Invasive plants like garlic mustard and spotted knapweed are becoming more common along roads and trails because they spread easily when their tiny seeds cling to dirt and mud on vehicles. These and other invasive plants can outcompete native vegetation, taking over forest floors and open lands, potentially destabilizing local ecosystems.

Riders who value the magnificent scenery and wildlife along the trails can do their part to protect these beautiful places:

1. RIDE: Arrive and enjoy the designated trail with a clean ORV free of mud or plant debris.
2. CLEAN: After your ride, remove as much dirt and plant debris as possible from ORVs before leaving the trail, then follow up by washing them before you visit your next trail. Be sure to clean clothing and footwear as well; these can carry seeds, too.
3. REPEAT: Ride the next trail knowing you’re not carrying any invasive species with you!

Not sure where to clean your ORV? The North Country Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area has compiled a list of carwashes near trailheads in Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Missaukee, Osceola and Wexford counties. This and other ORV resources are available online at DirtNeverHurt.org.

Look for North Country CISMA’s outreach booth at upcoming events in the region throughout the month of May or find out more about keeping your ride and trails free of invasive species by watching a recording of the recent NotMISpecies webinar, Dirt Never Hurt, but Invasive Species Do – Engaging ORVers to Stop Invasive Spread.

Michigan has riding opportunities for people of all abilities. Find information on designated ORV trails and routes, scramble areas such as Silver Lake and Holly Oaks, state forest roads and ORV-friendly campgrounds along with license information at the DNR’s ORV riding webpage.

DNR experts will lead the tour along the 1-mile loop trail, which includes 0.6 miles of unpaved trails along a historic dike system, and a 0.4-mile beach walk along Lake Michigan.

Portable restrooms, picnic tables, and trash receptacles will be available. Please bring your own binoculars or a scope if you have them. Some binoculars will be available to borrow.

We highly encourage participants to download one or more of the following smartphone apps: eBird, iNaturalist, Merlin Bird ID, Audubon Bird Guide. Please dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes as we will be walking along unpaved trails with uneven ground. Please be aware that the trail system is not fully accessible according to Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.

This birding tour is presented in partnership with MI Birds, a public outreach and education program created by Audubon Great Lakes and the DNR. MI Birds aims to deepen all Michiganders’ engagement in the understanding, care and stewardship of public lands that are important for birds and local communities.

Questions? Contact: Joseph Sage at 906-789-8205.

“This is an opportunity for serious candidates to learn more about the day-to-day work of conservation officers, how to navigate the application process and ask questions,” said acting Lt. Todd Thorn, DNR Law Enforcement supervisor.

The next academy begins Sunday, Jan. 5, at the Michigan State Police Training Academy in Lansing. Applicants have until Thursday, May 23, at 11:59 p.m. to submit their application.

Conservation officers are fully licensed law enforcement officers who protect Michigan’s natural and cultural resources through effective law enforcement and education. Patrolling every county of the state, they ensure people are safely and legally hunting, fishing and recreating. COs use off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, boats and other equipment to patrol rural and urban areas that include trails, forests and waterways. They also are first responders during natural disasters and other life-threatening situations.

Questions? Contact Katie Gervasi at 517-290-0679.

Tim Novak, DNR state trails coordinator, announced the 2024 recipients during the Governor’s Conference on Tourism earlier this month in Kalamazoo.

2024 Pure Michigan Trail

• Highbanks Trail (Iosco County): Built in 2001, this 7-mile trail provides year-round access to the bluffs of the Au Sable River, offers dramatic views and traverses Iargo Springs to Sawmill Point, where the U.S. Forest Service maintains 17 primitive campsites and a boat launch.

2024 Pure Michigan Trail Towns:

• Lansing (Ingham County) is home to a regional network of 30-plus miles of trail that serve as a popular destination for recreation and social activities, connect several communities in the area with a diverse array of cultural histories, including the Nokomis Cultural Heritage Center, and offer opportunities for visitors to walk, run, bike or paddle.

• The village of Milford (Oakland County) offers multiuse trails for mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding and paddle sports via a network that connects Milford’s vibrant downtown scene to local and county parks, Kensington Metropark, Proud Lake Recreation Area and Island Lake Recreation Area.
• The Oscoda area (Iosco County) provides access to hundreds of miles of hiking, biking, paddling, equestrian, snowmobile and ORV trails. The designation as a Trail Town builds on long-standing support for trails in the area at local, state and federal levels, and a love for the outdoors that is woven into the fabric of the community.

Read more about these 2024 designees on the Pure Michigan Trails and Trail Towns webpage. Applications for the 2025 program open October 2024.

Questions? Contact Tim Novak at 517-388-8347.

