Conservancy Tackled Wide Range of Problems in 2010
Around Christmas time, the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy wrapped up a diverse mix of field work, education and training projects for 2010. The non-profit organization tackled some of the most serious biological threats ever to our fish and wildlife resources, completed several projects to improve coldwater streams in both Peninsulas, and enhanced critical habitat for the endangered Karner Blue butterfly in western Michigan.
“This past year’s efforts were very rewarding,” commented Conservancy President, Bill Taylor, of Duck Lake. “Despite a tough economy, we were able to mobilize some significant private-sector resources for fish and wildlife. That’s what the Conservancy is all about.”
The Conservancy’s Featured Project for 2010 was the innovative Michigan Wild Hog Removal Program. The Conservancy has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services branch, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and many other groups to develop a multi-faceted program focused on wild hog eradication. This involves training citizens to detect and trap wild hogs, which have the potential to cause more damage to Michigan’s agriculture and natural resources than any single biological threat in our state’s history.
Over the past 10 years, hundreds of wild boars, mostly of Eurasian stock, have escaped from hunting ranches and breeding/raising facilities in Michigan. Wild hogs have been confirmed in at least 69 of Michigan’s 83 counties. Most are in bands of fewer than 20 animals, but wild hogs have dispersed many miles from the game ranches and are reproducing. They are already causing crop and forest damage, and the pseudorabies virus has been found in free-roaming wild hogs shot in Saginaw County. The presence of this disease prompted quarantines of game ranches, as pseudorabies is a huge threat to Michigan’s domestic swine industry.
Officials in other states have emphasized that Michigan must act now or our narrow window of opportunity will be gone. Michigan might already have 3,000–5,000 wild hogs and the habitat to support a huge population. With wild hogs capable of producing litters of 3-10 annually, even a few months of delay in implementing an effective control program is detrimental. We have been told by the experts, repeatedly, to pull out all the stops in Michigan.
Sport hunting has not controlled hogs in other states, and by itself, sport hunting will be ineffective in Michigan. Through the Conservancy’s Program, a network of volunteers who can work with wildlife officials in a widespread trapping program is being developed. “Our goal is to increase the number of wild hogs shot annually by citizens and to place 100 volunteer-operated hog traps (at least one per county) around the state by the end of 2011,” said President Taylor.
The program got off to a good start in 2010. More than 120 citizens were trained at the Conservancy’s 259-acre Bengel Wildlife Center and at the Bay City State Park by staff of the Conservancy and Wildlife Services. Some success was already evident by fall as one trap in Mecosta County yielded five wild hogs in a single night. The effort will continue in 2011 with significant financial help from the Michigan Pork Producers Association.
The Conservancy also addressed a major threat to the Great Lakes and its tributaries in 2010 – the Asian Carp. Conservancy staff testified at hearings and wrote letters urging federal lawmakers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to ensure the destructive species will not enter Lake Michigan via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. That waterway connects the Illinois River, where Asian carp are already plentiful and harming the environment, to Lake Michigan.
Bighead and silver carp feed on plankton. Bigheads are capable of consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton daily and can reach weights of 80 pounds. Fisheries officials believe they could drastically alter the food chain in the Great Lakes and outcompete native species for habitat.
To thwart the invasive carp, the Conservancy will continue to press for a permanent barrier between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan. Recent legal actions brought by Michigan and other Great Lakes states have not been effective; however, the Conservancy will continue to seek meaningful actions to keep the invasive species out of the Region.
The Conservancy was also involved in more traditional habitat improvement work in 2010. The organization partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to improve two trout streams—Ruby Creek, a tributary of the Big South Pere Marquette River in Oceana County; and Bear Creek in the Upper Peninsula’s Schoolcraft County. The Conservancy also helped restore trout habitat in Ottawa County’s Pigeon Creek in cooperation with the Timberland Resource Conservation and Development Area Council and several other partners.
The Conservancy’s tradition for helping rare species continued with a project on National Forest land in Oceana County that is home to the endangered Karner Blue butterfly. In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service the Conservancy helped cut brush and plant wild lupine and other important nectar plants on 20 critical acres. Much of the work was done by volunteers. Almost all of the world’s population of this species is confined to Michigan. The Forest Service recognized the Oceana County work with a prestigious Wings Across the Americas Award for Butterfly Conservation.
