Michigan Nature Monday – Wildlife Corridors

In Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula, one of MNA’s largest conservation landscapes protects a critical migratory channel for rare songbirds and majestic raptors alike. The biological diversity, size, and relatively undisturbed quality of the coastal wetlands and minimally fragmented forests along the St. Mary’s River corridor make this an important conservation area for MNA. Nearly 2,000 acres are protected by MNA sanctuaries in this vast conservation complex.

Two American Kestrels display defensive behavior against an osprey. Photo by Steve Lindberg.

As migratory birds funnel through the St. Mary’s River on their way to wintering and breeding grounds, this connecting waterway between Lake Superior and the Straits of Mackinac provides a globally significant passageway for many rare species. Numerous birds utilize stopover habitat in this corridor including black tern, Caspian tern, osprey, merlin, bald eagle, American bittern, northern harrier, and others.

One sanctuary in the St. Mary’s River Corridor is the 762-plus-acre Schafer Family Nature Sanctuary at Roach Point, which is named to honor brothers Mason C. and Melvin C. Schafer and their family for their many contributions to MNA. The sanctuary contains eight natural communities including Great Lakes marsh, boreal forest, northern mesic forest, northern wet meadow, bog, northern shrub thicket, poor conifer swamp, and rich conifer swamp. Numerous species of wildlife and plants have been documented using the sanctuary including numerous rare species including the Lapland buttercup, black tern, American bittern, bald eagle, osprey, and Alaska orchid.

MNA’s 182-acre Munuscong Lake Nature Sanctuary is just a half mile west of the Schafer Nature Sanctuary. There are significant acreages of wetland along the south shore of Lake Munuscong, from Maple Point on the west and continuing east beyond the mouth of the Gogomain River. These wetlands continue upstream into the Gogomain Swamp – a large, wild, and minimally fragmented swamp of which much is now protected as State Forest. The biological diversity, size, and relatively undisturbed quality of the coastal wetlands and minimally fragmented forests between Munuscong Lake and the Gogomain Swamp make the area an important conservation project for MNA.

The sanctuaries include significant coastal and wetland habitats and help protect a large acreage of northern forest and wildlife habitat. MNA’s Conservation Director, Andy Bacon, explained, “One of the notable features of this area is that it serves as important stopover habitat for neo-tropical and other migratory species. On one site visit, six species of warblers were observed as well as numerous ruffed grouse.”

Beaver dam at MNA’s Carlton Lake Wetlands Nature Sanctuary. Photo by Andrew Bacon.

MNA’s Carlton Lake Nature Sanctuary lies at the southern end of its namesake lake in this corridor with significant acreage of undeveloped open water and wetlands—providing 520 acres of habitat for a great variety of conservation priority bird species. The sanctuary likes within the Great Lakes migratory bird corridor that follows the St. Mary’s River between Lake Superior and the Straights of Mackinac. Birds observed here include the Virginia rail, sora rail, ring-necked duck, green heron, sedge wren, pied-billed grebe, and sandhill crane.

MNA’s Founders 4 the Future Campaign expands the sanctuary to 880 acres, and would further protect the large-scale and primarily undeveloped character of the Carlton Lake complex. This secluded area is beneficial for a diversity of wildlife species considered to be conservation priority species including Michigan threatened least bittern, common loon, Caspian tern, and merlin, as well as the Michigan special concern American bittern, bald eagle, northern harrier, and osprey.

Considered to be a high-quality coastal wetland due to the relatively undisturbed quality and minimally fragmented forests between Lake Munuscong and the Gogomain Swamp to the south, the Rocky Point Wetlands Nature Sanctuary protects an area containing a variety of tree cover and forested community, providing abundant habitat for a diversity of wildlife species considered to be of conservation priority—and importantly, many migratory birds.

The Schafer Family Memorial, nearby Lake Munuscong Nature Sanctuary, and Rocky Point Wetlands Nature Sanctuary together comprise MNA’s Roach Point Conservation Area. Combined with Carlton Lake Wetlands and encompassing nearly 2,000 acres in all, these Conservation Areas represent MNA’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the conservation values and improving the ecological integrity of the nature sanctuaries held within our extensive network.

Michigan Nature Monday: Great Lakes & Fresh Water

The State of Michigan has declared June 3-11 as Great Lakes & Fresh Water Week. So, this month’s Michigan Nature Monday will focus on one of the most important ways that we protect Michigan’s many freshwater resources: peatlands.

What are peatlands? These land-based wetland ecosystems are highly efficient carbon sinks on the landscape—formed by the water-saturated ground which prevents plant materials from fully decomposing. The resulting organic matter is called “peat” and is composed primarily of mosses, sedges, and shrubby material.

Why are peatlands important? Plants absorb carbon from the atmosphere throughout their life through photosynthesis, and when those plants reach the end of their life the process of decomposition releases that stored carbon back into the air. Because the plants that form peat are prevented from fully decomposing, much of the carbon that they have stored remains trapped in the waterlogged conditions of the peatland. It is for this reason that peatlands are known to store more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, including forests!

One example of peatlands found in Michigan is fens. There are several types of fens found throughout the state and are home to many rare animals such as the yellow rail, Mitchell’s satyr, and eastern massasauga rattlesnake. Fens are extremely fragile and sensitive systems that are already being impacted by climate change. But MNA is working to protect fens all over the state including at our newest sanctuary acquisition in the Eastern Upper Peninsula.

