Category: Wildlife

Goldfinch

New agreement will provide $550,000 for Michigan pheasant habitat restoration

A male, in the background, and female ring-necked pheasant are shown. The species was introduced to the United States from Asia in the late 1800s.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is partnering with Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. and Pheasants Forever in an agreement that will see Enbridge provide half a million dollars for pheasant habitat restoration in Michigan.

Improvement projects are scheduled to take place over the next three years in various areas in Michigan, focused on Michigan Pheasant Restoration Initiative priority landscapes and oak savanna restoration.

“This partnership allows the parties involved to work together cooperatively, producing significant habitat improvements for wildlife and the betterment of upland game hunting opportunities,” said DNR Director Keith Creagh.

In 2013, Enbridge replaced a 30-inch pipeline, which runs for about two miles across the Crane Pond State Game Area in Cass County. As a result of the permitting process, the DNR and Enbridge worked together to improve the pipeline infrastructure and restore and improve habitat impacted during construction. Read more

Wildlife

Wild bull elk has made mid-Michigan its temporary home

Occasionally wildlife travel to areas where they are not typically found. A young bull elk recently has been spotted in several locations in mid-Michigan that are outside its home range.

“We first started receiving reports of a bull elk in Ogemaw County, and then Gladwin County and most recently near Beal City and the Herrick area in Isabella County,” said Michigan Department of Natural Resources elk specialist Chad Stewart. “We were able to confirm the locations and also that it does appear to be a wild elk.”

Michigan’s wild elk population is found in the northeast Lower Peninsula, the vast majority in the Pigeon River Country State Forest east of Vanderbilt. Michigan also has privately owned elk, within high-fence facilities located across the state. When a species like an elk is reported so far from its typical range like this, the first steps are to ensure it is not an escaped private animal. Read more

Wildlife

Conservation Community Calls for Congress to Pass Sportsmen’s Provisions

On October 5, thirty-four of the nation’s leading hunting, angling and conservation organizations sent a letter to Senate and House Energy bill (S. 2012) conferees in strong support of including important provisions from the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act (S. 405) and Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act (H.R. 2406) in final conferenced energy legislation. The 47 bipartisan conferees from the Senate and House include 34 members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC).

S. 405, introduced by CSC Members Senators Lisa Murkowski (AK), Martin Heinrich (NM), and Senate CSC leadership, expands access to and opportunities for hunting and angling and promotes wildlife and habitat conservation. On April 20, the Senate adopted many of the provisions within the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act with a vote of 97 – 0 under the Natural Resources Title of the Energy Policy Modernization Act (S. 2012). The House followed suit by adding its version of comprehensive sportsmen’s legislation, H.R. 2406, to S. 2012.

The SHARE Act, introduced by the bipartisan House CSC leadership, includes provisions such as the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage Opportunities Act; the Hunting, Fishing, and Recreational Shooting Protection Act; Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act; the Farmer and Hunter Protection Act; the permanent creation of the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council Advisory Committee; and the Preserving Public Access to Public Water Act, among others.

The inclusion of these provisions in the final conferenced energy legislation between the House and Senate Committees, and ultimately signing them into law, is crucial to the traditions of sportsmen and women across the country as well as fish and wildlife conservation for the future.

Fishing, Hunting, Wildlife

The wood duck: September’s Migratory Bird Treaty Centennial featured bird


male and female wood ducksWith their exquisite, bright coloration, male wood ducks are considered one of the most beautiful birds in the world. In fact, their scientific name, Aix sponsa, is Latin for “promised bride,” alluding to the fact that the drakes look dressed to attend a wedding.

Wood ducks are medium-sized ducks that frequent wooded ponds, streams and marshes. Both hens and drakes have colorful wings accented with blue, maroon and silver. The hens are much more plainly colored, with grey-brown upperparts, mottled brown and white breasts, white bellies, and a white teardrop-shaped eye patch.

