On the Ground: Winter 2018 Events

Happy New Year to all! For MUCC’s On the Ground program, the start of 2018 is shaping up to be very busy. For you, this means that there will be several opportunities to volunteer for wildlife and improve habitat on public land. Read more to see what events are being planned for January, February, and March 2018 and see more details to RSVP for an event near you!

January 2018

Until further notice- the event scheduled for January 27th in the Grayling State Forest has been canceled. However, this isn’t terrible news. In the past four years, volunteers have created an ample amount of snowshoe hare habitat in the approved stands for wildlife habitat work. There will be continued habitat work scheduled in the future when more stands have been approved through the DNR’s Forestry Compartment Review process.

February 2018

In mid-February, OTG will be teaming up with the Midland-Dow High Conservation Club to complete habitat work in a wildlife opening in the Gratiot-Saginaw State Game Area. Among a few local MUCC volunteers, these motivated students have assisted with this project the past four years in a row! This year’s event will entail cutting the few small standing trees left in the opening and tackling a thick pocket of shrubs so that the opening can be planted as a food plot for deer, turkey, and other wildlife. This project was chosen by the areas DNR Wildlife Technician, Chad Krumnauer.

On February 17th, OTG will be assisting in hosting a wildlife habitat event in the Tuttle Marsh Wildlife Area with Gib King of Land Ethics LLC. Gib acquired an individual grant from the DNR Wildlife Habitat Grant Program and will be hosting the event to include clay shooting and a rabbit hunt in the area after the habitat work. This is a unique, family-friendly experience to both improve and enjoy wildlife habitat by building brush piles in the area and following it up with an afternoon rabbit hunt!

March 2018

In early March, OTG will be hosting a rabbitat event in the Fulton State Game Area. This is a continued effort to improve habitat by having volunteers build brush piles in selected locations. It is even written in the areas Wildlife Habitat Management plan to have volunteers build 50 brush piles over a few year span and volunteers have easily exceeded that quota. This project and location will be chosen by the areas DNR Wildlife Biologist, Don Poppe.

On March 17th, OTG will be hosting a wildlife habitat improvement project in the Dansville State Game Area. This event will entail clearing selected trees to improve hunter access trails as well as building brush piles for rabbitat. This project was chosen by the areas DNR Wildlife Technician, Chad Krumnauer.

On March 24th-25th (tentative dates), a plan is in the works to host a Chainsaw Safety Course with Bill Dawson and Bill Rushford from the Heavy Equipment Response Coalition (HERC). The format of this course will follow along the lines of Chuck Oslund’s course that MUCC has hosted for the past three years. The dates of this course are subject to change and the location is to be determined, but keep in mind!

This is just the beginning of the list for the 2018 OTG Season, keep up with upcoming projects at www.mucc.org/on-the-ground and don’t forget to RSVP to volunteer for wildlife habitat! Tools, safety equipment, water, lunch and a free T-shirt is always provided for every volunteer at these events and there is a variety of tasks to be done.

MUCC’s On The Ground Program is supported by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division

2 Comments

  1. Scotty ostrowski on January 12, 2018 at 8:21 am

    What about the state land at Monk’s and Kelly Rd in hell Michigan I did meet a couple of ladies putting up new signs for the trails but there is still a lot of trails that has a lot of big trees across them I would be more than happy to do the work out there I take my kids hunting there

    • stopp on January 15, 2018 at 9:44 am

      Hi Scotty, looks like that was in the University of Michigan Edwin S. George Reserve in the northern part of the Pinckney Rec Area. That could have been volunteer work from university students or associated with the DNR as they often have volunteers help with invasive species in that area. On the Ground (OTG) is funded by a grant from the DNR Wildlife Division and volunteers complete projects throughout the state that focus on improving habitat for game species.

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