The Conservancy also continued to work under the Michigan Private Wetlands Program, particularly on lands in six counties in Southwest Michigan, centering in Ottawa and Allegan Counties. Working with private landowners, the Conservancy restores a dozen or more wetlands annually.
“This past year’s efforts were very rewarding,” commented Conservancy President, Bill Taylor, of Duck Lake. “Despite a tough economy, we were able to mobilize some significant private-sector resources for fish and wildlife. That’s what the Conservancy is all about.”
The Conservancy’s Featured Project for 2010 was the innovative Michigan Wild Hog Removal Program. The Conservancy has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services branch, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and many other groups to develop a multi-faceted program focused on wild hog eradication. This involves training citizens to detect and trap wild hogs, which have the potential to cause more damage to Michigan’s agriculture and natural resources than any single biological threat in our state’s history.
Over the past 10 years, hundreds of wild boars, mostly of Eurasian stock, have escaped from hunting ranches and breeding/raising facilities in Michigan. Wild hogs have been confirmed in at least 69 of Michigan’s 83 counties. Most are in bands of fewer than 20 animals, but wild hogs have dispersed many miles from the game ranches and are reproducing. They are already causing crop and forest damage, and the pseudorabies virus has been found in free-roaming wild hogs shot in Saginaw County. The presence of this disease prompted quarantines of game ranches, as pseudorabies is a huge threat to Michigan’s domestic swine industry.
Officials in other states have emphasized that Michigan must act now or our narrow window of opportunity will be gone. Michigan might already have 3,000–5,000 wild hogs and the habitat to support a huge population. With wild hogs capable of producing litters of 3-10 annually, even a few months of delay in implementing an effective control program is detrimental. We have been told by the experts, repeatedly, to pull out all the stops in Michigan.
Sport hunting has not controlled hogs in other states, and by itself, sport hunting will be ineffective in Michigan. Through the Conservancy’s Program, a network of volunteers who can work with wildlife officials in a widespread trapping program is being developed. “Our goal is to increase the number of wild hogs shot annually by citizens and to place 100 volunteer-operated hog traps (at least one per county) around the state by the end of 2011,” said President Taylor.
The program got off to a good start in 2010. More than 120 citizens were trained at the Conservancy’s 259-acre Bengel Wildlife Center and at the Bay City State Park by staff of the Conservancy and Wildlife Services. Some success was already evident by fall as one trap in Mecosta County yielded five wild hogs in a single night. The effort will continue in 2011 with significant financial help from the Michigan Pork Producers Association.
The Conservancy also addressed a major threat to the Great Lakes and its tributaries in 2010 – the Asian Carp. Conservancy staff testified at hearings and wrote letters urging federal lawmakers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to ensure the destructive species will not enter Lake Michigan via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. That waterway connects the Illinois River, where Asian carp are already plentiful and harming the environment, to Lake Michigan.
Bighead and silver carp feed on plankton. Bigheads are capable of consuming up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton daily and can reach weights of 80 pounds. Fisheries officials believe they could drastically alter the food chain in the Great Lakes and outcompete native species for habitat.
To thwart the invasive carp, the Conservancy will continue to press for a permanent barrier between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan. Recent legal actions brought by Michigan and other Great Lakes states have not been effective; however, the Conservancy will continue to seek meaningful actions to keep the invasive species out of the Region.
The Conservancy was also involved in more traditional habitat improvement work in 2010. The organization partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to improve two trout streams—Ruby Creek, a tributary of the Big South Pere Marquette River in Oceana County; and Bear Creek in the Upper Peninsula’s Schoolcraft County. The Conservancy also helped restore trout habitat in Ottawa County’s Pigeon Creek in cooperation with the Timberland Resource Conservation and Development Area Council and several other partners.
The Conservancy’s tradition for helping rare species continued with a project on National Forest land in Oceana County that is home to the endangered Karner Blue butterfly. In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service the Conservancy helped cut brush and plant wild lupine and other important nectar plants on 20 critical acres. Much of the work was done by volunteers. Almost all of the world’s population of this species is confined to Michigan. The Forest Service recognized the Oceana County work with a prestigious Wings Across the Americas Award for Butterfly Conservation.
The Conservancy also continued to work under the Michigan Private Wetlands Program, particularly on lands in six counties in Southwest Michigan, centering in Ottawa and Allegan Counties. Working with private landowners, the Conservancy restores a dozen or more wetlands annually.