Lighthouse love

Celebrate the grand reopening of Tawas Point Lighthouse – located in Tawas Point State Park in East Tawas – Thursday, May 2, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

After extensive restoration work, the lighthouse is set to reopen soon for the spring/summer season, and this event offers a sneak peek at the updates. Check out a variety of vendor booths – including the Tawas Bay Art Gallery, Heritage Coast Sailing and Rowing and Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary – enjoy live music and refreshments from local food trucks, browse the gift shop and take a FREE tour of the lighthouse.

Mastering mushrooming

Interested in getting to know Michigan’s mushrooms? Check out the DNR Outdoor Skills Academy’s Wild Mushroom Clinic, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 26, at the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center in Cadillac.

Learn how to identify a variety of edible wild mushrooms, where to start looking for them and proper handling techniques for transport, cleaning, consumption (including some sampling) and home preservation. Cost for the class is $55, which includes lunch.

If you can’t make this date, there are several other sessions of the clinic scheduled in the coming months. Find more details about these and other classes at Michigan.gov/OutdoorSkills.

Freshwater fishing, falcons, further fun

At the Outdoor Adventure Center in Detroit:

• Join us for Train Day, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 4, a celebration of trains and the history of railroading on the Detroit riverfront. The event will include interactive activities, guest speakers, a model railroad, railroading artifacts and more.
• Get ready for the white bass run in the Detroit River with Freshwater Fishing Series: White Bass, 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 19. This class will cover equipment recommendations, techniques and regulations for white bass fishing – and participants will make their own lures. Cost is $10.
• Dive into the history of the world’s fastest animal during Brunch & Learn: Peregrine Falcons in Detroit, 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, May 23. Part of the OAC’s Active Aging Adventures series, this program for seniors explores the peregrine falcon’s journey from the edge of extinction to conquering concrete jungles and how falconry, an ancient sport with a rich and storied heritage, played a pivotal role. Cost is $8.

Discover what else is coming up in May and beyond on the DNR events calendar.

State park stewardship

Several state parks in southern Michigan need volunteers for stewardship workdays to help remove invasive plants that threaten high-quality ecosystems.

Workdays will take place at:

• Hoffmaster State Park (Muskegon County)
  • 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, May 5.
• Waterloo Recreation Area (Washtenaw County)
  • 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays, May 5, May 11 and May 18.
• Bald Mountain Recreation Area (Oakland County)
  • 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, May 11.
• Warren Dunes State Park (Berrien County)
  • 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 11.
• Highland Recreation Area (Oakland County)
  • 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, May 12.
• Saugatuck Dunes State Park (Allegan County)
  • 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, May 17.
• Warren Woods State Park (Berrien County)
  • 10 a.m. to noon Saturday May 18.
• Brighton Recreation Area (Livingston County)
  • 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, May 19.
• Fort Custer Recreation Area (Kalamazoo County)
  • 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, May 19.

More details about each workday and how to register can be found on the DNR volunteer events calendar.

On the Ground help

Join wildlife habitat improvement efforts with On the Ground, Michigan United Conservation Clubs’ volunteer program in partnership with the DNR. Lunch, gear and a volunteer appreciation gift will be provided to registered volunteers. Projects coming up in May include:

• Jack Pine Planting Day in Grayling (Crawford County), 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 4.
  • Help improve and enhance Kirtland’s warbler habitat by planting jack pine trees in the DNR’s Grayling Forest Management Unit.
• Woody invasive species removal at Ionia State Recreation Area (Ionia County), 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 18.
  • Removing invasive species will allow native plants to grow in their place, create higher-quality habitat for a variety of wildlife, including wild turkey, white-tailed deer and cottontail rabbit, and improve hunter and angler access.

Sturgeon guarding

Volunteers are needed in Cheboygan County through early June to stand guard as mature lake sturgeon head upstream to their spawning sites along the Black River. The Black Lake Chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow is working in partnership with the DNR and various tribes to protect the fish from illegal harvest during the spawning season. Visit the Sturgeon Guarding Program webpage for more information and to register.

For more opportunities to volunteer, contribute and provide input, visit Michigan.gov/DNRVolunteers.

They are among 121 Michigan communities and 10 college campuses recognized through their respective programs for work accomplished during 2023. All recipients will receive their award materials later this spring.

List of recipients ►

The newest college campus – Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek – joined nine recertifying schools in the Tree Campus-Higher Education program.

The Tree City USA program has four standards, which were created to allow communities of any size to participate. These include having a city department or tree board, a public tree care ordinance, an annual work plan and a budget of at least $2 per capita and proclaiming and celebrating Arbor Day, which takes place April 26 this year.

The Arbor Day Foundation has been reviewing its Standard 2 Ordinance requirement to make room for any size or type of community. The changes discussed around Standard 2 should open the doors for many more communities across the country to join the program.

