Attached below are the presentations and report given at the July 15, 2017 Annual Meeting of the Members:

• RF Murray Higgins Lake 12-31-16 Financial Statements_Final
• Treasurer’s Prepared Remarks
• HLPOA Riparian Presentation at 2017 Annual Meeting
• MARINA POLICY – Approved by Members at July 2017 Annual Meeting
• Environmental Committee Mission and Key Initiatives
• Copper Sulfate Resolution – Approved by Members at July 2017 Annual Meeting
• Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC July 15, 2017 Status Report

Swimmer’s Itch (SI) presentation on the status of the 3-year SI Reduction Effort, presented by Dr. Curt Blankespoor of Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC at this year’s HLPOA Annual Meeting, is posted below.  Of particular interest are slides 20, 21 and 22 that compare 2015 to 2016 to mid-July of 2017.  On each of these three slides is a chart showing the snail infestation percentage — anything over 2% of the snails being infected with the SI parasite represents an epidemic level of SI infestation.  In 2015, the average of all snails tested showed the highest lake-wide infection percentage Dr.’s Harvey and Curt Blankespoor had ever seen in their collective 50+ years of SI research — 3.9%.  This is reflected in the amount of red and orange depicted in 2015’s chart.  After working that year and the next two years removing Common Merganser (COME) hens and broods from the lake and sealing nesting sites, notice the complete lack of any red or orange on the 2017 chart.  The 2017 infection rate is down to only 0.14%.  What a dramatic improvement!  A long term maintenance program is now being planned to keep Higgins Lake at this low infection rate for years to come.

• Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC July 15, 2017 Status Report

Marvin Bolton Requests Motion to Create Financial Review Committee:

Dear HLPOA Members,

Marvin Bolton recently advised the HLPOA Board of Directors he intended to present a motion at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Members whereby he is requesting a Financial Review Committee be created, made up of non-Board members, to serve as an oversight committee to the Board’s financial matters.  Below is the Board response denying his request and a legal opinion on his request from HLPOA Counsel, Bill Carey, both of which have been sent to Mr. Bolton.

• Board Response to Bolton Motion_Proxy for 2017 Annual Meeting
• Carey Opinion Letter 7-10-2017

Dear HLPOA Members and HLSIO Supporters,

We are pleased to send you the update received over the weekend from the Higgins Lake Swimmer’s Itch Organization, HLSIO, and a report from the Scientists of Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC on the status of their SI reduction activities for their third year of work on Higgins Lake.  There is also mention of their recent work on Crystal Lake, where they are in the first year of activity there.

HLPOA Board

• HLSIO SI Update 7-9-2017
• SIS Year 3 Update

To view these newly added graphs of older lake level data, please place your cursor on the  “Higgins Lake” tab on the Home Page, then on “Environmental” and then click on “Lake Level, Court Orders, Dam Management”.  The newly added graphs are below the area where the 2007 to date graphs are listed.

If you spot any Merganser Ducks and/or their broods on Higgins Lake, or any nesting sights, click on the first link below to access the Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC website page to report your sighting.  Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC is the name of Dr. Curt Blankespoor’s new company that is contracted by the Higgins Lake Swimmer’s Itch Organization (HLSIO), and supported by the HLPOA, for 2017 to help reduce Swimmer’s Itch on our lake.  Dr. Curt Blankespoor was formerly associated with SICON which had done the Swimmer’s Itch Control in 2015 and 2016.  With the formation of Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC, SICON has been dissolved.

• http://swimmersitchsolutions.com/higginslake/

Additionally, should you or someone you know contract a case of Swimmer’s Itch this summer on Higgins Lake, the link below will direct you to another area of Dr. Blankespoor’s Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC website where you can report your case of Swimmer’s Itch.

• http://swimmersitchsolutions.com/higginslakereportacase/

Thank you for taking the time to make these reports — they will help Dr. Blankespoor/Swimmer’s Itch Solutions LLC to further reduce the infection rate of snails with the Swimmer’s Itch parasite and therefore the incidents of Swimmer’s Itch on Higgins Lake.

Gerrish Twp, in a special meeting on April 13, 2017, voted unanimously to approve a motion raised by Trustee Jim Lippert to request Steve Sendek of Northpoint Fisheries Mgmt seal all duck nest boxes they erected that have not yet been taken down.  Those on private property will require permission of the property owner to do so.  This action, commendable by the Gerrish Twp. Board, is in response to the recently amended USFWS and MIDNR permits issued to Gerrish Twp for their Swimmers Itch Control Plan as administered by Northpoint Fisheries Mgmt that specifically prohibits the use of nest boxes to attract and destroy nesting Merganser hens, their eggs or chicks using those nest boxes.  The Gerrish Twp meeting minutes with the motion is attached below:

• Gerrish Spl Mtg-April 13, 2017 Duck Boxes

US Fish & Wildlife Service and the MI DNR Amend Gerrish Township SI Permits to Disallow the Use of Nest Boxes for the Depredation of Merganser Hens, Chicks and/or Eggs.

It has been confirmed today, March 27, 2017, that an amendment has been received this week addressed to Gerrish Township from the US Fish & Wildlife Service.  The amendment reads as follows:

” K.  Amended 3/20/2017 : Amended to clarify that nest/egg destruction is for natural nests only and not for artificial nest boxes.  The intent of this permit was not to allow placement of nest boxes to attract more common mergansers to Higgins Lake.”

In addition, the MI DNR has also amended the permit issued to Gerrish Township to disallow the use of nest boxes.  Efforts are currently underway this week by Gerrish Township to remove the two dozen or so artificial nest boxes they had erected in 2015.  In other words, these nest boxes should be removed prior to the return of nesting common mergansers hens to our lake this spring.  This is an action that the HLPOA, HLLC and HLEEC supported and publicly proposed at a March 14, 2017 meeting of the Gerrish Township Board.  The amended permits are posted below:

• USFWS Amended Permit_Gerrish Twp_Amendment K
• MI DNR Amended Permit_Gerrish Twp