| 1982 | Russ Bengel and supporters launch the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy and announce plans for the Milli-Ander Wetland Restoration. |
| 1984 | The Conservancy kicks off a major annual fundraiser, the Michigan Wildlife Art Festival, in Southfield. |
| 1984 | MWC completes the Milli-Ander Wetland Restoration Project. |
| 1985 | The Conservancy launches the Michigan Trout Stream Restoration Project, a catalyst for stream habitat work throughout the state. |
| 1986 | MWC publishes a research paper on genetics issues in wild turkey management that is endorsed by the Technical Committee of the National Wild Turkey Federation. The technical paper causes considerable controversy, but the DNR follows its recommendations. |
| 1987 | The Conservancy’s featured project, the Southern Michigan Wild Turkey Restoration, helps bring wild-strain turkeys to our state. |
| 1988 | The organization’s Rights-Of-Way For Wildlife Program begins restoring critical wildlife habitat along Michigan’s powerlines, gas pipeline corridors, and highways. The Conservancy receives national recognition for its innovative effort. |
| 1989 | MWC receives the Michigan Outdoor Writers Association’s “Clean Waters Award” for its innovative Rouge River Fish Habitat Restoration Project in Oakland County. |
| 1990 | A major effort by the Conservancy to restore Michigan’s wetlands continues to gain momentum with the help of major partners including the U.S. Forest Service. |
| 1992 | The Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service explore ways to restore wetlands on private lands. The resulting partnership, the Michigan Private Wetlands Program, sets new standards for cost-efficiency in restoring drained basins for wetland wildlife and trains volunteers to help in a wide variety of ways. |
| 1992 | The Conservancy starts training drain commissioners on ways to reduce their impact on the environment. |
| 1994 | The Conservancy purchases land for its Bengel Wildlife Center from the City of Lansing. |
| 1996 | The Conservancy launches a major effort to restore wetlands, prairies, and other habitats on nature centers in southern Michigan. |
| 1998 | The organization launches an Urban Wildlife Initiative, and conceives and organizes the Nature Education Sites For Tomorrow Program (NEST) which develops fish and wildlife habitats and outdoor education areas on school grounds throughout Michigan. The Conservancy later hosts a workshop for 120 teachers and administrators involved in the program to teach them how best to use natural resources on their school property for education. |
| 1999 | The Conservancy begins advocating planning for Farmland and Open Space Preservation. |
| 2000 | The Bengel Wildlife Center is formally dedicated. |
| 2001 | The Conservancy announces the initial results of its research on the cougar in Michigan including DNA evidence of the presence of the endangered species in the state. |
| 2002 | MWC gains national recognition for its field studies of the cougar and its innovative methods for detecting large predators. |
| 2002 | The
Conservancy uncovers more evidence of cougars in both peninsulas of
Michigan, and forms a partnership with Central Michigan University to gather
genetic information on the endangered species. |
| 2003 | The
MWC hosts
"Annie's BIG Nature Lesson," at the Bengel Wildlife Center.
This multi-year effort is aimed at teaching elementary students about nature,
animals and the environment. |
| 2003 | The
Conservancy installs water control devices to restore 42 acres of wetland at
the Bengel Wildlife Center's Priggooris Lake. The long anticipated
project restores part of the historic Chandler Marsh, where ironically, the
use of drain tiles was advanced more than 100 years ago. |
| 2004 | The
MWC steps up efforts to educate and train citizens to combat the spread of
invasive, exotic plants. |
| 2004 | The
Conservancy and its partners continue to demonstrate cost-effective ways to
help brook trout through the Northwest Michigan Brook Trout
Habitat Initiative. |
| 2006 | The
Conservancy begins work to restore trout habitat in the Rogue River and two
of its tributaries in Kent County. The Rogue is considered one of the
foremost urban trout streams in the country. |
| 2006 | Part
of the evidence on cougars collected by the Conservancy is published in a
scientific paper in the American Midland Naturalist.
"Detection and Classification of Cougars in Michigan Using Low Copy DNA
Sources," by Dr. Brad Swanson of Central Michigan University and Dr.
Patrick Rusz, Director of Wildlife Programs for the MWC, contains the
first-ever, peer-reviewed evidence of multiple cougars east of the Great
Plains, outside Florida. |
| 2007 | The
MWC teams with the Michigan Nature Association to remove exotic plants from
six MNA sanctuaries where invasives threaten rare native plants. |
| 2007 | The
Conservancy joins with multiple partners to tackle a massive slope
stabilization project near the mouth of the Ford River in the Upper
Peninsula's Delta County. The project is one of the largest erosion
control projects on a Michigan river in recent years. |
| 2008 | The
Conservancy publishes a series of five articles on major problems in the
Great Lakes and steps-up efforts to combat water pollution and invasive
species as a member of the Healing Our Waters Coalition. |
| 2008 | The
Conservancy releases recommendations for localized deer population control to
help cities, townships and private landowners cope with deer damage. |
| 2008 | The
MWC and many partners complete a historic sturgeon spawning reef in the
Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. The project is the first
to be jointly funded by U.S. and Canadian partners. The Conservancy is
the only American private non-profit to make a major contribution and play
an important role in the project. |
| 2010 | The
Conservancy develops the Michigan Wild Hog Removal Program--an innovative
partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services
branch to train citizens to detect and trap wild hogs and to raise funds for
purchasing traps. The aim is to build a network of volunteers who can
work with biologists in a widespread program to eliminate the destructive
exotic animals. |
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