Saving Fish With Fish Shares

Community Supported Fishing and City Chickens are the next big things it looks like.

More thoughts on saving fish with fish shares at the NYT: Fish Shares and Sharing Fish

More Community Supported Fishing

Mentioned this idea last March.

The idea is growing. See: Skipper Otto's Wild BC Salmon CSF

How much does it cost & what will I get?
The cost is $250.00/ year. You will receive approximately 35lbs of the best quality whole, fresh and/ or frozen salmon that is available that season direct from the fisherman. This amounts to roughly 7 fish at around 5lbs each (about $7/lb). Most years, you will receive nothing but sockeye salmon; however, if the sockeye runs are poor, you will receive an equivalent value of other salmon.

Via TreeHugger

Preservation In The Midst Of 1000 Cuts

We're lucky enough in northern Michigan to have large stretches of wilderness. Yet, in urban areas too, a new study indicates preserving patches of green can help mobile species.

See ScienceBlog: Networks of small habitat patches can preserve urban biodiversity

Bill Clous, Mission Accomplished

8/17/2003
A story of stumps, crops and zoning

Bill Clous says he's a farmer who wants to raise crops on 360 acres of damp, rolling fields in East Bay Township.

But Clous also is one of the region's biggest residential developers, and a recent township zoning overhaul could allow him to build 2,000 homes and an industrial park on land where authorities allege he willfully damaged wetlands and violated numerous environmental laws.

The collection of family farms Clous assembled over the past 20 years north of Hammond Road and between Townline and Three Mile roads will stay in farming, he said.
"My honest intention is to farm it for at least 10 years," Clous recently told the Record-Eagle. "(But) nothing's etched in stone."

10/16/2008
Clous to build on land he pledged to farm

Clous plans to build hundreds of subsidized senior citizen apartments, as well as a commercial development, on property he cleared and scoured and pledged to farm for a decade.

The project on a 54-acre parcel will include 360 apartments in three, three-story buildings and 120 rooms in an assisted-living facility bordered by about 10 acres of commercial development off Three Mile Road.

In 2004, Clous agreed to a consent judgment with Grand Traverse County and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to settle a lawsuit over allegations he illegally bulldozed wetlands on 360 acres there. Clous said the land was being prepared for farming.

The Best View In Lower Michigan

It is the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy's proposed 'Elberta Dunes South'.

See the RE: View from Elberta Dunes

Giving Businesses Credit

Via MLive - Business Tax Break Proposed For Land Donations

It would be a real boon to Michigan and especially northern Michigan if Senator Allen can get this through.

Finding Balance

The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy is drawing criticism for this - Tv 7&4 - Controversy over Arcadia Dunes land.

The Conservancy is in a difficult position. How to preserve large tracts of land and preserve the agrarian tradition of the area? In the long view, woods and farms can be exchanged but streets and parking lots are (usually) forever so what they've done seems like a decent compromise. Yet perhaps more can be done with future conservation easements so that natural features of historical importance get special mention?

Recent news articles also show this dilema - do you make money with farms or preserving forests?

USAToday - Savvy farmers open the gate to agritourism

NYT - Leafonomics

Below is a map of Arcadia Dunes.


View Larger Map

Study Shows People Prefer To Live Next To A River Than A Dam

Dam removal increases property values

Everything In Wyoming Is On A Different Scale

With one purchase, the Green River Valley Land Trust preserved 837 acres.
Land trust buys ranch easement

Even more amazingly, the Land Trust has preserved 20,000 acres in seven years.

For comparison, the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy has preserved about 26,000 acres in 16 years.