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Will the DNR budge on baiting to get higher license fees? Some think so

This time of year, Jim Sweeney’s food plot in Leelanau County doesn’t look like much. It’s a small field with some sparse grasses and a deer blind off to the side.  But, come fall, it’s “like a lush lawn,” Sweeney said. Sweeney mostly plants clover, beets and turnips these days. And in places where the soil’s a little better than in northwest Michigan, people plant corn. Baiting—putting out piles of food such as corn to attract deer for hunting—has been illegal in the Lower Peninsula since 2018 to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease, a fatal, contagious brain disease that’s been found in 14 Lower Peninsula counties and in Dickinson County in the Upper Peninsula. But some think pro-baiting lawmakers have a shiny new bargaining chip: The DNR needs money.

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Bear crazy: DNR study seeks answers to human-bear conflict

With so many reports of bear sightings in northern Michigan—the Michigan Department of Natural Resources estimates there are 2,000 black bears living here, with more than 10,000 in the Upper Peninsula—author Tim Mulherin selected the black bear as a subject of interest as part of his research for a book on Michigan’s wildlife. The Empire “sugar bear” made headlines when it broke into Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate this past April; in our May edition of we examined how humans struggle to coexist with black bears as our encroachment upon their habitat continues. Last spring, the DNR connected Mulherin with researchers from Utah State University, who are conducting a study called the Baldwin Bear Project. The project “aims to understand the ecology and human dimensions of black bears in Michigan,” with an emphasis on examining the growing population here.

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Invasives threaten local environment

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They may be beautiful. They may look nice as lawn ornamentation. They may even be as familiar as the bouquet from the florist. But make no mistake: non-native plants and animals threaten native flora and fauna as well as the enjoyment residents and visitors derive from the area. Knotweed, barberry, baby’s breath and Eurasian milfoil are just a few of the invasive species found in our fields and forests, lakes and waterways. Some target specific hosts, such as hemlock wooly adelgid, and before that, the emerald ash borer. Others simply crowd out native plants, such as garlic mustard or autumn olive. The Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network works with a number of partners, including the Leelanau Conservancy, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Leelanau Conservation District, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and numerous private landowners to combat these and other invasives.

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Black bear enters Empire chocolate shop, devours bag of sugar

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A black bear has visited Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire on five consecutive evenings this week, rummaged through a dumpster and spreading garbage around the village, and pulling open the back door and devouring a 50-pound bag of sugar. On Tuesday night, April 16, around 10:30 pm, the bear entered the beloved chocolate shop for no more than 20 seconds, stole the sugar and returned to the sidewalk to eat it. It touched nothing else in the shop, not even the small, chocolate bears on display by the checkout counter.

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When the one that got away isn’t a fish

Writer Tim Mulherin, who splits his time between Indianapolis and Leelanau County, shares his “big fish” story, when conservation officers with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources weighed in his brown trout at 7.8 pounds and rainbow trout at 4.5 pounds.

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Great day game warden

Recently, writer Tim Mulherin met Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ veteran Rich Stowe, 57, a former Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office deputy. While researching a book on the impact of the pandemic, climate change, and tourism on northwest lower Michigan, Mulherin had the opportunity to ride along with Officer Stowe in late September. “It’s always a great day to be a game warden,” Stowe told him.

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Tar Sands oil ain’t Jed Clampett’s bubblin’ crude

Three years after the July 25, 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill, this tragedy holds important warning signs for communities and municipal and state governments. Oil pipelines now crisscross the entire country, running through Midwestern states that are not oil producers but have become oil transit zones. Many of them already carry Canadian Tar Sands oil.

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Wings of Wonder to release Bald Eagle

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Rebecca Lessard and Wings of Wonder will release a large Bald Eagle on Saturday, May 28 at the Empire Eagle’s Club property (the old Dunegrass Festival field) eight miles east of Empire, on M-72. The public is invited to attend this grand event, which begins at 11 a.m.

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