OTG: Waterfowl Management at the Maple River State Game Area

Americorps • March 6, 2019

Any type of waterfowl in the St. Johns area trying to find a safe place to land, eat and nest, should benefit from the habitat work done by the OTG crew on the Maple River State Game Area (SGA), Saturday morning (February 23rd). This game area is located just north of St. Johns and is divided into several management units/areas. Each unit/area is managed for a specific habitat type, that will benefit the animals that use and live in that area. There are parts of the Maple River SGA that are managed for deer and turkey. This last OTG project, however, focused on two waterfowl units specifically, unit’s X and D. Both units are diked and normally flooded during the fall hunting season.

The Wildlife Technician that covers the Maple River SGA, Chad Krumnauer, expressed that the units would need to be managed before the upcoming waterfowl hunting season. The dikes along both units had been somewhat overtaken by woody brush. Some woody brush patches along the dikes do offer great cover for waterfowl hunters. The dikes surround planted corn in unit’s X & D. However, with the woody brush as cover, all the deer have to do is eat the corn and then bed within the woody brush. This left the corn somewhat depleted for the birds and bird hunters. Units X & D are managed for waterfowl, therefore there needed to be some type of management done to benefit the waterfowl and waterfowl hunters that use those units. Unit X is open to hunters during the hunting season, unit D is specifically managed as a waterfowl refuge and is not open to hunting between September 1st and December 1st.

Originally the date of the project was to be earlier but due to the rain and warmer weather we had around the middle of February, it was not safe for our volunteers to be crossing dikes. Before any project, we make sure that all conditions are safe for our volunteers and staff. For the rescheduled date, nine volunteers, DNR and MUCC staff, gathered together on a Saturday morning to listen to Chad Krumnauer and his seasonal tech talk through the management plan. With the dikes being completely frozen over, the goal within unit’s X & D was to cut down as much woody brush as possible along the dikes and stack the branches in piles off to the side of the units.

After the management plan was addressed we split up into two groups, one headed to unit X the other to Unit D. Myself and fellow MUCC staffers, Shaun Mckeon & Hunter Salisbury, along with three other volunteers set out for unit X. One volunteer had experience handling a weed whip with a metal attachment and while wearing the necessary PPE she was able to power through the woody brush along the dike. As she went along, the others and I were using loppers to pick off any remaining branches and then stacked them off along the unit. After two hours of hard work, there only remained a small enough patch of woody brush for hunters to use for waterfowl hunting. The other group in unit D cut down woody brush along the dike as well, but they also placed poles into the ground for future wood duck nesting boxes within the refuge.

I was personally impressed with the diversity of our volunteers. We had several people from a local club,Maple River Wildlife Association, Shaun is also a member of that club. We had a gentleman from Michigan Trapper and Predator Callers Association who brought his teenage daughter to the project. Outside of DNR and MUCC staff, we had a few people that were not part of any hunting/fishing clubs but love the outdoors and wanted to help. That’s one of the benefits to OTG, uniting people under one common love for the outdoors. We ended the day eating jets pizza and reflecting on the day’s work, while I handed out free OTG t-shirts. We hope to see YOU at the next OTG project!

The post OTG: Waterfowl Management at the Maple River State Game Area appeared first on Michigan United Conservation Clubs.

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On the Ground: Wood Duck Boxes & More at Maple River State Game Area

By Katelyn Helsel • February 24, 2025

On Saturday, February 15, 2025, 26 volunteers joined MUCC’s On the Ground program in partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for a wood duck nest box event at Maple River State Game Area in Gratiot County. This area located just north of Lansing consists of farm fields, woodlands, grasslands, and cattail marshes. It is a popular destination for hunters, trappers, birders, and wildlife viewers alike. Volunteers Maintain Nest Boxes & Remove Decking During this project, volunteers worked within three separate units of the state game area. Each group checked nest boxes and replaced old nesting material with fresh material as needed. Any use of the nest boxes by either wood ducks or other wildlife was also noted onto a data sheet. One group of volunteers also installed two brand new boxes in an area adjacent to several ponds. These new boxes will help increase nesting success even further for this incredible species. They will continue to be monitored by the DNR in addition to the existing boxes. Additionally, brush covering the entry of the boxes was cleared and used to create brush piles for small game habitat. Another group of volunteers removed old decking from a cross-bridge located between two units. Removal was fairly easy given that the boards were old and rotting away, which made the project all the more important. The boards will be replaced with fresh wood later in the year, therefore improving hunter accessibility. In total, volunteers improved approximately 49 acres of wildlife habitat directly through this project.