Wood duck pairs nest in tree cavities that are 15 to 30 feet above the ground or in man-made wood duck nest boxes. The hens lay nine to14 eggs at a time. Wood duck hens sometimes lay their eggs in the nests of other wood duck hens – this leaves one hen with more than her share of ducklings to raise. Nests have been documented with up to 40 eggs in them! Read more

Wildlife

Regenerating state forests takes planning, patience

You’re driving on your favorite stretch of Michigan road. The sun is shining, the windows are rolled down, and you’re singing along to that catchy song drifting out of the speakers. As you round a familiar curve in the road, you know you’re approaching a special place, near the campground your family used to frequent when you were a kid.

You turn your gaze to the left to take in the sight of that beloved stand of trees you’ve admired for years. When you see it, your eyes go wide and your foot jerks away from the gas pedal to the brakes.

The space where your cherished gentle giants once stood is now bare. Branches, logs and other debris are strewn around an opening where aspen once grew tall. A few individual trees remain, looking small and sad amid the ruin.

Your treasured forest land has been clear-cut.

OK, maybe this is a slightly dramatic example, but if you ask Bill O’Neill – Michigan’s state forester – about clear-cuts, the first thing he’ll tell you is this: “They’re ugly.”

Read more

Wildlife

MI DNR plans timber harvest in southeast Kalkaska County

Gypsy moth infestation, age and drought have contributed to trees’ deterioration

To stimulate new forest growth and remove stressed and dying trees, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is preparing to harvest oak trees on nearly 2,000 acres of state-managed land in the southeast portion of Kalkaska County. These trees have suffered from two years of a gypsy moth infestation, drought and old age.

The DNR conducts yearly flights to monitor forest disturbances and has documented two subsequent years of severe defoliation (leaves being chewed off the tree) on many of the affected stands.

“A healthy tree can usually withstand one defoliation, but two in a row, combined with a couple of very dry summers, was just too stressful for the older, less vigorous trees to handle,” said Kelly Standerfer, a forester who works out of the Kalkaska DNR field office.

Many of these older oak-dominated stands are the result of wide-scale timbering and the uncontrolled wildfires that raged through the sandy landscape in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Oak was one of a few tree species that benefited from the fires and was able to sprout where other trees and plants once had grown. These oak stands now are susceptible to disease outbreaks like gypsy moth and two-lined chestnut borer because of their age and stand uniformity.

“We need to remove the current trees in order to stimulate new growth and remove highly hazardous trees that are susceptible to disease and windfall – making them a risk to those who are out enjoying our natural resources,” said Bill Sterrett, DNR district forest supervisor. “The DNR also wants to move quickly to salvage the wood while it is still economically valuable. We feel a closely supervised timber harvest is the best way to accomplish that. Read more

Wildlife

Cedar Rapids area site added for walnut collection

CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowa’s State Forest Nursery is in need of walnuts to propagate walnut seedlings this coming year, and is offering $2.50 per bushel.

A Cedar Rapids area buying station is set up temporarily to accommodate residents in east-central Iowa. Residents have two options. Beginning Sept. 28, baskets will be available at Squaw Creek Park to donate walnuts during park hours. For those who would like to be paid, a nursery employee will be on site each Wednesday (Sept 28, Oct 5, Oct 12) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to pay for the nuts. Squaw Creek Park is located at the intersections of Highway 100 and Highway 13. The drop-off site will be at the maintenance shop located at 4351 Squaw Lane in Marion. Read more

Wildlife

Handbook of Bird Biology


Ithaca, N.Y.—Anyone with an interest in birds will broaden their understanding of these complex and beautiful creatures with a brand-new course just released by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This college-level, self-paced course is called Ornithology: Comprehensive Bird Biology. It is a total makeover of its predecessor, the Lab’s Home Study Course in Bird Biology, which has been offered for more than 40 years. Read more
Wildlife
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