Last week, representatives of the DNR, Pheasants Forever and several other groups gathered at Maple River State Game Area (which stretches through Clinton, Gratiot and Ionia counties) to launch the Adopt-A-Game-Area program and dedicate a kiosk recognizing sponsors of the game area.

This new program encourages individuals and organizations to sponsor grassland habitat projects on the state-managed lands they use and value. Maple River is the first to be sponsored.

“Grasslands give important benefits to both wildlife and people. In addition to providing habitat and food resources for many wildlife species, grasslands also improve water and air quality,” said Al Stewart, DNR upland game bird specialist. “Plus, grassland areas are simply stunning to view in mid- to late summer when the prairie wildflowers are in full bloom.”

Stewart said that grassland pollinators, like bees and monarch butterflies, help to pollinate crops that keep the country fed. “Without grasslands, we’d be in real trouble,” he said. Throughout Michigan, grasslands are being converted to agriculture and development and now are one of the rarest habitat types in the world.

The new Adopt-a-Game-Area program is a partnership between the DNR, Pheasants Forever and the Hal and Jean Glassen Foundation. Expanded support of this program, through sponsorships, will provide valuable nesting, brood-rearing, foraging and winter habitat for a wide range of wildlife including deer, turkeys, pheasants, ducks, cottontail rabbits, songbirds and pollinators. Read more

MISSOULA, Mont. – The Boone and Crockett Club today announced that it has released a new position statement on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). The position affirms the best way to prevent CWD introduction and establishment is to prohibit all human-assisted live cervid movements.

“The Club has been closely involved with ongoing research about CWD,” said Dr. Josh Millspaugh, Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Montana. “With what we know today about how this deadly disease is transmitted and the potential for introduction to new areas, we urge states to adopt the conclusions, recommendations and Best Management Practices of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA).”

Most deer and elk are transported for the purpose of establishing or re-stocking commercial shooting preserves and game farms. State wildlife officials also transport live animals to replenish areas with reduced populations or establish new populations. Sometimes these transports are done in cooperation with local and national conservation organizations. All transportation of live cervid movements are covered by AFWA’s recommendations.

CWD is now found in 25 states, three Canadian provinces, Norway, and South Korea. CWD is not caused by a virus or bacteria that can be treated and cured. It is a protein that is picked up through contact with infected animals or their surroundings. CWD is always fatal. It attacks an animal’s nervous system, taking as long as two years before the animal begins to show outward signs of the disease. Currently there is no vaccine or practical way to test live animals for the disease. Read more

Eighty-one individual land parcels in Michigan – ranging in size from less than an acre to 160 acres – will be available for sale by sealed-bid auction starting Tuesday, Dec. 11. The auction is part of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ overall strategy to efficiently manage public lands while maximizing outdoor recreation opportunities. Bids will be accepted through Jan. 9, 2019.

These surplus public land parcels are located in counties mainly in central/northern Lower Michigan and in the Upper Peninsula. Counties include Alpena, Antrim, Clare, Crawford, Emmet, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron, Lake, Livingston, Marquette, Menominee, Midland, Newaygo, Oakland, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Roscommon and Schoolcraft.

The lands identified for sale are isolated from other DNR-managed land, are difficult to manage and provide limited public recreation benefit. Several of the parcels are forested and have riverside or lake frontage and are better suited for private ownership. In addition, several large-acreage parcels are being offered in Alpena, Antrim, Clare, Houghton, Marquette, Menominee, Midland and Ogemaw counties. Read more

Eleven urban forestry projects in seven Michigan counties will share $89,590 in community forestry funding administered by the DNR.

The grants range from $250 for an Arbor Day celebration in Wayne County’s Sumpter Township to $20,000 each for tree inventories in Coldwater and Rochester Hills.

The competitive grant program – a cooperative effort between the DNR and the U.S. Forest Service – funds projects that help create and sustain local urban forestry programs. This year’s grants will help facilitate better community forestry management through tree inventories and management planning activities. Other projects focus on Arbor Day celebrations and education and training projects. Read more

Well-known outdoor communicator and master wild game chef, Brad Fenson, has some great tips on preparing waterfowl for storage in your freezer in a new how-to video sponsored by Kent Cartridge.

In the video, Brad demonstrates how to prepare the meat, wrap it and freeze it until you are ready to prepare the meat for eating.

Check out the video at this link. https://www.facebook.com/KentCartridge/videos/249471462399000/ Read more

By Glen Wunderlich

The U.S. House on November 16th voted 196-180 to pass a bill named the Manage Our Wolves Act. If passed by the Senate and signed into law, a 2011 rule would be reissued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which among significant other revisions to the Endangered Species Act, would remove ESA protections for the gray wolf in the lower 48 states including Michigan.

