Welcome to Pine River Area Trout Unlimited - #524
Welcome to the Pine River Area Chapter web-site. We thank you for taking your time to review what we have to say and what we are all about. Our board wanted to provide a web-site as a communication piece to both Chapter members and persons wanting to know more about Trout Unlimited in Northern Michigan.
About Pine River TU
We are a grass roots group of dedicated angler/conservationists in the Cadillac Michigan area whose purposes are:
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To conserve, protect and restore our local cold water streams and fisheries and their watersheds.
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To study, understand and enhance our wild cold water resources.
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To pass on our love and knowledge for the sport to the next generation of anglers in our area. This is done by person-to-person interactions, by group participation at meetings and activities and with partnerships with other local organizations.
We hope you take the time to check out our history, our projects and fund raising efforts. We also want you to contact us. Let us know what you think about our site. Inform us of important conservation issues in your neighborhood. Give us ideas about projects. As importantly, we want you to get involved with our Chapter. Give us a call, attend one of our meetings and let us know if you want to get involved.
Winter 2024/25 Newsletter
The Pine River Area Chapter held its 35th Conservation Banquet on May 11th. We cleared a profit of $7,400. We thank all the donors and all who attended this fundraiser. Many voiced their desire to return the venue to Caberfae Ski Resort as in past years. Unfortunately workable dates for 2025 are not available for us. We are sorry to say that a 2025 banquet will not happen this year.
The North Branch of the Pine Stream Project was completed in 2024. PRATU board members consulted with DNR Fisheries biologist Mark Tonello, the goal of creating a deeper stream bed and improving fish cover for this ¼ mile section of trout stream. These improvements were accomplished by adding and repositioning dead fall trees and wooden debris allowing shallow sand and sediment to be moved by high water events. Tonello and two board members inspected the site for the feasibility of restoration work. A budget of $15,000 was approved by the board along with a contribution from the Pine River Association. PRATU Vice Chair Mark Johnson was instrumental in acquiring land owner permission and necessary permits from MDNR and EGLE. Shawn Kanouse and crew from Kanouse Outdoor Restoration were contracted in July of 2024 to do the work. Dennis Wieand, Zero Gravity Aerial, was hired to do drone video footage before the restoration work began and later in the fall, after the restoration, for comparison.
Jordyn Stoll Ph.D. Aquatic Ecologist with Michigan TU recruited help from our chapter member Wayne Andersen to complete 84 transplants of Sago Pond weed, a long grass-like vegetation. These transplants were removed from the Pine at Skookum south access area and placed at Silver Creek campground, State Road just upstream of Silver Creek, Meadowbrook, and at 5 Mile Road. Data was recorded at each location for the substrate type, depth and sunlight exposure. This project is a trial test and will be monitored for propagation of the Sago for the next couple years. Sago can provide excellent cover for juvenile trout and also provide aquatic insect habitat.
In May, PRATU members also helped Jordyn to deploy 12 temperature loggers and collect samples for Didimo testing at the logger locations on the Pine and its tributaries. We then retrieved the loggers in October. TU National and MITU will be using this information for a state wide data base of Michigan trout streams for temperature data. This info will be available in the near future.
The PRATU annual membership meeting is planned for Saturday February 22 at 1:00 at the Carl T Center in Cadillac. There will be an open discussion regarding Michigan’s proposed fishing license fee increases and how these monies are to be used. We are hoping to see more members attend this meeting. As always, we are open to suggestions, so feel free to contact any board member or me, Tim Birtles at 231-775-1661. Thank you for your continued support.
Academic Scholarship
A scholarship was formed in memory of long time board members Denny Douglas and Ron Hamilton of the Pine River Area Chapter of Trout Unlimited who passed in 2021. They were dedicated members who worked on many river projects, banquets, youth programs, as well as years on our PRATU board and will be sadly missed. For further details, please refer to the application found here, Click Here for Application.