August 28, Burr Fisher from the East Lansing Ecological Service Field Office and Rick Westerhof from the Green Bay Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office gave a presentation on funding opportunities (National Fish Passage and Open Rivers Initiative, Coastal Program, Fish Habitat Restoration and Partners for Fish & Wildlife) through the Service to the Boardman River Dams Committee. 

The Boardman River Dams Committee purpose is to engage all interests in assessing and recommending the fate of the four dams on the main stem of the Boardman River.  The Committee has a unique role to ensure public participation, review reports and studies, raise issues, develop sub committees for specific purposes and provide input to the Implementation Team.

Burr and Rick serve on the Implementation Team which has the authority and responsibility for decisions related to the coordination of surrender of FERC license by Traverse City Light and Power, decommissioning of dams, and will make a recommendation to City of Traverse City and Grand Traverse County on the fate of the dams. 

The City of Traverse City is responsible for the Brown Bridge and Union dams, while Grand Traverse County is responsible for Boardman and Sabin dams.  Union Dam is the first dam on the Boardman River and currently is used to prevent passage of sea lampreys.  By March 2008, the City and County will make the decision on the fate of the dams on the basis of the recommendations from the Implementation Team.

The Boardman River is in the top ten for fisheries in the state of Michigan, with more than 36 miles (179 total miles) designated as a Blue Ribbon trout fishery and is also designated as a “Natural River”. 

Rick Westerhof, Fish Biologist