OTG Jr. Kicked-Off at Denmark Twp State Game Area Last Week

Students from Reese High School’s Out-of-Doors Club participate in a grassland restoration project in Denmark Twp with OTG Jr.

MUCC’s On the Ground Junior (OTG Jr.) kicked off last week at the Denmark Township State Game Area (SGA) with two groups of students from Reese Middle and High School’s Out-of-Doors Club. Student volunteers worked in teams to remove invasive woody vegetation and stack brush into piles that will serve as “rabbitat.” The ultimate goal for this SGA is to restore healthy grassland habitat to benefit upland wildlife such as pheasants, songbirds, white-tailed deer, and rabbits.

The project site cannot be accessed by large machinery like brush mowers due to a county dam that runs through the SGA so students completed all of the brush removal work by hand using loppers and hand saws. In total, students impacted about 7 acres of wildlife habitat on public land.

On Tuesday April 12, 20 high school students completed their OTG project in the morning and spent the second half of the day participating in their annual highway clean-up in Reese. On Thursday April 14, 38 middle school students spent the first half of the day completing their grassland restoration project and then participated in educational wildlife-related activities after lunch. These activities ranged from archery lessons to wildlife ID and an active predator-prey game.

Students from Reese Middle School’s Out-of-Doors Club participate in a grassland restoration project in Denmark Twp with OTG Jr.

If you would like to get involved in MUCC’s On the Ground (OTG) volunteer wildlife habitat improvement program, you can find information on upcoming projects, volunteer registration, and an interactive project map at  mucc.org/on-the-ground.

Our next OTG project will be planting native shrubs at Potterville State Game Area (SGA) on Saturday, April 30, 2022. Join MUCC OTG and the Eaton Conservation District at 10:00am to plant 200 shrubs within the SGA to benefit wildlife like pheasant, cottontail rabbit, white-tailed deer, and wild turkey. All necessary equipment will be provided. Volunteers will receive free lunch, as well as a volunteer gift. To view more details or to register, please click here.

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