view archived features The Health of a River: Steve Largent and the Boardman River Project Have a Dream for a Stream Robert Downes
When Steve Largent began conducting a survey of the Boardman River as a student back in 1990, he made an alarming discovery. The river and its watershed was literally choking with sediment from hundreds of erosion sites, killing micro organisms and the fish which fed on them. Today, as director of the Boardman River Project, Largent can look back on research which led to anti-erosioin efforts to preserve the Boardman from further damage. His Project will also receive a major boost in public awareness at this Sunday's River Jam Music Festival in Traverse City, with a number of information booths mixed in with the music, food and fun (see related article). "We hope the River Jam will help raise awareness and foster stewardship, understanding and conservation efforts for the river," Largent says. "The event will help open people's eyes to the threats to the river." And those threats are considerable, because with more than 600 erosion sites identified in the Boardman River watershed, there is only enough manpower to eradicate about 20 per year. "At that rate, this is a project that will probably never end," Largent notes.
RIVER MEMORIES There are 22 streams flowing into the Boardman River from its headwaters in the Pere Marquette Forest to its mouth at Grand Traverse Bay. These waterways make up approximately 130 miles of a Blue Ribbon Trout Stream and a state-designated Natural River. "We're extremely fortunate to have a huge amount of public land in the upper watershed of the river," Largent says, adding that some two million recreational users enjoy the bounty of the Boardman watershed each year, hunting, fishing, skiing, boating and swimming along its banks. Largent grew up not far from Boardman Lake. "As a kid, my parents used to take us on drives looking for deer along the river on Sunday, or to go fishing," he recalls. "As I grew older, I started to explore the area on my own." Ironically, Largent spent 10 years with Peninsula Asphalt, running its concrete block division -- a job which was anything but conservation-minded. "My job depended on how much the area developed, with the more malls and subdivisions the better," he recalls. "Back then, we were developing the area without any planning or sense of conservation." Eventually, Largent's interest in the environment led to a new direction. "I decided to put my money where my mouth was and went back to school with a dream of coming back here and making a difference."
A RIVER SURVEYED in the '80s, Largent enrolled in the University of Montana, where he obtained a degree in wildlife biology with an aquatic emphasis. In 1990, he returned to Northern Michigan as a student intern to conduct a survey of Boardman River erosion sites. That year, he discovered 80 erosion sites along the river from the Grand Traverse/Kalkaska county line to Brown Bridge Pond. His initial study was used by the Grand Traverse Conservation District to secure a state grant to study all erosion sites in the Boardman River watershed. Although the grant was only for six months, Largent put a year into his survey, donating his time for the remainder. "Ultimately, we found 600 erosion sites putting sediment into the Boardman River and its tributaries, with 80 percent of it coming from human activities," he says. Why is sediment harmful to a river? "It really destroys the river bottom," Largent says. "It just smothers it and very few organisms can survive. "A healthy river bottom provides a habitat for little aquatic organisms and bugs that are only a half-inch or an inch long. These insects need something on the riverbed to grab onto in order to survive, such as plants or gravel. Secondly, they breathe through gills just like fish and that can be difficult when there's a lot of sediment in the water. These insects are the food for fish, and if there's no insects, then there's no trout."
FISH FACTOR Fish also need a sediment-free river bottom to spawn. Trout scoop holes in gravel into a mound called a "redd" to spawn their eggs. Water flows through this gravel mound to incubate the eggs. "If a lot of sediment comes downstream, it may settle for only a few days, but it smothers the redd," Largent says. In the past, fish populations were on the decline in the Boardman due to sediment and erosion, but are on the rebound now, according to the DNR. Through the help of volunteers from the Adams chapter of Trout Unlimited, as well as the Grand Traverse Conservation District and prison workers from Camp Pugsley, some 84 erosion sites have been repaired over a four-year period. Additionally, five sand traps of 110-200 feet in length have been created in the river. The sandtraps are literally ditches dug into the riverbed which collect sediment flowing from upstream. These and other efforts are a continuance of a river preservation campaign which started decades ago under the guidance of Jim Haveman of the Northwest Michigan Conservation and Development group, and which have continued on, mostly with troutsmen at the forefront. "The Adams chapter of Trout Unlimited is the biggest source of labor put together," Largent says. Today, there are some 200 members of the Boardman River Project, which works closely with the Grand Traverse Land Conservancy to preserve the river. Largent is assisted in the effort by watershed technician Rebecca Teahen and student interns such as Michael Messing. Largent says a big part of his work is introducing property owners along the Boardman to the idea of conservation easements offered via the Conservancy. "In many ways, working with the Land Conservancy is more important than the restoration of the river because once the land along the riverbank is gone, there's nothing for us to work with," he says.
For more information on the Boardman River Project, check out www.boardmanriver.org, or visit the River Jam in Traverse City this weekend at the Cass Street Bridge. The family event is free of charge.
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