The members of the Boardman River Dam Committee give a tour of the Boardman Pond drawdown to Judy Beck from the Environmental Protection Agency and Stephanie Lindloff, from American Rivers. - FWS photo

The Boardman River cuts a new channel through the Boardman Pond because of the mandated drawn down for safety concerns at the dam. - FWS photo

Last month, Rick Westerhof, Green Bay National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, attended the Boardman River Dams Committee (BRDC) and Finance Committee meetings in Traverse City, Michigan. 

Westerhof provided information and answered questions at the Finance Committee meeting about funding opportunities (Fish Passage and Open Rivers Initiative (ORI), Partners for Fish & Wildlife Fish Habitat Restoration and Coastal Program) through the USFWS. 

He also participated on a conference call with a subgroup of the Finance Committee and Matt Collins from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  Collins explained the ins-and-outs of the application and ORI funding process.

After all the discussions, the Finance Committee decided to submit two fish passage proposals to USFWS and one to NOAA.  The USFWS proposals were split into one for Brown Bridge and Union dams that are owned by the City of Traverse City and the second one for Boardman and Sabin dams that are owned by Grand Traverse County. 

The reason for two separate proposals was to avoid a potential conflict with ORI funding through NOAA.  The Finance Committee also submitted a proposal for ORI funding from NOAA for Union Street Dam. 

Unfortunately, you can’t use ORI funding from NOAA and USFWS on the same project, but can use the money in the same watershed.  Both proposals requested funds to assist with the development of options (retention, removal or modification) for each dam.

Judy Beck, from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Great Lakes National Program Office and Stephanie Lindloff, from American Rivers toured the Boardman Pond drawdown on October 5, 2007 with members from the BRDC. 

The BRDC was interested in getting their perspectives on potential funding opportunities and getting them out to see how the Boardman River was cutting a new channel through the impoundment.  Boardman Pond was drained down because of safety concerns at the dam. 

Since the BRDC is to engage all interests in assessing and recommending the fate of the four dams on the main stem of the Boardman River, the process is very costly and time consuming, as all potential dam options will be explored.  Baseline information about all aspects of the natural resources upstream and downstream of the dams is still being collected to evaluate all the options.