Rivers At Risk

Awhite pine log washed up on the banks of the Pigeon River is
a faded reminder of the towering giants that once cloaked Michigan.
By the late 19th century, there was little left except stumps, brush,
wildfires, and ghost towns.

Historical Context

Putting their saws to the virgin forests of northern Michigan, the timber cutters of the late 19th century
produced graveyards of stumps from pine and hardwoods that once had spread their canopies to the sky.
The clearcutting of one of the continent's most magnificent forests was seen as a matter both of economic
urgency and of dominion over nature. The owners of the lumber companies viewed it as their right and destiny
to wantonly harvest natural resources for private financial gain.
Acentury later, however, that same idea in the very same place prompted the most penetrating debate in
state history about natural resources, industrial development, and environmental protection. In the decade-long
struggle over energy development in the Pigeon River Country, conventional concepts of markets and
resources vied with the new ideas of environmental stewardship, progressive land management, and the public
interest.
AMomentous Lease Sale
-The Big Wild -
The struggle began with little notice in the summer of 1968, when the Department of Natural Resources
leased nearly 550,000 acres of public land in northern Michigan for oil and gas development. More than 10%
of the land offered for lease was in the Pigeon River Country, a semi-wilderness of maturing second-growth
forest that covered parts of Otsego, Montmorency, and Cheboygan counties.
With few roads, and miles of trackless woods, swamps, and uncommonly clear streams, the legendary
Pigeon River Country has attracted its share of prominent admirers. Ernest Hemingway hunted and fished in
the region, and wrote about the productive streams and tangled woods in his Nick Adams stories. P.S. Lovejoy,
a respected conservationist and contemporary of naturalist Aldo Leopold, called the area "The Big Wild." Ford
Kellum, a state wildlife biologist and Lovejoy's ideological and spiritual successor, hiked, canoed, fished and
hunted almost every corner of the Pigeon River Country. Kellum's love for the Pigeon River Country was told
in ardent DNR memorandums and distinguished published writings.
- ABargain for the Oil Companies -
In internal documents, and in interviews for this report, officials of the DNR said that the lease sale,
despite its size, was mistakenly treated as a routine business matter.Though oil and gas had been tapped in
southern Michigan since the 1930s, none of the previous lease sales in the northern Lower Peninsula had led
to significant discoveries.
State officials also said they never suspected that the sale, which generated slightly more than $1 million in
revenue, would prompt the most intensive oil and gas exploration in the continental United States in the 1970s,
exceeded only by that on Alaska's North Slope.
The facts of the case suggest, however, that the oil and gas industry was much better informed than the
state. Computer technology and refined analytical procedures of the 1960s were enabling the energy industry
to significantly improve its ability to locate oil and gas deep underground.
In 1967, Consumers Power Company formed a new Michigan-based subsidiary, the Northern Michigan
Energy Company (Nomeco), to explore the state for oil and gas with particular concentration on northern
Michigan. Dick Burgess, a Nomeco technical analyst, was studying a promising deep layer of rock, called the
Niagaran-Salina formation, which runs across the top of the Lower Peninsula.
Oil men scoured the region for leases from private land owners. Talk in the industry was of a major
discovery in Michigan. Executives were well aware of vast riches that lay beneath northern Michigan. When
the state made public minerals available during the 1968 lease sale, Shell Oil, Amoco, and Nomeco snapped
up the majority of the acreage in the Pigeon River Country.

(continued on next page)



		Case Study of the Pigeon River Hydrocarbon Development Plan
* State officials said they never suspected that the 550,000-acre mineral lease sale, which generated about $1 million in revenue, would prompt the most intensive oil and gas exploration in the continental United States in the 1970s, exceeded only by that on Alaska's North Slope. *

			Awhite pine log washed up on the banks of the Pigeon River is a faded reminder of the towering giants that once cloaked Michigan. By the late 19th century, there was little left except stumps, brush, wildfires, and ghost towns.
	Historical Context Putting their saws to the virgin forests of northern Michigan, the timber cutters of the late 19th century produced graveyards of stumps from pine and hardwoods that once had spread their canopies to the sky. The clearcutting of one of the continent's most magnificent forests was seen as a matter both of economic urgency and of dominion over nature. The owners of the lumber companies viewed it as their right and destiny to wantonly harvest natural resources for private financial gain. Acentury later, however, that same idea in the very same place prompted the most penetrating debate in state history about natural resources, industrial development, and environmental protection. In the decade-long struggle over energy development in the Pigeon River Country, conventional concepts of markets and resources vied with the new ideas of environmental stewardship, progressive land management, and the public interest. AMomentous Lease Sale -The Big Wild - The struggle began with little notice in the summer of 1968, when the Department of Natural Resources leased nearly 550,000 acres of public land in northern Michigan for oil and gas development. More than 10% of the land offered for lease was in the Pigeon River Country, a semi-wilderness of maturing second-growth forest that covered parts of Otsego, Montmorency, and Cheboygan counties. With few roads, and miles of trackless woods, swamps, and uncommonly clear streams, the legendary Pigeon River Country has attracted its share of prominent admirers. Ernest Hemingway hunted and fished in the region, and wrote about the productive streams and tangled woods in his Nick Adams stories. P.S. Lovejoy, a respected conservationist and contemporary of naturalist Aldo Leopold, called the area "The Big Wild." Ford Kellum, a state wildlife biologist and Lovejoy's ideological and spiritual successor, hiked, canoed, fished and hunted almost every corner of the Pigeon River Country. Kellum's love for the Pigeon River Country was told in ardent DNR memorandums and distinguished published writings. - ABargain for the Oil Companies - In internal documents, and in interviews for this report, officials of the DNR said that the lease sale, despite its size, was mistakenly treated as a routine business matter.Though oil and gas had been tapped in southern Michigan since the 1930s, none of the previous lease sales in the northern Lower Peninsula had led to significant discoveries. State officials also said they never suspected that the sale, which generated slightly more than $1 million in revenue, would prompt the most intensive oil and gas exploration in the continental United States in the 1970s, exceeded only by that on Alaska's North Slope. The facts of the case suggest, however, that the oil and gas industry was much better informed than the state. Computer technology and refined analytical procedures of the 1960s were enabling the energy industry to significantly improve its ability to locate oil and gas deep underground. In 1967, Consumers Power Company formed a new Michigan-based subsidiary, the Northern Michigan Energy Company (Nomeco), to explore the state for oil and gas with particular concentration on northern Michigan. Dick Burgess, a Nomeco technical analyst, was studying a promising deep layer of rock, called the Niagaran-Salina formation, which runs across the top of the Lower Peninsula. Oil men scoured the region for leases from private land owners. Talk in the industry was of a major discovery in Michigan. Executives were well aware of vast riches that lay beneath northern Michigan. When the state made public minerals available during the 1968 lease sale, Shell Oil, Amoco, and Nomeco snapped up the majority of the acreage in the Pigeon River Country. (continued on next page)