Wildlife Cooperatives
In the Field: Mid-Michigan QDMA Habitat Day
by Anna Mitterling, Michigan Wildlife Cooperative This past weekend I had the privilege of attending and presenting at the Mid-Michigan QDMA Branch Habitat Day at Jones’ Farm in Gladwin County. It was a beautiful day, and the group had a great turnout. Ed Spinazzola (Deer Attraction) presented on land and deer management. Ed talked about…
Read MoreIn the Field: Forestry Management for Deer
by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator This weekend I had the privilege to promote cooperatives at the Cadillac Area QDMA Branch Habitat Day. Rick Lucas (a forester with the Conservation District) and Nick Percy (Killer Food Plots LLC) shared their knowledge about habitat management. In this blog I will highlight my observations from Rick’s presentation,…
Read MoreIn the Field: Operation "Beat CWD"
by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator We have been hearing for years that this day would come, that the dreaded statement “CWD is in the Michigan wild deer herd” would be uttered. While this is horrible news, and the effects of this discovery will be felt in the surrounding townships and counties for years to…
Read MoreIn the Field: Wired to Hunt
by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator Last week I had the privilege of being on the Wired to Hunt podcast. We talked about my position, what cooperatives are, and how to handle a slew of situations that cooperatives deal with. If you have not listened to it, it is worth your while to do so!…
Read MoreIn the Field: Habitat Days
by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator Jason Myers talked about improving habitat on the landscape, and the slew of opportunities there are for cost sharing for habitat work on private land. Jason, and Farm Bill biologists like him, are also able to offer free technical support for writing management plans and offering habitat advice. Contact…
Read MoreIn the Field: The Importance of Meeting
by Anna Mitterling, Michigan Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator We all have busy schedules. Especially once you have kids (or so I hear). One thing I do know is that the leaders of cooperatives put a lot of their personal time and money into organizing a cooperative, and any cooperative functions that come up. Given all they…
Read MoreIn the Field: Keeping it Relational
by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator We are all part of various social groups. Church groups, sports groups, hunting groups, family groups, party groups… you name it. The common factors of why we are part of these groups are time together and common interest. If you never spend time with the people of the group,…
Read MoreIn the Field: Field Day
by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator These deer are all from the Carpenter Farm. They have been an active cooperative for several years. Well, I had another busy week in the office last week. I proceeded to wrap the week up at two QDMA Branch events, where I presented about cooperatives and was able to…
Read MoreIn the Field: Cooperative Beginnings
by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator Wildlife cooperatives provide great opportunities for shaping what management looks like over a landscape. These groups consist of landowners and hunters who share a common interest in surrounding wildlife habitat and harvest management. While the early stages of cooperative development take a lot of time and energy, it is…
Read MoreIn the Field: Predator Collaboration
by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator Whether you are part of a formal cooperative, or you simply partner with your friends and neighbors, you have experienced the benefits of the communal hunting experience. Even if your hunting community is online, you have found that being able to share and hear stories of hunting woes and…
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