According to the FWS, all three States of the Western Region (WGL) – Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan – have wolf management laws, plans, and regulations that adequately regulate human-caused mortality. Each of the three States has committed to manage its wolf population at or above viable population levels, and this commitment is not expected to change.

The predictable hyperbolic response by the animal-rights crowd includes such language as the following: Republicans are gunning for the ESA; danger comes from conservatives; it will hurt endangered species. Almost immediately, The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) chipped in with a lawsuit claiming passage would make wolves vulnerable to trophy hunting and trapping, halting their progress toward recovery.

The wolf population in the WGL currently occupies all the suitable habitat area identified for recovery in the Midwest in the 1978 Recovery Plan and 1992 Revised Recovery Plan and most of the potentially suitable habitat in the WGL. However, groups like CBD like to point out that only 5 percent of the original territory occupied by the wolves is now inhabited by them and that makes wolves not fully recovered. Do these folks really want to foster the establishment of wolves in the large metropolitan areas from which they throw their stones? I think not.

These city slickers have a lot of clout and that clout comes from sheer numbers of the unaffected. The phrase “tyranny of the majority” best describes the real danger of an all-powerful force of these voting blocs that could tyrannize unpopular minorities thus marginalizing individuals such as those living in sparsely populated wolf territory.

In actuality, the group of nine bills that comprises the act is aimed at the following amendments to the 45 year-old ESA to:

• encourage voluntary conservation efforts
• provide for greater certainty and improved planning for incidental take permit holders
• provide for consideration of the totality of conservation measures in determining the impact of proposed Federal agency action
• prohibit designation as critical habitat of certain areas in artificial water diversion or delivery facilities
• provide for greater county and State consultation with regard to petitions under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and for other purposes
• require publication on the Internet of the basis for determinations that species are endangered species or threatened species, and for other purposes
• to increase State and local involvement in management plans
• provide for improved precision in the listing, delisting, and down listing of endangered species and potentially endangered species
• define petition backlogs and provide expedited means for discharging petitions during such a backlog

Under current law, plaintiffs who challenge the federal government under the ESA may be entitled to the repayment of attorneys’ fees. Such payments are made from the federal government’s Judgment Fund, which has a permanent indefinite appropriation. By prohibiting judicial review, the act could reduce the number of civil actions that otherwise would be filed and thus the potential for payments from the Judgment Fund. This would mean that taxpayers’ money could actually be used for the betterment of wildlife through projects such as enhancement of habitat rather than continuing to pad the bank accounts of animal lawyers with permanent indefinite funding.

“This is not about a hatred or fear of predators. This is about actually recognizing that the ESA has done its job, and it’s time for the wolf to be delisted,” said U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers, R-Washington. In fact, it’s long past time.

GW: And, may this bird not fly up your nose

Study suggests key physical traits & behaviors evolved in tandem

November 20, 2018

Ithaca, NY—Male birds-of-paradise are justly world famous for their wildly extravagant feather ornaments, complex calls, and shape-shifting dance moves—all evolved to attract a mate. New research published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology suggests for the first time that female preferences drive the evolution of physical and behavioral trait combinations that may also be tied to where the male does his courting: on the ground or up in the trees. There are 40 known species of birds-of-paradise, most found in New Guinea and northern Australia.

Lesser Bird-of-Paradise during courtship dance. Photo by Tim Laman.

Study lead author Russell Ligon, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, suggests females are evaluating not only how great the male looks but, simultaneously, how well he sings and dances. Female preferences for certain combinations of traits result in what the researchers call a “courtship phenotype”—bundled traits determined by both genetics and environment.

Study authors examined 961 video clips and 176 audio clips in the Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library archive as well as 393 museum specimens from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. They conclude that certain behaviors and traits are correlated:

• As the number of colors on a male increases so do the number of different sounds he makes.
• The most elaborate dancers also have a large repertoire of sounds.
• Males that display in a group (called a lek) have more colors to stand out better visually amid the competition.

Because female birds-of-paradise judge male quality based on a combination of characteristics, the study suggests that males may be able to evolve new features while still maintaining their overall attractiveness to females—there’s room to “experiment” in this unique ecological niche where there are few predators to quash exuberant courtship displays.

The researchers found that where a bird-of-paradise puts on his courtship display also makes a difference.

Graphic shows which types of displays are most common at varying heights in the rainforest. Birds-of-paradise illustrations by Szabolcs Kókay; background illustration and graphic design by Jillian Ditner. Graphic courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Click image for full-size version. Read more