Grants: Wildlife Stewardship
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Saginaw Bay WIN Outdoor Education Partnership
May 2004This project supported the joint administration (U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and Ducks Unlimited – Great Lakes) of a project designed to restore wetland and grassland habitats as outdoor classrooms on elementary, middle, and high school lands in the Saginaw Bay Watershed. This project intends to develop 5 to 10 educational facilities, as well as provide associated supplies (binoculars, dip nets, text materials) that will assist in interpretation of the educational areas, as well as discuss sustainable concepts and why wildlife habitat conservation and appreciation is an important component of the educational process.
Invasive Brush Control for the Enhancement of CREP Grassland Restorations
November 2000The U.S.D.A. has spent $2.5 million to administer a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) which has restored over 25,000 acres of wetland/grassland complexes in the Saginaw Bay Watershed during 2001 and 2002. Portions of these restorations are vulnerable to brush invasion during early stages of establishment if they are near wooded areas. In order to establish the desired plant communities, brush must be controlled either by mowing or application of Garlon 3A herbicide. Chemical spot treatment during the first year or two of restoration appear to be the most effective and least costly means of control identified thus far. The grant funds will be used to hire contractors who have the training and experience to identify target species without injuring the desired prairie and wetland species. Currently brush control is not an eligible practice under the CREP program. This project will demonstrate to CREP administrators the need for brush control funding in future CREP programs. Grasslands are important habitat for small mammals, which are an important food source for red-tailed hawks, marsh hawks, short-eared owls, red fox, and coyotes. Grasslands provide nesting cover for Henslow, grasshopper, and vesper sparrows, meadowlarks, bobolinks, bobwhite quail, pheasants, and several species of ducks.
Wood Ducks in the Watershed
November 2000Bob Kraut, fifth grade teacher at Bay City’s Washington Elementary School, developed this innovative program designed to teach youth about wildlife and the outdoors. Through the Wood Ducks in the Watershed project, fifth graders build and place approximately 60 wood duck nesting boxes per year on area public and private lands. High school students from Bay City Western and Bay City Central high schools are mapping, repairing, and collecting data from the boxes. Information that students collect is passed on to local and state agencies for statistical research purposes. This is an ongoing project that is funded outside of the school budget.
Huron County No-Till Drill Challenge
November 2000This project challenged additional funders to participate in the purchase of a no-till drill for the Huron County Conservation District. The no-till drill was purchased and is now made available (rented) to farms within 5 miles of Saginaw Bay that have undisturbed corn residuals remaining from the previous year’s farming operations. Farms that have participated in the Conservation Tillage for Water Quality and Wildlife project are given priority. The intent of the project was to show farmers the benefits of no-till farming such as reduced fuel costs, reduced labor costs, reduced wear on equipment, reduced need for a large inventory of equipment, increased soil productivity and increased wildlife use on the land. It is expected that 10,000 acres will be under no-till operations yearly by use of this device.
Invasive Brush Control on Private Grasslands
November 2000This was a pilot project to control brush on private lands in Huron, Tuscola, and Saginaw counties. In cooperation with Pheasants Forever, a Conservation District agent maintained brush control records and prepared educational information on the values of grasslands for wildlife and the use of prescribed fire as a management tool. Priority was be given to native prairies, proximity to wetlands, and invasive exotics – in that order.