On the Ground to team-up with Mark Kenyon of MeatEater’s Wired to Hunt Podcast as part of the Working for Wildlife Tour

Mark Kenyon of MeatEater and the Wired to Hunt Podcast is heading out this year on his Working for Wildlife Tour to bring attention to the critical work hunters and anglers are doing across the country to create, conserve, and restore wildlife habitat through volunteer on-the-ground projects. The Working for Wildlife Tour will spotlight six volunteer habitat work days across the United States that Kenyon and other members of the Wired to Hunt community will participating in, promoting, and documenting. Volunteer events will include everything from creating brush piles and wildlife openings, to cleaning up shot shells and debris on public lands, collecting acorns for native tree reseeding, and invasive species removal and will be put on in partnership with organizations such as the National Deer Association, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the U.S. Forest Service, and others. 

MUCC’s On the Ground program is excited to be a part of Mark Kenyon’s 2023 Working for Wildlife Tour! Join OTG in partnership with Land Ethics LLC on Saturday, April 22 from 9:30 AM to 2 PM (check-in starts at 10 AM) as we work to maintain wildlife openings and build brush piles on public hunting land in the Traverse City Forest Management Unit in Kalkaska County. 

Volunteers will assist with building brush piles for game habitat, maintaining and improving wildlife openings, and softening forest/opening edge within a forested landscape to improve habitat for wildlife, particularly game species. 

In fall of 2022, volunteers planted a variety of mast-producing trees at this site to enhance habitat for wildlife.

Since 2020, OTG has collaborated with Gib King, owner of Land Ethics LLC, to help bring volunteers out to habitat improvement projects on public land in Kalkaska County. These projects were made possible through funding from a Michigan DNR Wildlife Habitat Grant. Volunteers have helped plant, mulch and fence over 250 mature fruit-bearing trees and have constructed more than 100 brush piles in and around wildlife openings in the Traverse City Forest Management Unit. These sites attract deer, upland game birds, and small game and offer year-round wildlife viewing and hunting opportunities.

OTG volunteers have helped improve about 75 acres of wildlife habitat in Kalkaska County since 2020 and our upcoming project will build on these efforts. Since maintaining wildlife openings within forested habitats requires occasional tree removal and brush management, volunteers will assist in cutting woody vegetation along the edges of the openings, bucking-up limbs and logs, and constructing brush piles along forest edges. A well-constructed brush pile is multifaceted in its benefits to wildlife and creating them is one of our most popular OTG projects.

This is a great opportunity for hunters, local landowners and anyone interested in volunteering to improve wildlife habitat on public lands to get outside, be an active steward for the land, and enjoy camaraderie among fellow conservationists and get some rewarding exercise.

For registration and meeting location details, please click HERE. 

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