The money will enable the retired Michigan Department of Natural Resources research vessel Chinook to carry on its mission of protecting Lake Huron’s ecosystems, said Besser Executive Director Christine Witulski.

The DNR on Monday announced this year’s 31 recipients of grants through the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program – a list which included several projects that will improve the health of Northeast Michigan waters.

Near the top of the list, with only one recipient granted more money, Besser will use its award to improve and expand an exhibit that includes the Chinook, now on dry land after 47 years on the front lines of the battle to protect Lake Huron waters, Witulski said.

Since the Chinook arrived at Besser in 2020, Witulski and the museum board have piecemealed together a series of small grants to prepare the research vessel for museum visitors.

News Photo by Julie Riddle At the Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan on Monday, board member Jim Johnson explains the use of a navigational device on vessels like the retired research vessel Chinook in the 1950s.

The $386,000 windfall from the state delighted the planning team as it dreams of an educational future for the boat that for decades hauled in fish and data to solve the below-water mysteries of Thunder Bay and Lake Huron, she said.

By this summer, she thinks, construction should begin on a roofed structure to cover the ship and its visitors as they explore a wealth of hands-on learning experiences, conducting experiments and virtually changing the ecosystems of the lake to learn what could happen if residents don’t play an active hand in protecting the Great Lakes.

Video feeds will offer visitors a look at a day on Lake Huron on a research vessel – something Besser board member Jim Johnson knows intimately.

A fish biologist on the Chinook for 25 years, Johnson eagerly narrates stories from the lake, like the storm that forced a retreat that led to the discovery of a Thunder Bay sandbar and the source of wild lake trout reproduction in the region.

He tells of laborious data collection that helped researchers understand how an invasive mussel made the whitefish reproduction bottom out in Lake Huron. He describes finding female trout covered in sea lamprey holes, their eggs spilling out their sides, and invasive alewives dying on beaches by the millions.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Nautical equipment hangs from the wall of the retired research vessel Chinook at the Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan on Monday.

Inside the Chinook, where buckets of screws and hanging tarps evidence the need for more work before she can welcome visitors aboard, Johnson pointed to where the research crew took tissue samples and conducted stomach analyses in the boat’s tiny kitchen.

“You wouldn’t want to eat most of the stuff we had down there,” Johnson said. “But we did, now and then, have a fish chowder.”

With the money from the state, Besser will be able to share the boat and accompanying displays with visitors to the region, not just so they can learn about the past but also so they can take home lessons for the future, Besser leadership believes.

If Johnson has his way, visitors will go home from their visit to the Chinook, look at their own lakes and waterways, and think about how they can prevent small invaders from reaching Lake Huron, he said.

During its years on the water, the Chinook helped researchers solve problems, and now, on land – with a boost from the state – the research vessel will help the museum teach residents how to be problem solvers, too.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Jim Johnson, board member of Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan and former fish biologist on the now-retired research vessel Chinook, peers inside the boat’s cabin, soon to be part of an educational museum display.

“This boat was there for the whole story that we’re trying to tell,” Johnson said. “This boat is the needle that goes through it all.”

Among the 30 other recipients of the invasive species grant, Huron Pines, a conservation nonprofit with an office in Alpena, will use $60,000 to expand its work in the detection, prevention and control of invasive plant species in Northeast Michigan through surveys, plant removal treatments, and community engagement efforts.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.