Mann House was the home of sisters Jessie and Mary Ida Mann from the late 19^th to the mid-20^th century. The rooms exhibit everything from furniture to fashion to mementos of the sisters’ world travels. A team of volunteers recently transformed the museum with holiday trees and handmade decorations in preparation for the open house.

“Mann House is usually open only during the summer,” said Michigan History Center historian Laurie Perkins. “The holiday open house allows us to tell the story of the Mann sisters from a different angle. Even people who would not describe themselves as history buffs find a little bit of joy and an interesting discovery when they tour the museum home during the holidays.”

Admission to the Mann House holiday open house is free. Plan your visit now and enjoy some historical holiday cheer.

State park stewardship

Several state parks in southern Michigan will host volunteer stewardship workdays in December. Volunteers are needed to help with removing invasive plants that threaten high-quality ecosystems in the parks.

Workdays are scheduled at Bald Mountain Recreation Area in Oakland County, Belle Isle Park in Wayne County, Fort Custer Recreation Area in Kalamazoo County, Island Lake Recreation Area in Livingston County, Muskegon State Park in Muskegon County, Saugatuck Dunes State Park in Allegan County, Warren Dunes State Park in Berrien County and Yankee Springs Recreation Area in Barry County.

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

Winter bird counts

You can contribute to science while you’re birding! Winter bird counts help scientists better understand winter bird movements, assess bird population health and guide meaningful conservation action.

Join Audubon’s 123^rd Christmas Bird Count, Dec. 14 through Jan. 5, 2023. Data submitted by volunteers helps scientists identify long-term population trends and movements for hundreds of bird species across North America.

You can also count birds at your feeder for efforts like Kalamazoo Nature Center’s Michigan Winter Feeder Count or the national Project FeederWatch.

Be on the lookout for bear dens

If you’re out enjoying the outdoors in the northern Lower Peninsula, let us know if you spot any bear dens. We’re looking for locations of denned bears to grow the surrogate sow program, which places orphaned bear cubs with mother bears.

Learn more about this program and what to do if you find a bear den.

Gifts that give back

Check some shopping off your list and support natural and cultural resources with our holiday gift guide. These unique items make perfect stocking stuffers, teacher gifts or gift basket essentials for those who love to camp, hunt, fish, boat, explore and more.

The guide includes products inspired by Michigan’s great outdoors, gifts for tree lovers, a wildlife-themed family game, and vintage, Michigan history-themed apparel, drinkware, prints and more. Sales support state parks, trails, waterways, community forestry programs, and Michigan history and wildlife education.

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

Lantern-lit hikes

For a unique night outdoors, head out to one of seven Enchanted Borealis Trail hikes taking place in December at Seven Lakes State Park in Holly or Ionia State Recreation Area and featuring lanterns, holiday lights and campfires.

At Ionia, there will be a community campfire where you can warm up and hang out. At Seven Lakes, you can rent your own campfire spot for $20 (wood and fire starting included) as a fundraiser for the park. Bring materials to roast marshmallows! The events are free, but registration is required for the Seven Lakes State Park event.

Family fun in Detroit

If you live in the Detroit area or are planning some holiday fun nearby, check out events at the DNR Outdoor Adventure this December. There’s Sensory Sunday, when visitors with sensory processing differences can enjoy sensory-friendly building hours, which coincides with the OAC’s monthly free admission day.

Education programs include a program for seniors about white pine logging and its impact on Michigan and for kids, one about antlered animals. There are opportunities to explore archery, and there’s plenty of family fun, with the continuing series of Fall Family Hikes at state parks and days featuring outdoor “reindeer games” and indoor snowball fights and fishing for prizes. Find more details about these and other programs on the Outdoor Adventure Center events calendar.

Learn to craft traditional snowshoes

As the DNR Outdoor Skills Academy prepares for a new year of classes that offer expert instruction, gear and hands-on learning, there’s still space available in the last class of 2022.