Patterned fens are characterized by ridges and swales that can look like waves on the landscape. Photo by Jason Whalen | Fauna Creative

Fox River Wetlands hosts a variety of natural communities, but none so special as a rare, high-quality “patterned fen”, which is ranked imperiled in Michigan. There are a limited number of these types of fens found in Michigan, and of those, the quality of this complex is ranked in the top ten, making it very important in terms of biodiversity. Protecting the fen and wetlands directly contributes to the pristine water quality of the Fox River.

Patterned fens, also known as a string bog, is a groundwater-fed wetland community found on flat, ancient lakes and outwash plains. Peat forms the soil substrate, and the community displays a series of low-relief ridges (strings) and swales (flarks) that look like subtle waves across the land.

MNA’s largest land protection project in its 70-year history will secure over 5 square miles of habitat and a collection of pristine natural communities, including an incredibly rare and high-quality patterned fen. The 3,436-acre Fox River Wetlands is at the very heart of the storied Fox River watershed, made famous by Ernest Hemingway, and connects to a conservation landscape of over 1 million acres that provides habitat for rare plants and animals of concern in Michigan.

The East Branch of the Fox River, one of just two Michigan Natural Rivers in the Upper Peninsula. Photo by Jason Whalen | Fauna Creative

Comprised of the Main Branch, East Branch, and several other tributaries, the Fox River system is one of only two designated under Michigan’s Natural Rivers program in the Upper Peninsula and only one of 16 across the entire state. The program was created to preserve, protect, and enhance our state’s finest river systems for the use and enjoyment of future generations.

These rivers and the wetlands that feed them are a critical part of the state’s healthy Great Lakes ecosystem. MNA is proud to be part of protecting Michigan’s fresh water through our network of more than 180 nature sanctuaries. Learn more and join us in this work at michigannature.org.

Species Spotlight: Poweshiek skipperling butterfly

One of the world’s rarest butterflies, with fewer than one hundred remaining in the wild at recent surveys, resides right here in the prairie fens of southern lower Michigan. The tiny Poweshiek skipperling butterfly was once one of the most abundant butterflies in the Midwest, but habitat degradation and loss have resulted in the near extinction of this species throughout its range.

Conservation biologists have been working in recent years to recover the butterfly and its habitat—as detailed in MNA’s recent “Life on the Brink” mini-documentary—with assistance and funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The plight of the Poweshiek skipperling butterfly, however, extends beyond the borders of the state and is evidence of a greater ecological problem that affects many other species.

Poweshiek skipperling butterfly with survey markings on its wings sits on a black-eyed susan flower. Photo by Jason Whalen | Fauna Creative.

Unlike the distinctive orange and black markings of monarch butterflies, Poweshiek skipperling butterflies are small and brown, with few distinguishing features. The Poweshiek skipperling can be easily mistaken for one of their more common skipper counterparts like the European skipperling. Their small size also means that they are more likely to be stepped on than spotted, which presents a challenge for researchers who would like to raise awareness of the butterflies while simultaneously protecting their habitat from over-visitation.

The Poweshiek skipperling butterfly however is a symbol for the overall phenomenon of insect decline, not just in Michigan. Insects being the most abundant living creatures on earth, their decline and particularly a general lack of understanding of the cause of that decline is certainly reason to be concerned.

Researcher Dave Pavlik releases a Poweshiek skipperling butterfly that was part of the captive breeding program. Photo by Lauren Ross.

Fortunately, organizations like the Michigan Nature Association work to protect habitat for these species and participate in conservation efforts like those of the Poweshiek Skipperling International Partnership, all of which is guided and often funded by federal agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Endangered Species Act.

Michigan Nature Monday: Floodplain Forests

In southern Lower Michigan, the populated landscapes of farms, homes, and towns create predictable, right-angle patterns of human settlement when viewed from above.  But winding across and through those straight-line grids, meandering corridors trace the paths of streams and rivers.

These corridors often harbor something really important, a dynamic natural community known as a floodplain forest. Floodplain forests are a vital part of Michigan’s natural heritage. Periodic flooding, scouring, erosion and sediment deposition follow the rise and fall of water levels creating diverse microhabitats that are used by a variety of wildlife.

Land meets water in a floodplain forest. When that stream or river tops its banks, it reshapes the bottom lands with tree falls, migrating river channels, new sediment deposits or erosional scour. These actions create fluvial landforms such as natural levees, backswamps, oxbow ponds, and terraces – all associated with a particular type of vegetation.

The Thornapple River flows along the banks of MNA’s Thornapple Lake Nature Sanctuary as it empties into Thornapple Lake.

The flowing waters help the soils thaw earlier in the spring, meaning these are often the places where the first wildflowers bloom. Insects, invertebrates, reptiles, and amphibians appear almost simultaneously to take advantage of the food sources provided by these wildflowers. “These forests are often very important stopover or even nesting sites for declining neotropical migratory birds as well.” “Often they are the last forested strongholds in a lot of agriculturally-dominated landscapes and are therefore valuable for a variety of plants and animals.”

Threats to these impressive habitats are an all too familiar list – invasive plants and animals, hydrological modifications (levees, impoundments, channelization, dams), including those brought by climate change, habitat loss due to industrial, residential and agricultural fragmentation, and incompatible timber management. For those reasons, floodplain forests are both globally and state-ranked as vulnerable.

Copperbelly watersnakes are one rare species that use floodplain forests and other adjacent habitats. Photo courtesy Michigan Natural Features Inventory.

For sometimes being no more than a narrow, green edge along a river, the magnitude of floodplain forest benefits outweigh their seemingly limited size. Besides important habitat, they play a critical function in Michigan’s fight against climate change. When water flows across the land to a river, the floodplain forest serves as a buffer, absorbing both the quantity and the energy of that flow while filtering pollutants. Floodplain forests therefore help to protect the water quality in many of Michigan’s watersheds.