To find out more about the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree USA programs, visit arborday.org/programs.

For questions on the DNR’s Urban and Community Forestry program, contact Lawrence Sobson at [email protected] or 313-316-4137. More information also is available at Michigan.gov/UCF.

Purchase online at Michigan.gov/DNRLicenses or at DNR customer service centers across the state. Many sporting good outlets and service stations also sell fishing licenses.

Licenses can be purchased on the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app, too. Access license info, maps, certificates and more on the go – download from the App Store for Apple devices and the Google Play Store for Android devices.

If you have questions about buying a license, contact the DNR’s license sales help desk at 517-284-6057.

Didymo blooms were first observed in Michigan waters in 2015 in the St. Marys River and then the Manistee and Boardman rivers in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Didymo has the potential to spread to new areas when cells attach to anglers’ waders and gear.

New Zealand mudsnails are only about 1/8 inch long, but they can change aquatic habitats by reaching extremely high densities and outcompeting native macroinvertebrates, leaving fish food in short supply.

New Zealand mudsnail populations are known to be present in the Au Sable, Boardman, Grass, Pere Marquette, Pine and Upper Manistee rivers in Michigan. Mudsnails can survive out of water for several days. Because of their small size, they are easily transported on boats, anchors and fishing gear such as waders and nets.

Learn about more actions anglers and boaters can take to prevent the spread of invasive species.

To report New Zealand mudsnail, take photos and make note of the location, date and time of the observation. There are a few ways to report your observation:

• Contact Lucas Nathan, DNR, at [email protected] or 517-599-9323, or Bill Keiper, Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, at [email protected].
• Use the Midwest Invasive Species Information Network online reporting tool.
• Download the MISIN smartphone app at MISIN.MSU.edu/tools/apps/#home and report from your phone.

In the spring and summer of 2021, the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery experienced three major power failures. The primary electrical infrastructure failed at three separate points during that time.

Also, the primary electrical distribution system was failing. This was a real wake-up call for the Fisheries Division and the DNR.

Planning had already been underway for a substantial funding request to address the needs for capital improvements at our hatcheries. These failures highlighted the critical need to invest in Michigan’s hatchery infrastructure.

Then the pandemic hit, and we had to postpone some operations, including egg collections for steelhead that year. Had we taken steelhead eggs in 2020, we later realized that it likely would have resulted in most, if not all, of the eggs being lost with the infrastructure failures – a blessing in disguise from the coronavirus pandemic.

When I was asked to tell the story about the capital outlay projects, I thought that it may not be of interest because we haven’t really broken ground on most projects, and construction projects are not that flashy to talk about.

But when I began thinking about what we have accomplished in the last 18 months, it is apparent that the scale of the projects at our six hatcheries is huge and likely the most substantial investment in our hatcheries for decades.

Our next step was to get a design firm on board. After that, we shared our vision with the designers and strategized how we would accomplish this mission over the next four years.

Getting the design firm and the initial planning done, which put us six months down the road, led us to an understanding.

We realized that we may not have enough funding to do everything that our hatcheries needed given changes in the economy, including inflation and supply chain concerns, as well as the decade-long backlog in major maintenance and repair projects.

To address this, we initiated a process of prioritization, which allowed us to be prepared to make difficult decisions and adapt through the construction process.

The sheer number of projects spread across the hatchery facilities was daunting.

So, we teamed up with Hobbs + Black Architects of Lansing, who have brought on many top-notch design firms, including McMillen Inc. of Boise, Idaho, which is one of the nation’s best aquaculture design and construction firms.

Construction will be managed by Spence Brothers Construction of Traverse City for the northern three facilities and Christman Constructors of Lansing for the southern three facilities.

Part of our strategy going forward was to separate projects into north and south regions, like the way our hatcheries are organized and managed. Also, a common theme among the projects is improving energy efficiency.

We have been meeting with designers and engineers every two weeks for the past year, a year that began by discussing projects on a large scale. As an implementation strategy developed, we shifted focus to first-year projects.

Those projects are now nearing final design stages, and construction contracts will likely be executed this coming summer. Meetings and strategizing will continue as construction begins and the details of the projects for the coming three years are finalized.

The myriad components of this large capital outlay work fall largely under three general categories, including deferred infrastructure needs, energy-efficiency improvements and biosecurity improvements.

Here is a closer look at what exactly will be happening over the next three summers.

Marquette State Fish Hatchery in Marquette County houses brood stock for our brook trout, lake trout and Arctic grayling programs. It is also a production facility that stocks brook trout, lake trout and splake in Michigan waters.

The Marquette hatchery is slated to get a new roof on the hatchery building and a new energy-efficient boiler, as well as updated heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls in 2024. A new brood-isolation building will be built to replace the current crumbling structure. Leveling of settling concrete around the facility to improve accessibility will cap off the 2025 projects. Finally, in 2026, the facility will be completely repaved.

