Published: July 30, 2008 08:00 pm      

Group working to purchase 1,700-acre tract

KALKASKA -- More than 1,700 acres of woods and water in Kalkaska County could soon be off limits from future development and open for public hunting, fishing and other recreation.

The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy is working with the state to buy the old Flowing Well fish hatchery and surrounding property, about eight miles east of Kalkaska.

State natural resources officials are considering the purchase of an approximate $3.4 million conservation and public access easement at the site, much of it bordered by state and federal land.

It will be the second largest conservation project in the local conservancy's history, said Matt McDonough who's their senior land protection specialist.

"There aren't too many 1,700-acre tracts of property out there to protect anymore," he said. The land is owned by a group of downstate residents who use it as a hunting and fishing retreat.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources intends to clean up fish disease contamination at the former hatchery, while the conservancy will remove a number of old buildings, officials said.

The nearly three square miles of property includes river frontage on the North Branch of the Manistee River, Morrison Creek and other smaller tributaries, all state-designated natural rivers. Habitats there include conifer swamps, aspen-birch and northern hardwood forests.

A bald eagle and red-shouldered hawk are known to live at the site, which also is ideal habitat for wood turtles and eastern massassauga rattlesnakes, McDonough said.

The hatchery closed down after a heavy infestation of whirling disease about six years ago. It's a potentially fatal fish parasite that spreads in water and can remain in sediment for decades, said Tom Rozich, DNR fishery biologist.

DNR officials do not want the disease to end up in the Manistee River watershed, he said.

"The parasite burrows into the skin of fish and gets into the central nervous system, avoiding the fish's immune system," Rozich said.

Existing fish raceways and ponds at the old hatchery will be drained, treated with lime and then buried.

There are no cost estimates yet for the work, Rozich said.

DNR Director Rebecca Humphries will consider the easement at the Aug. 14 meeting of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission in Lansing, while the conservancy's board will decide on the project at a meeting in September.