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MARQUETTE -- The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has awarded a total of $100,000 in deer habitat improvement grant funding to 12 entities for projects in the Upper Peninsula.
The Deer Habitat Improvement Partnership Initiative is a competitive grant program designed to enhance deer habitat on nonstate lands in the U.P.
"These grants will produce positive impacts on 844 acres in Menominee, Marquette, Alger, Gogebic, Iron, Baraga, Ontonagon, Gogebic, Schoolcraft and Mackinac counties," said Bill Scullon, DNR field operations manager and administrator for the grant initiative, in a news release. "The planned match for the 12 grants is valued in excess of $123,930 (well in excess of the required 25%) further expanding the impact of the projects."
Groups eligible for these grants include organizations with a formal mission to promote wildlife conservation and/or hunting, such as sportsmen's clubs, conservation districts, land conservancies, industrial landowners with more than 10,000 acres, or private land affiliations where two or more unrelated persons jointly own 400 or more acres.
Primary goals for each of the projects include producing tangible deer habitat improvements, building long-term partnerships between the DNR and outside organizations and showcasing the project benefits to the public.
Scullon said the total amount of grant funding available is $100,000. The maximum amount of individual grants is $15,000 and the minimum is $2,000.
Now in its 13th year, the initiative is supported by the state's Deer Range Improvement Program, which is funded by a portion of deer hunting license revenue.
"With this year's crop of projects, we will have made available $750,000 to U.P. partners for 95 projects to improve deer habitat. The value in partner match over the years has exceeded half a million dollars," Scullon said. "The reach of the program has been to hundreds of landowners, over several thousand acres, involving all of the U.P.'s 15 counties."
Availability of the grants was announced in January, with a March 13 deadline to apply. There was a total of 16 applicants in this year's grant cycle. Awardees were notified by April 1.
The Marquette County Conservation District has been approved for a $14,900 grant to partner with Lyme Timber Company on lands it owns in Marquette County to improve seven acres of deer habitat adjacent to a deer-wintering complex by preparing hunter walking trails with a bulldozer and other mechanical means.
Approximately 3.5 miles of recent logging roads and skid trails, with small pushouts in appropriate areas, will be treated, the project description reads. A rotary spreader will be used on a volunteer's tractor to spread wildlife seed, including ladino clover, red clover, timothy, alfalfa and orchard grass, onto the trails and pushouts. Michigan United Conservation Clubs and Ruffed Grouse Society volunteers then will plant approximately 200 soft- and hard-mast producing shrubs onto the edges of these trails and in appropriate openings nearby. The excavating contractor will revisit the sites to move and place boulders at five possible access sites to block off vehicular traffic to ensure survivability of the seed and eliminate any possibility of rutting or damage by unauthorized vehicle access.
These parcels are enrolled into Michigan's Commercial Forest Act and are therefore open to public foot access for hunting and trapping purposes. These areas are also near identified DWCs, and are used for migration routes and spring breakup foraging areas for deer. The naturalized seed and the mast plantings will provide critical food and breakout wildlife openings as a sustainable food source.
Signs detailing the project and funding sources will be installed at the parcel.
Several Marquette County projects were OK'd for grants.
U.P. Whitetails Association Inc. and Shawn Cannon Forestry have been approved for a $7,520 grant for a spring breakout wildlife openings enhancement project on privately owned lands in Turin Township in Marquette County.
According to the project description, there are few active agriculture and few managed openings in this area. The need for high-quality browse is essential for wildlife within this area, especially for deer traveling to and from yarding locations. The goal of this project is to enhance summer and spring break conditions for wildlife. The project will include seven sites totaling 17 acres. The total landowner acreage between the two individuals is 320 acres.
The sites will be seeded with a wildlife mixture consisting of oats, white ladino clover, red clover, alfalfa and chicory. The planting mix is a hardy seed type and provides an excellent source of protein. Chicory is unique to inter-plant along with clovers as it has a long tap root system and holds strong during very hot, dry conditions during summer months. Oats' main objective is to help nurse other planted seeds during their first growing season.
While the planting sites are private land holdings, they are surrounded by state lands within a 40-acre distance.
For more information on the grant program, contact Scullon at 906-250-6781 or scullonh@michigan.gov.