Not Far from the River

The signs of spring in March and early April are often mixed and changes in weather can occur rapidly. For the most part trees are still bare although swelling buds are starting to appear and growing larger each day; willows and dogwoods take on a rosy hue before leafing out. The thin washed light of winter gradually becomes denser and more penetrating.

Redwing blackbirds start to appear, bobbing on roadside reeds and cattails. Occasional late snows dust the trees and the dry brittle leaves on the ground below. It is a time of impatience.

In late winter thoughts turn to spring despite the sporadic bitter weather, and these thoughts often wander to northern trout streams and fly fishing. A litany of rivers flows through the pale yellow shafts of sunlight that pierce through the pinnacle pines and cedar sweepers. The silent, curling Manistee, the tea-stained Black, the Sturgeon, and the Pere Marquette. In the upper peninsula the Big Two-Hearted, the Escanaba, the Laughing White-fish, and the rollicking Yellowdog, course through the sentinel pines and gray-green spruces.

In the weeks to come, white trilliums and other wildflowers will bloom beneath the trees, and marsh marigolds will appear along the Au Sable. Trout streams that seem muted and lifeless as they flow between banks covered with patchy remnants of snow, are teeming with life beneath the surface. In the river gravel and bottom stones, nymphs and other forms of insect life that will become the fly hatches of the coming season lie waiting to emerge.

In anticipation of trips north, flyrods are brought out of the closet and cleaned and checked as glowing logs burn softly in the fire-place grate while a cold rain slashes at the window.

In recent years the first spring trip up north to the Au Sable has been accompanied by feelings of apprehension. Driving along roads near the river, eyes search dartingly for indications. Invariably they appear. Freshly cut stakes tipped with bright strips of fluorescent plastic ribbon line the road at construction sites. Brightly colored plastic flags strung across new attractions or vacation subdivisions snap in the wind.

The northern lower peninsula is being developed, paved-over, and malled- over at an alarming rate. The north country is experiencing a tremendous boom in golf course and resort construction and the inevitable development that follows. Some of these areas are beginning to encounter the same problems that plague larger downstate urban locations.

A number of large northern developments are currently embroiled in legal battles with various environmental groups and state agencies. When an environmental group wins it is only temporary and the battle usually has to be repeated; when the developers win, the results are final and irrevocable. When permits are denied, the developers come back with revised proposals or counter suits. In some cases, they proceed with the development or expansion and then pay the resulting fines.

All too often development schemes are sanctioned by government to support politicians. Communities and states battle in a ridiculous competition for growth through industry and development. Local governments, offering tax abatements and other incentives, eagerly pursue companies and developments for their communities. Growth and change are inevitable but in many cases it is unplanned and out of control.

An extreme example of the results of unplanned growth can be seen in the southeastern area of Michigan where large portions of farmland are fast disappearing because of urban sprawl. Without a regional master plan, businesses and suburbs leapfrog one another while older suburbs go into decline. The resultant sprawl will very shortly extend from Toledo to Ann Arbor to the thumb area.

Local boosterism often sees growth only in terms of bigger is better, ignoring the fact that a trade-off is involved. Expansion all too often results in congestion, costs, eventual loss of quality of life.

Author William Faulkner, who for years fought against the mindless encroachments on his graceful little town of Oxford, Mississippi, said, "They call it progress but they can never tell where it's headed, and they never bother to ask the rest of us if we want to go along for the ride."

It is a constant struggle to balance growth and local economic needs with environmental concerns. One of the major challenges of the coming years will be to attain that balance and to maintain a quality of life. The alternative is to live with blighted highways, and towns, cities, and landscapes filled with empty stores and abandoned factories.

The beauty of northern Michigan is a fragile thing and it can be reduced quickly. Obviously the beauty will survive in wild areas but it will be greatly altered and diminished. And this diminishes all of us and the quality of our lives.

March brings cold gusty winds tempered with mild thawing breezes. Each season has its cycles, each with its own unique rhythms and signs. Fluorescent construction stakes and bright plastic flags bloom along with the wildfloweers and budding trees of our spring. RWOL

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