Keep an eye out for more opportunities to improve wildlife habitat in your most treasured public land areas coming up in August. Volunteers with MUCC’s Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program have completed 17 projects throughout the state for the current cycle already, but there will be a handful more projects in August and September. So far this cycle, a total of 402 volunteers have collectively dedicated over 98 hours to the restoration of 445 acres of wildlife habitat on public land! Thank you for your contribution to conservation! Keep up to date with the latest wildlife habitat improvement events at www.mucc.org/ontheground.  Continue reading

Antler point restrictions were shot down in a six-county tuberculosis management area despite mixed emotions among commissioners at the monthly Natural Resources Commission meeting. Continue reading

Over the past two weekends, volunteers with MUCC’s On the Ground program and the Metro-West Steelheaders participated in two river clean-up events. Last weekend, a total of 63 volunteers participated in the 3rd Annual Manistee River Clean-up to improve fish habitat and spawning areas from Tippy Dam to Rainbow Bend. This past Saturday, a total of 20 volunteers partnered with the Metro-West Steelheaders for the fourth consecutive year to clean up a popular stretch of the Clinton River near Yates Park and removed 200 lbs of trash and debris! Collectively, volunteers have removed over 2,200 lbs of trash and debris from both the Manistee and the Clinton Rivers through these clean-up events. Continue reading

Purple Loosestrife is such a pretty plant! Of course it's pink/purple flowers catches the eye, but is it benefiting our Michigan ecosystems? The species was introduced to the states from various parts of Asia and this pretty plant has made its way into almost every state in the US. Read on to see the affects purple loosestrife can have on our natural resources! Continue reading

by Anna Mitterling, Wildlife Cooperative Coordinator Last week I was extremely fortunate to be invited to help the DNR band osprey near the Kellogg Biological Station on Crooked Lake. It was an incredible experience and it is amazing how far these special birds have come over the past couple decades. Their numbers sharply declined after the introduction of DDT. Even now, these pesticides threaten them as they are not regulated in South America where these birds winter. Continue reading

For the third year in a row, MUCC’s On the Ground (OTG) program will be teaming up with Roger Hinchcliff of Steelhead Manifesto and the Metro-West Steelheaders to clean up sections of the Manistee River. Also, for the fourth consecutive year, OTG will be teaming up with the Metro-West Steelheaders and the Clinton River Watershed Council to clean up sections of the Clinton River. The Manistee and Clinton Rivers are two of Michigan’s most popular steelhead angling rivers. Collectively, volunteers have removed over 2,000lbs of trash from the two rivers through these events over the past three years. Read further to see the event details and how you can get involved this year! Continue reading

Last weekend, a group of volunteers and MUCC Staff members helped kick-off MUCC’s 80th Annual Convention by building five large brush piles in the Gratiot-Saginaw State Game Area. The Gratiot-Saginaw SGA was the first project location for MUCC’s On the Ground (OTG) program when it began in March of 2013. Since then, five more wildlife habitat improvement projects have been completed in that area in various fields and wildlife openings. In the Gratiot-Saginaw SGA alone, an estimated 50 brush piles have been built by volunteers through MUCC’s wildlife habitat improvement program. Thank you to the volunteers and staff members that represented MUCC and its affiliates last weekend! Continue reading

Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) hosted its most important event of the year this past weekend in Owosso: our Annual Convention. Delegates representing MUCC’s 46,000-plus members and 250-plus affiliate local sportsmen’s clubs voted on what hunting, fishing, trapping and conservation policies we will pursue, honored dedicated conservationists, elected officers and even improved local wildlife habitat!  Continue reading

We are approaching MUCC’s 80th Annual Convention which will take place at the Comstock Inn and Conference Center in Owosso this weekend, June 16th-18th. Special events will also be taking place at the nearby Shiawassee Conservation Association. This was the place where MUCC was originally formed in November of 1937 by a collection of representatives from sportsmen’s clubs from around the state. To kick-off this year’s Convention, on Friday, June 16th at 10am we will be building brush piles for rabbitat with MUCC’s On the Ground (OTG) program in the Gratiot-Saginaw State Game Area. The Gratiot Saginaw SGA was also the location of the first OTG project in March of 2013. Continue reading

Last weekend, MUCC’s Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program partnered with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) to complete their annual elk habitat workday in the Pigeon River Country State Forest. This was the fourth year MUCC has coordinated with local RMEF members from various chapters throughout Michigan to enhance elk habitat in the Pigeon River Country. This year, a total of 15 volunteers completed the first phase of restoring two 80 acre parcels to wildlife habitat. Fencing structures were removed from mature apple trees, old hunting blind were deconstructed and removed from a wildlife opening, and debris was removed from three outbuildings that will be demolished in the next phase of the restoration. This project was chosen by the Atlanta DNR Wildlife Biologist, Shelby Hiestand, and the Huron Pines AmeriCorps member serving with the Atlanta DNR, Jason LaPointe. Continue reading