duration not to exceed thirty (30) days in one location per calendar year, does not injure a tree, and is properly marked or tagged with the owner's name and address or valid hunting or fishing license number.
6. Except as stated above, no one is allowed to erect, construct, occupy or maintain any structure that is affixed to a tree by nails, screws or other means that injure or damage the tree except as otherwise authorized by the department. "Structure is defined very broadly, and includes "signs."
7. Fires are prohibited on roads, trails, and in parking lots (apparently aimed at ending teenage gatherings.)
8. Unauthorized research projects are prohibited on state land.
9. The use of clay targets and other breakable targets is prohibited on state land.
10. The DEC can now prohibit target practice in specific areas by posting.
11. Paintballs and paintball guns cannot be possessed on state land.

The DEC also stated: "Numerous comments were received relating to dogs on leashes. This rulemaking does not address dog leash issues."

These rules do not apply to the portion of the finger Lakes trail that runs through state land under the control of the NYS Parks Department (like Allegany, Darien Lakes, Letchworth) or the Finger Lakes National Forest.