Are you a giver or a taker? It's a simple question that goes far beyond a one-word yes or no answer.
The bottom line here, in the event that this question may come as a big surprise to some of my faithful readers, is very simple. Do you take more from your fishing or hunting trips and your living area, than you put back?
How about those rivers where salmon and trout were once plentiful? Those rivers don't support the same number of salmonids as they once did, and they may never regain their great popularity as world-class steelhead waters.
What about our Department of Natural Resources, a state agency nearly as financially bankrupt as the entire state government. When people lose their jobs in downstate factories, they often move north. Acre by acre, day after day, our land is being gobbled up, paved over and otherwise descecrated. Pheasants like these roosters are no longer common anywhere in the state.
Deer numbers in our area are way down so we hunt elsewhere when we can. Does this solve the problem? Of course not, it just puts a bit more hunting pressure on an area that hasn't felt the full force of land development like what has taken place around Traverse City. Where are the brook that once lived here?
The purchase of a fishing or hunting license grants us nothing more than an opportunity to legally fish or hunt. It is a privilege but not a guaranteed right. It promises opportunities, not limit catch or a heavy game bag.
$portsmen must learn to ask politicians the hard-hitting questions.
In days of old, when knights were bold, the landowner owned the fish and game. They also owned the river water that flowed through their property, and Heaven help those pesky peasants who poached one of the king's red stags, a brown trout or Atlantic salmon.
People must learn to give something instead of always taking.
When will we get rid of all the crooks in government. Books have been written about Kwame Kilpatrick, who followed the lead of former Detroit mayor Coleman Young. The city was just something to be looted for personal game. They caught Kilpatrick, tossed him in the clink, but whatever they do to crooked politicians isn't enough to satisfy those who lost their savings.
One needs to look no furthern than some politicians. Consider Kwame Kilpatrick and his sordid text messages and political hijinks. He got some time in the can, but not nearly long enough for someone who profited while the city he was paid to protect teeters on the edge of death and total collapse, a city where crime is rampant. I ask: What will become of our open fields, marshlands, hardwoods and conifers that now provide cover for game and non-game animals and birds here in northern Michigan? Has anyone paid attention to the downsizing of Michigan's deer herd? The marked decrease in snowshoe hares and some game birds?A nice brace of ringneck pheasants taken during a snowstorm.
The answers are not nice but they are easy. We're talking about an excessive loss of habitat. We're talking greedy businessmen. How, I wonder, can Exxon and other gas companies declare such huge profits for shareholders while the average person was breaking his back trying to stay afloat when gasoline was over $4 per gallon just over a year ago. We have Medicare programs that no one understands, and skyrocketing prescription drug prices. It's bureaucracy at its worst.
Granted, what has happened in the past several years to our deer herd is not easy to cope with. But take a hard look at some of the problems. Urban sprawl is eating away at land necessary for deer to live. People move north, buy their five or 10 acres of paradise, and disrupt deer travel routes. Homes are built where deer crossed roads. As more people move in, buy land, the terrain becomes even more fragmented. The deer soon disappear to another area that has yet to be exploited. People see bears where they've never been seen before. The animals need a place to live, but humans have taken over. We own 20 acres we bought 30 years ago, and admit that we may have contributed to the problem. However, we did it long before the big push to move north came about.Try to find brook trout like this now.
Thirty years ago when we moved here, Traverse City was a quaint northern Michigan town with about 8,000 people. Look at it today. It has the same types of problems as southern cities now faced. Drugs, embezzlement, rape, robbery, murder. We've got that whole bag of nastiness up here now, and paradise has lost most of its glitter and luster, but it still looks nicer than downstate so people keep coming back for another sample of the north.
