Wildlife and Your Land:
The Wildlife and Your Land series is designed
to offer suggestions to you, the private landowner, on how to manage
your land for wildlife.
Michigan Forest Management Wildlife Habitat Guidelines:
Forest
management practices are a key to managing wildlife habitat and
populations. These practices can produce the diversity of vegetation
types required by numerous wildlife species that depend on specific
forest stand conditions to meet their life requisites.
Wisconsin Woodlands: Wildlife Management:
This publication discusses some of the basics
of wildlife management. It lists useful management practices and
techniques, the steps involved in developing a wildlife plan
management plan, and sources of additional information and
assistance.
Incorporating Wildlife Needs into Forest
Management Plans :
As a landowner, you have the opportunity to
manage all or part of your land in a way that is sensitive to
wildlife needs. If you have made the decision to harvest timber from
your property, you can decide to protect important habitat
components for wildlife while harvesting timber.
A Landowners Guide to Woodland Wildlife
Management:
This publication was developed for the private
landowner to manage your property for enjoyment and profit, for the
betterment for wildlife habitat and populations, and for the overall
sound stewardship of Wisconsin's natural resources. Emphasis is on
Ruffed Grouse.
Trail Design for Small Properties:
Trail Design for Small
Properties provides simple, inexpensive
solutions for designing, building, and maintaining sustainable
trails.
Coverts Woodland Wildlife Management Program:
"Coverts" is a Woodland Wildlife
Management Program for Private Landowners (sponsored by University
of Wisconsin).
Old-Growth Forest Network:
The preservation of unique and beautiful tracts of land as National
Parks is often called America’s Best Idea. Now it is our turn to
ensure that future generations can experience native forests in
their mature diversity and complexity. On this site, you can search
for forests in our Network for example: Dedicated, Candidate,
Community or Private Forests.
Why I Blame Wall Street for My Lyme Disease
By Jim Harding Aug 28, 2018 published in
Slate.
In August of 2017, I
was diagnosed with Lyme disease. To be honest, I was surprised it
took as long as it did for me to finally join the growing list of
those who’ve contracted the nasty illness. I teach forestry to
undergraduate college students, which means I’ve spent the better
part of the past 25 years roaming through the woods of New England.
During this time, I’ve killed legions of ticks that I found crawling
up my pant legs, over blaze-orange hunting vests, or down my collar.
Continue reading Jim's experience
Michigan DNR said it killed wolves to
protect humans. (Article from
Bridge Magazine: Michigan's nonpartisan, nonprofit news source)
The DNR has long insisted the
wolves posed a danger to humans, citing an incident in the spring of
2016 where a wolf from the Ontonagon pack raced past a DNR employee
to kill a calf on the Dykstra beef farm. The wolf’s aggressive
attack in a worker’s presence was enough to secure federal approval
to shoot the wolves, under an exception to the U.S. Endangered
Species Act. Bridge’s report showed that the state agency’s
justification for the wolf kills was false. No wolf raced past a
worker that day to kill a calf, as DNR internal emails and other
documents secured by Bridge made clear.
Read More.
Can wolf reintroduction help stave off chronic
wasting disease?
Proponents of
Colorado’s initiative to reintroduce the predators suggest they
could bolster herds against the disease.
Where the Wild Words Are:
Dedicated to literal wild things, wild ideas, and hopefully wild
laughter. The Natural History Page has links to over 160 essays on
parachuting beavers, thundersnow, horrifying 3-metre "Bobbit" worms,
exploding trees, apple-core morality & more. Satirical bits on GMO
bacteria which exude Milk of Human Kindness, & such-like are kicking
around, too.
Wisconsin Tales and Trails:
George
Vukelich was an outdoor writer, story teller, novelist,
poet, essayist, radio announcer and jazz DJ. His career spanned from
the mid 1950s until his death in 1995. Many of his Wisconsin
articles appeared in the Wisconsin Outdoor Journal and Wisconsin
Tales and Trails Magazine. You can see many of these articles at the
papahambone.com.
Hiking to the Red Pine
(Largest Red Pine in Michigan):
John Crumrine created a photo book of the hike that he and his wife,
Susan, did last May to the largest Red Pine in Michigan.
Click here to view the photo book.
Tree Identification in the U.P:
Upper Peninsula tree identification key from
Michigan State University Extension.
Identify that Tree:
Confidently identifying trees
requires a good deal of knowledge to distinguish
the characteristics of a particular genus of
tree. Examining different tree parts will enable
the searcher to identify the various trees
located in the wild.
Dichotomous Key Tree
Identification:
A dichotomous key is one tool
that can be used to identify trees. A
dichotomous key contains a series of choices
that lead the user to the correct name of an
item. "Dichotomous" means "divided into two
parts." Therefore, a dichotomous key will always
give two choices in each step.
A Basic Guide to Tree
Identification:
While trees are similar in the shape, all trees
are not the same. Trees come in many different
shapes, sizes, types of leaves and more
variations. Also, depending upon where you are
located, the types of trees that grow there can
change dramatically. To assist you in
identifying the various types of trees that
exist, we have put together the following
resources.
Natures Playground:
Identify Trees, Flowers and Animal Tracks:
Studying nature is a wonderful
way to recognize the beauty and brilliance of
natural design. Whether you live in a rural
country area or a busy city, you can find many
different animals, plants, and trees that will
help you understand how important nature is to
our planet.
Identifying Trees Around
Your Home:
If you have an appreciation for nature and the
outdoors, you may begin to wonder about the
types of trees, birds, flowers, and other flora
and fauna that you are seeing during time spent
outside. Learning to identify trees is a fun and
interesting way to begin your investigation. You
can start to learn to identify trees visually by
examining leaves, bark, and more.
Tree Ring Analysis: NY
Times Article: The rings of trees
offer a far more complete historical picture of
climate variations. As they age, trees form new
distinctive rings, outward from the center, and
each year a new, distinct circle of dead wood is
created around the trunk of most trees. In that
ring, one can find information about
precipitation, temperature and other data about
that year.
Click here to read more
about Tree Rings
TREE IDENTIFICATION GUIDE
It’s easy to
go through life with what our third-grade
teacher taught us about trees. What we ‘half
remember’ is enough for us to happily relegate
trees to the background of everywhere we go and
everything we do.
Glossary of Terms Relevant
to the Identification of Trees and Shrubs:
Learn about alternative leaves,
ament, armament, axillary bud and much, much
more.