Thompson State Fish Hatchery in Schoolcraft County produces steelhead and Chinook salmon for stocking in Michigan waters. Thompson is also home to a state-of-the-art cool-water facility that supports walleye and muskellunge rearing programs.

In 2017, the Thompson hatchery was expanded to include a cool-water facility and pond rearing complex as part of a capital outlay package. An updated automated fish-feeding system was also installed in the outdoor steelhead rearing complex at this time. The 2023 capital outlay package included many needed upgrades to the cold-water facility.

Thompson is slated to have a new truck storage building built in 2024 at the cool-water facility to house fish-stocking vehicles and various fish-rearing equipment used at the new facility. Resurfacing concrete in the production raceways and indoor rearing units should vastly improve fish quality and health in 2025.

Additionally, improving hatchery insulation and dehumidification as part of updating HVAC systems will improve energy-efficiency efforts. Finally in 2026, the cold-water facility will be completely repaved, and the cool-water facility will be partially paved.

The Thompson hatchery will also be provided $3.5 million for the upgrades.

Oden State Fish Hatchery in Emmet County houses brood stock for brown and rainbow trout programs. It is also a production facility for that stocks brown and rainbow trout in Michigan waters.

A couple of ongoing projects including a Parshall flume, for measuring discharge flow, and 2023 well-reclamation work were supported through this funding allocation.

Repairing and repaving the hatchery visitor center parking lot and infrastructure maintenance for the building and a historic fish railcar are taking center stage at Oden in 2024. A new domestic well for the drum screen building will improve effluent management in 2024.

In 2025, a much-needed new disinfection station will be constructed, to improve biosecurity for fish-stocking trucks coming on-site following stocking trips. The main hatchery building will get modifications to the roof and new siding that is better suited for the climate conditions of the region.

The Oden hatchery is receiving $2.6 million to fund the work.

Platte River State Fish Hatchery in Benzie County produces Atlantic, Chinook and coho salmon for stocking in Michigan waters. Additionally, the Platte River facility produces walleye fry for the DNR’s walleye program.

A couple of ongoing projects were completed with this funding in 2023, including stabilizing the Lower Platte River Weir and installing new roofs on the administration, hatchery and service buildings.

In 2024, resurfacing concrete maturation ponds built in the 1960s, for holding return adult coho salmon, and replacing a backup generator and associated electrical distribution from the same era are scheduled to be completed.

For 2025, projects will include shoring up the exteriors, including doors and windows, damaged by previous poor roof conditions and age of buildings that received new roofs in 2023.

Finally in 2026, the facility will be repaved, and pavement will be added to and from the pull-through-style truck storage barn at the lower weir.

The Platte River facility will receive $6 million to finance the updates.

Harrietta State Fish Hatchery in Wexford County produces Atlantic salmon, brown trout and rainbow trout for stocking in Michigan waters.

A repaving for the facility was already underway and was finished using funding from the 2023 appropriation. A new backup generator, electrical distribution panels, aeration pumps with variable frequency drives, boiler and two new backup generators at production wells will bring Harrietta up to speed with new energy-efficient electrical systems in 2024.

The hatchery will receive $3.5 million to complete these projects.

Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Van Buren County produces steelhead and Chinook salmon for stocking in Michigan waters. Wolf Lake also supports the walleye and muskellunge rearing programs.

There is a current primary power, electrical distribution project underway that is supported by the funding allocation. Redrilling two production water wells to replace two that have outrun their useful lives will greatly improve fish-rearing conditions.

Two new backup generators, electrical distribution panels, aeration pumps with variable frequency drives and two new backup generators at the new production wells will bring Wolf Lake up to date with new energy-efficient electrical systems in 2024.

For 2025, projects will include new roofs on the visitor center and hatchery buildings. A new cool-water building will be constructed, bolstering the walleye and muskellunge programs. Relining rearing ponds, resurfacing concrete raceways and indoor rearing tanks, constructing a new maintenance building and a new automated fish-feeding system will round out the projects for the year.

Finally, in 2026, the entire facility will be repaved.

The Wolf Lake hatchery will receive the most amount of funding from the state allocation at $11 million for its scheduled improvements.

At the end of the day, we will have put blood, sweat and tears into these projects and, as I said earlier, we don’t really have anything flashy or shiny to show for it yet, but results are coming.

The next three summers will be busy with construction projects moving forward at a hatchery near you.

Please excuse our mess and watch your step when you come to visit us, but take in the amazing upgrades to our fish hatcheries that will pay dividends to enhancing our fisheries for decades to come.

Learn more about the DNR’s fish hatcheries and weirs at Michigan.gov/Hatcheries.