Twenty or 30 years from now, when Traverse City has expanded southeast past Kingsley, southwest to Thompsonville, northwest to fill the entire Leelanau Peninsula, and northeast to meet Charlevoix that is expanding southward, we'll have the same problems that people fled when they moved north from the downstate big cities. The difference is those who moved north brought much of their excess baggage with them, and now they want this area to be like their home area once was. Folks, it doesn't happen that way. When will people look around, see the slow but inevitable destruction of this area, and wonder how and why we let it happen? Of course, the answer is easy: we are too busy raising a family, pinching pennies because half our pay is a view of the bay, and if we live long enough, we'll learn that if we aren't part of the solution, then we must be part of the ever-growing problem. Meanwhile, paradise has been turned into another drug storechain, gas station, bank or a cement-carpeted parking lot. And one must look hard to find a rose to smell, a deer to see, or that wonderful silence at night when the northern lights sparkled in the heavens. Sorry folks, but the aurora borealis is hard to see through the glare of city lights. The problem is people have taken what we deemed as ours and given nothing in return. How sad is that? How greedy are we? Many people should be ashamed of themselves. They've paved over paradise and turned it into a parking lot. It's time for state residents to start giving something back.
Scott:
I’m not so narrow-minded that I can’t look at the flip side of the coin. What you say is true, but what I wrote also is true. I moved into the area (bought a home) in 1976.
Traverse City was a small town back then. No mega-malls, very little crime, and decent roads, to mention just a few differences. I mentioned embezzlement in last night’s piece, and then just read in today’s paper that someone else was charged with that very crime. Rapes, we’ve got ‘em, and we also have murders, including one police officer several years ago.
The crime scene in 1976 was mostly petty things. That’s no longer the case. I probably don’t get many points from the T.C. Visitor & Convention Bureau, but the town has grown, the whole area is expanding, and people still flock to the area to live. Where they live is there business, but leave your downstate ideas downstate. We had a sportsman’s club shut down near Kingsley a few years ago, and by whom: some folks who just moved in from downstate. They knew the club was there when the bought the place but began worrying unnecessarily about possible injury or death.
Traverse City no longer is the quaint little northern city it once was. Look close and you can see a bit of the past, but sadly, one sees more of the present. What I wrote about losing habitat for game is true. A couple of bears were seen in town about four-five blocks from Munson Hospital last summer, and the residents were shocked. The same is true for Cadillac.
The bears, deer and other critters need a place to live. Such places are no longer possible so we have bears in town. It doesn’t bother me, but it certainly bothers some of the other residents.
Blogs are, by their very nature, personal things. Cities that grow too fast and crowd out the wildlife are taken to task. When all of Traverse City is paved over, like it is in and around Harrison Township, where will people go then to find their little slice of paradise.
There’s still some room up in the Upper Peninsula. When I can no longer see the northern lights in the winter, that tells me there are too much new building, too many people in a small area, and I wonder what will happen in the not-too-distant future.
I have this thing for wild places. The only wild places around Traverse City these days may be a bar when two or more people disagree on something, and a fight breaks out. I, for one, still love the quietness of winter, but I don’t want to get started on that.
Granted, many people up this way depend on the tourist dollar. None of those dollars end up in my pocket. I’m just concerned that the area is growing too fast, and I wonder where the bears and deer, etc. will go next. I hope you can see some of my points about rapid growth in the north. It’s not all pretty, and some of it does nothing for the local cash registers either. — Dave
Dave,
After reading your article tonite, I felt a need to comment on what I felt to be a little unfair blame. I would first like to say, that I enjoy reading your articles daily and I can relate to many because, I have been going up to the T.C. area to fish and have fun for about twenty five years. I too have seen the changes in the area and I feel your disappointment. I do however disagree that it is brought on by people from down state bringing their issues and problems with them.
The situation as I see it is that people up there want to accomodate what people from down here and elsewhere want for the purpose to bring in business and make money. All the building and so called area improvements could not be done unless your local government approves it. I think your locals were the ones that sold you out?
I lived down state in Harrison Township, which I think you are familiar with the area? I can remember when condominiums and apartments were far and few. all that changed when others needed a place to park their big boats and live close by the water. Thanks to our local officials, they were also glad to accomidate and the same thing happened to this area.
Anyways, I hope you will consider my point and thank you for writing about some well deserved topics on a near daily basis.
Sincerely,
Scott France