In the snowshoe-making class at Ludington State Park, Dec. 17-18, participants will learn to weave a pair of traditional wooden snowshoes that can be used for hiking throughout the winter, given as holiday gifts or displayed as home decor. Outdoor Skills Academy classes cover a range of outdoor activities, from hunting and fishing to birding and maple syrup-making.

Learn more about what’s on the 2023 schedule so far at Michigan.gov/OutdoorSkills.

Participants can complete the outdoor 5K anywhere and anytime between April 22 and 28. For $34 per person, participants will receive a keepsake Happy Little T-shirt, a commemorative bib number and a finisher’s medal. All race proceeds support tree planting and forest protection efforts in state parks.

Over the past three years alone, more than 52,000 participants across all 50 states and several countries, including Australia, England and Mexico, have participated in the event, which has raised more than $1 million in net proceeds.

Now in its fourth year, the Happy Little 5K program has expanded to include three other states. Together, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina and Wisconsin will “lock arms” to raise awareness and funding for stewardship efforts in state parks.

“Through a partnership with Bob Ross, Inc. the Happy Little 5K concept quickly became a way to honor the late Bob Ross and create a legacy event,” said Michelle O’Kelly, fund developer and Happy Little Trees race director for the DNR Parks and Recreation Division. “Today, we are proud to announce that we are expanding the impact across the United States.”

Proceeds from the 5K provide a stable funding source to be used toward invasive plant and forest pest management and early detection surveys in Michigan state parks and recreation areas. Many of these locations have been affected by tree pests and diseases like emerald ash borer and oak wilt.

“The official Bob Ross 5K is probably our most favorite initiative,” says Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Company. “It’s the perfect blend of everything Bob held dear: nature, taking care of the environment, and happy trees, too, of course. He would have been so pleased to see how it’s getting so popular around the world.”

Learn more about the program at Michigan.gov/DNRHappyLittleTrees, or sign up for the race directly.

For more information, contact Michelle O’Kelly at 517-881-5884.

At about 3 a.m. on June 12, park rangers Gerard Molaison and Travis Hall were notified by Central Dispatch in Roscommon County that two individuals had capsized their kayaks, about 1,000 yards offshore, in South Higgins Lake State Park. The rangers were able to locate the individuals, pull them into the rangers’ boat, check them for hypothermia and safely return them to their campsites.

On June 28, Grand Haven State Park Supervisor Andrew LundBorg, Lead Ranger Arica Johnson and Park Ranger Sarah Loughman were working at the park when red flag conditions were in effect. LundBorg and his staff were notified of multiple swimmers in distress. Most of the swimmers made it back to shore, but they saw one young man had been swept beyond the swim buoys. LundBorg donned a life vest and grabbed a rope, then worked with Loughman and Johnson to pull the young man to safety, undoubtedly saving his life.

On June 16, Park Ranger Dominic Goulette and state workers Claire Hines and Haley Spalding set out to Devoe Lake Beach in Rifle River Recreation Area to adjust swim buoys. They were alerted to an adult woman struggling to stay afloat outside the buoyed swim area. Hines swam to the woman and put her in a rescue hold to swim her back to shore. Goulette and Spalding assisted them in a lifeboat. The woman said she wouldn’t have made it without their help.

For more on these awards or general information on Michigan state parks, contact Parks and Recreation Division Chief Ron Olson at 517-243-1477.

Bringing turkeys back from the brink

Thanks to the efforts of a committed cadre of conservationists over the last 70 years, 200,000 wild turkeys now call Michigan home. They can be found in parts of every Lower Peninsula county and areas of the Upper Peninsula.

By 1965, the turkey population had rebounded enough that hunting was allowed. Today Michigan ranks sixth in the nation for number of turkey hunters, with consistently high hunter success and satisfaction rates.

Michigan’s spring turkey season is open in every county, and fall hunting is open in many areas of the state.

