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!

 

Recent Posts

By Justin Tomei May 8, 2025
The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) met for their May meeting today at Lansing Community College West Campus. The commission voted to return antlered opportunities to the Independence and Liberty hunts at the May Natural Resources Commission meeting. The amendment to restore this opportunity passed after Commissioner Walters withdrew his amendment from April to only partially restore antlered opportunity during these hunts. MUCC testified for the complete restoration of antlered opportunity during these two hunts, per a member passed policy from our 2025 Annual Convention. The commission also voted on, and ultimately accepted, a proposal to allow archery antlerless take in the high snowfall zone in the Upper Peninsula. Additionally, the commission also chose to leave on the table and postpone indefinitely the order to reopen the illegally partially closed coyote season. This prevents the order from dying after today's meeting and makes it eligible for action at a later date. This amendment will remain postponed until the June meeting at the earliest.  MUCC has created the Coyote Coalition to assist in unifying the voice of conservationists in support of Proposal G. To join the Coyote Coalition, visit https://www.mucc.org/coyotecoalition . The commission did adopt proposed fall turkey regulations unanimously. The June commission meeting is Thursday, June 12 in Bay City. To ensure our natural resources remain protected and managed thoughtfully and our outdoor heritage defended, join Michigan United Conservation Clubs today: http://bit.ly/JoinMUCC .
By Olivia Triltsch May 8, 2025
In total, volunteers improved about 6 acres of habitat and planted around 6,000 trees in this stand to continue regeneration.
By Katelyn Helsel May 7, 2025
Our student volunteers have been hard at work improving wildlife habitat on public lands! MUCC’s On the Ground Junior (OTG Jr.) program, a subset of the On the Ground program, is a fully funded field trip program that brings grade-school classrooms into the outdoors to improve fish and wildlife habitat in their local communities. Through activities like native plantings, brush pile building, and invasive species removal, students gain hands-on experience with conservation and positively impact the world around them. Students also participate in educational activities like predator-prey tag to teach them about population dynamics and other natural resources concepts. So far this spring season, MUCC welcomed 69 students, teachers, and chaperones who participated in multiple OTG Jr projects with more on the way! In total, they improved over 12 acres of wildlife habitat. Read on for a recap of each OTG Jr project and see what all our awesome student volunteers have been up to. 
More Posts