The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy manages the land at the Bengel Wildlife Center to promote wildlife and to create demonstration projects. Following are descriptions of the types of habitat found at the Bengel Wildlife Center and the management techniques that will be used in each area. The management areas are divided into two types: wetland and upland. If you're interested in receiving a map of the grounds and trails email us and we'll send you one.

Priggooris Lake

Priggooris Lake is part of the vast Chandler Marsh, which once stretched from southern Clinton County to the Michigan State University campus. The water level in the lake was once six feet higher than it is today. The lake and surrounding wetlands were drained for mosquito and malaria control in the 1800s. When I-69 was built in the 1970s, the lake’s level dropped again. So what was once an 88-acre basin containing a six-acre island is now only three small pools totaling 10-acres. By June the lake is totally dry, not very practical as a wetland teaching site.

In 1997, the name of the lake was changed from Grass to Priggooris to honor Angel Priggooris, the man who had the vision to protect the land by donating it to the City of Lansing in 1958.

Volunteer engineers including Larry Witte, former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Land and Water Management Chief, and James Smalligan, Vice President of Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber, Inc. a Grand Rapids area engineering firm, are preparing designs and permit applications for lake restoration. Along with Foundation staff, they are considering the benefits and impacts of various water level scenarios. The Foundation hopes to raise the water level about 2 feet, creating an approximately 40-acre lake/wetland complex, which would be a tremendous teaching resource.

Prairie

Prairies are now America’s rarest and most fragmented ecosystem, in danger of vanishing altogether. Not even one patch of the western prairie contains the original community of birds and mammals. Michigan has only a few small remnants of its original grasslands, and many associated wildlife species are in trouble.

Prairie restorations can’t reproduce the original prairie and are limited to reestablishing only a few components of the original ecosystem. Seed purchased to reestablish a prairie contains only a fraction of the grass and wildflower species found in native prairies.

Prairie work to done at the Bengel Wildlife Center include:

• Site preparation – including tree and brush removal, herbicide treatments and disking – plus seed and planting costs often exceed $200 per acres.
• The BWC currently has prairie-type habitat in four areas. Remnant patches of big bluestem, a native prairie grass, are being stimulated by spring burning.
• The five-acre prairie located at the southern end of the Bengel Wildlife Center will be established as a Prescribed Burning and Prairie Seeding Demonstration Area. There will be firebreaks, research areas, and interpretive signage.
• Trees and shrubs will be cleared from additional land that has prairie grass stands. These were seeded with prairie grass many years ago by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Located close to the Laughlin Building at the Bengel Wildlife Center, the backyard wildlife plots will be a resource for people who wish to attract wildlife to urban, suburban, and rural backyards. These plots will continue to be improved over the years, just as one might gradually change a home landscape.

Backyard and schoolyard habitats not only provide pleasure to the resident or visitor, but they can be important in nurturing a love for and understanding of wildlife in children and adults. Future plans include development of a sensory garden – with plantings that encourage smelling, tasting and touching – on approximately one acre adjacent to the backyard wildlife demonstration areas.

Pond Management

Six ponds are located at the southern end of the Bengel Wildlife Center property. Four of these ponds were originally excavated by the Michigan Department of Transportation during construction of I-69 to mitigate destruction of other wetlands. Two of the ponds are deep-water areas and the others contain at least some shallow marsh habitat.

The ponds will be used to teach methods of managing fish populations and controlling unwanted vegetation. The shallower areas will be used to demonstrate revegetation of wetlands with plant species desirable for wildlife and erosion control.

Forested Wetland

Forested wetlands are desirable for many wildlife species, like wood ducks, owls and deer. One of the forested wetlands at the Bengel Wildlife Center may be used to demonstrate environmentally friendly methods of constructing logging roads through wetlands. Typical forested wetlands contain elm, ash, silver maple, and tamarack. Most of the elm has been killed, however, by Dutch elm disease.

Upland Forest

Upland forest at the Bengel Wildlife Center is found in a small area on the east side, on the island in Priggooris Lake, and on the west side of Priggooris Lake. Plans for these areas include demonstrating methods of forest management such as timer stand improvement, tree pruning, and thinning. Upland forest areas at the Bengel Wildlife Center are home to deer, turkeys, squirrels, and songbirds. The upland forests at the Center contain various oaks, cherry, red maple, sassafras, spruces and pines.

Bog

Bogs are a special type of wetland in which plants form a mat that extends over the water like a floating shelf. As the plants die, the shelf thickens. The dead plants pushed below the water decay very slowly, due to lack of oxygen and high acidity. The mat eventually extends down to the lake bed, and the mat closes the open water on the lake. It is the floating mat which gives the sensation of a “quaking” bog. But please don’t try it! The plants which make up the floating mat are fragile – you can break through, which is dangerous to you and the bog! Tales of heavy equipment, cars, horses, and people sinking out of sight in bogs are legion. Many of them are true. Bog plants include the carnivorous pitcher plant, sundew, poison sumac and dwarf birch.

American Indians used to burn bogs periodically to spur growth of cranberries and blueberries. Today, few Michigan bogs are managed in any way. Unmanaged bogs are invaded by exotic species such as purple loosestrife and giant reed grass (phragmites), and by natural succession to woody plants such as leather leaf and tamarack.

The Habitat Foundation will determine the feasibility of prescribed burning to rejuvenate cranberry and other vegetation in one of the two bogs at the Bengel Wildlife Center. It is also researching methods to control tamarack and giant reed grass, which are spreading throughout the bog.

Upland Brush

Upland brush areas, which can be thought of as a successional stage, are often found in disturbed areas which were once farmed but then abandoned. These areas are often heavily colonized by non-native species of plants, which get a strong foothold. These areas serve as a base for the exotic species invasion of other types of habitat. The Conservancy has an on-going program to reduce or eliminate autumn olive, multiflora rose, buckthorn and other invasive exotic woody vegetation at the Bengel Wildlife Center.

Who can use the Bengel Wildlife Center?

Everyone is invited to walk the trails of the Bengel Wildlife Center. We hope visitors will enjoy the natural setting and learn a bit about managing land for wildlife. Horses, bicycles and motorized vehicles are prohibited to protect trails and habitat. We ask your help in enforcing that restriction.

Visitors are invited to look at exhibits in the Laughlin Building and the Technology Demonstration Building during normal business hours. The Laughlin Building has excellent classroom and meeting facilities. Call 517-641-7677 and ask for Beth to find out how you can reserve space for your next meeting or event.

The Laughlin Building is named for Jean and Sheldon Laughlin who generously supported MWC's capital campaign and who have been long-time supporters of the Conservancy. Jean Laughlin is a daughter of Russ & Ruth Bengel, after whom the Center is named.

With the support and encouragement of the Laughlins, the Conservancy purchased 183 acres from the City of Lansing in 1994. The land, formerly a city park, was originally protected by Angel Priggooris, who donated the land to Lansing in 1958. Thanks to his vision, and the support of the Bengel extended family, the public is able to enjoy the wild setting that Angel Priggooris did. Find out more about the many benefactors of the Bengel Wildlife Center by visiting the Laughlin Building.