“We’ve gone from extirpation of all wild turkeys in Michigan to today we have over 200,000 birds and you can hunt turkeys in every county in the state,” said Al Stewart, who retired last year after a 50-year career working in wildlife management for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, 20 of those years as the DNR’s upland game bird specialist.

Early wild turkey restoration attempts in Michigan using hatchery programs failed because the turkeys raised still behaved like domesticated birds, weren’t equipped to live in the wild and succumbed to disease, predators and weather.

In the 1950s, the Michigan Department of Conservation (now the DNR) purchased 50 wild turkeys from Pennsylvania and released them in West Michigan.

Stewart was part of a later effort to reintroduce the birds. In 1983 he, along with many others, brought wild turkeys to Michigan from Iowa and Missouri and established some flocks in the southern part of the state. He was in charge of teaching DNR staff how to trap offspring of those birds to then move them to other locations in the state to help expand this restoration activity.

Ongoing efforts

Since the 1980s, the DNR has worked with many partners to complete numerous releases of trapped wild birds and improve wild turkey habitat.

The DNR’s habitat improvement work in recent years has included projects like creating Michigan’s Turkey Tracts, public hunting areas with habitat intensively managed for turkeys. There are now five Turkey Tracts locations, in Allegan, Barry, Montcalm, Oakland and Tuscola counties.

“The program highlights areas of public land where the habitat has been intentionally managed for wild turkeys, creating great hunting conditions for new or seasoned hunters,” Adam Bump, the DNR’s current upland game bird specialist, said.

The National Wild Turkey Federation, at its annual Convention and Sport Show in Nashville earlier this year, presented the Michigan DNR with its Land Stewardship Award, which honors companies and/or government agencies that promote wildlife habitat management.

“Michigan DNR is at the forefront of keeping managed public lands open to the public, while maintaining high-quality habitat on these managed areas. The agency has a long history of collaborating with other state and federal agencies in larger landscape efforts to manage the public lands in Michigan. Moreover, the department has a long history of partnering with non-governmental organizations like the NWTF to accomplish habitat restoration and conservation projects on its lands,” read a NWTF news release about the award.

“In Michigan, we’re blessed with an abundance of natural resources and wild places you don’t come across every day, providing the backdrop for hunting, fishing and all types of outdoor recreation and relaxation. This award recognizes sound, strategic stewardship of 4.6 million acres of state-managed land in Michigan, an achievement that would not be possible without conservation partners like the National Wild Turkey Federation.”

In addition to the 4.6 million acres of DNR-managed public land open to hunting, millions of additional private-land acres are leased or enrolled in programs to allow hunting for all. Visit Michigan.gov/Hunting for more information about where to hunt.

Hunters made it possible

The DNR and partners like the NWTF put in the work behind the wild turkey’s comeback, but it would not have been possible without hunters.

The Michigan Game and Fish Protection Fund, funded primarily through hunting and fishing license fees, is the DNR’s largest revenue source and is critical to its conservation work.

And since 1937, when Congress passed the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (also known as the Pittman-Robertson Act), states have received funds from manufacturer taxes on ammunition, firearms and archery equipment for wildlife restoration. These funds are distributed to the states based in part on the number of hunting licenses each state sells.

After passage of this groundbreaking legislation, conserving wild turkeys and other wildlife gained nationwide support and habitat management began.

“Sportsmen and women play an essential role in conservation efforts throughout the country,” said Rebecca Humphries, co-CEO of the National Wild Turkey Federation. “Many people don’t realize, including some hunters and anglers, that the sale of licenses and equipment – not state tax dollars – are the primary source of conservation funding for Michigan and other states.”

So, while the turkey on your Thanksgiving table may not be a wild one, take a moment to raise a glass to its feathered brethren in the wild and the conservationists and hunters who engineered their comeback.

Read a sidebar story with fun facts about wild turkeys, and learn more about turkeys and turkey hunting at Michigan.gov/Turkey.