The Gov. John B. Swainson (pictured) Award was created to recognize the efforts made by public employees who don’t work in history-related fields to preserve and share Michigan history. Past awards have gone to people from around the state, recognizing efforts that ranged from creating community resources and learning centers for local history to preserving endangered historic vehicles and architectural elements.

The Milliken/Adams/Austin/Kelley Award looks at broader contributions over time. Known as the MAAK Award, it recognizes an individual who has shown exceptional leadership and vision in support of Michigan history; it is not limited to the public sector.

When nominations for the awards opened earlier this year, Brian James Egen, president of the Michigan Historical Commission, said the commission wanted to elevate “the importance and the impact of individual efforts to share and preserve Michigan history.

“If Michiganders are to share a vision for our state’s future, we first must share an understanding of our state’s past,” he said.

Nominations must be received by Dec. 31. For more information, including the nomination form, FAQs and historical background on the awards, visit the awards page.

Questions? Contact Michelle Davis at [email protected].

Whether you live on a lake, frequent a secret fishing spot or escape the daily grind on a camping trip to a serene lake in the woods, lakes provide irreplaceable benefits to our mental and physical health and deserve our appreciation and attention.

Michigan State University Extension is offering a unique opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of inland lakes with enrollment in the Introduction to Lakes Online course, a nationally recognized, award-winning, six-week class in a convenient, self-paced online format. The course is designed for anyone who has a passion or curiosity for inland lakes, including lakefront property owners, local government officials, lake managers and educators. Course instructors include MSU Extension educators and state agency personnel.

Registration and course information

The course kicks off Jan. 10, and runs through March 3. Registration is open now through Jan. 8, with an early-bird discount of $95 per person if registered by Dec. 19. Scholarships are available. Registration information is available on the Introduction to Lakes Online course webpage.

Since the course was first offered online in 2015, more than 1,500 people across the country have taken it. Participants consistently praise the content and interactions they have with instructors and other students.

Students have week-by-week, 24/7 access to six online units, complete with prerecorded video lectures, interactive activities, additional resources and quizzes. Students communicate with each other and instructors through lively discussion forums and biweekly webinars. Ask-an-expert webinars provide opportunities to learn from experts at the DNR, Michigan State University and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Course topics include lake ecology, watersheds, shorelines, Michigan water law, aquatic plant management and community involvement. A certificate of completion is awarded to those who finish the course, and students receive a free, one-year membership to the Michigan Lakes and Streams Association.

Students also can receive continuing education credits, including 16 Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Pesticide Applicator Re-Certification credits and educational hours in the MSU Extension Master Citizen Planner, Master Gardener and Master Naturalist programs.

Questions? Contact Paige Filice (MSU Extension) at 517-676-7291 or Joe Nohner (DNR) at 517-599-6825.

The next meeting of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission – Thursday, Dec. 8, in Lansing – leads off with a Wildlife Committee agenda that includes an overview of human-wildlife interactions and management. Staff from the DNR Wildlife and Fisheries divisions and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy will present the information.

The meeting also will include presentations on a DNR Wildlife Division lifesaving award and the 2022 Wildlife Division Biologist of the Year, the 2022 deer hunting seasons, upcoming fisheries orders and wildlife rehabilitation regulations, plus a legislative update and several land transactions.

The day starts at 9:30 a.m. in West Campus Rooms M119-121 of Lansing Community College, 5708 Cornerstone Drive. See the draft meeting agenda at Michigan.gov/NRC.

For more information or to request time to speak at the meeting, contact Victoria Lischalk at 517-599-1067 or [email protected].

Over the past several months, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has been compiling information about the state’s integrated system of federal, state and local recreation assets.

The DNR is seeking input on its draft 2023-2027 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). A comment period is open through Dec. 1.

The DNR’s SCORP is:

• A broad, flexible, five-year strategic plan designed to evaluate ongoing and emerging outdoor recreation trends, needs and issues, and to establish priorities for achieving outdoor recreation goals.
• An ongoing framework and action plan for state and local recreation partners to guide their outdoor recreation management and policy decisions.
• Required to access certain federal grants; it shapes investment by the state of Michigan and local communities in priority outdoor recreation infrastructure, land acquisition and programming.

Most significantly among the plan’s activities, a statewide survey was conducted in coordination with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and other partners.

The results of this effort have demonstrated the significance of outdoor recreation to the state’s economy, health and well-being. The plan provides regional breakdowns of data collected.

Among the results, Michigan’s outdoor recreation system provides a total net economic value of $165 billion. The cost of annual illness savings realized through outdoor recreation totaled $2.76 billion.

The top motivations to participate in outdoor recreation in Michigan were to study nature (94%), feel better mentally and emotionally (93%), have time away from work or life routines (89%) and exercise and being physically challenged (82%).

The top three recreation activities by participation respectively included, going for a walk on streets or sidewalks, visiting the beach but not swimming and going for a walk on local unpaved trails or paths.

To review the plan visit the DNR’s website. Send comments or suggestions to [email protected] no later than Dec. 1.

Public input on the draft will be incorporated, as appropriate, in development of the final plan, which will be submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service by Dec. 31.

Early next year, the plan will be put into effect for the next five years, guiding actions of numerous entities seeking to improve outdoor recreation opportunities for everyone across the state of Michigan.

The 2022 hydroacoustic survey comprised 26 transects spanning nearshore and offshore regions around Lake Michigan. A transect essentially is a predetermined line, from point A to point B, that determines the survey route.

The S/V Steelhead completed 13 of these transects in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey research vessel Sturgeon (eight transects) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service R/V Baird (five transects).

“The work was completed in late summer in spite of midseason shipyard repair delays that gave the S/V Steelhead a later-than-normal start,” said Dave Clapp, Charlevoix Fisheries Research Station manager. “Thanks to the crew’s hard work and favorable weather, though, the S/V Steelhead was able to complete the largest number of annual survey transects since this survey began in 2004.”

While final survey results have not yet been compiled, several noteworthy observations emerged:

• As expected in recent years, forage fish abundance was much greater in nearshore areas than further offshore. However, unlike previous years, midwater trawl catches and apparent fish densities were higher in the northeast nearshore than in the southeast nearshore where fish abundance is nearly always greatest.
• Largest catches in midwater trawls were yearling and older rainbow smelt, alewife and bloater. Yearling and older rainbow smelt have rarely been encountered in recent years, so the large catches this year mark a sharp departure from recent surveys.
• The size distribution of the alewives captured in 2022 was also very different than recent years. Typically, smaller size groups have dominated the catch, but this year’s alewife catches included a much broader range of sizes from 4-8 inches and included some large individuals greater than 8 inches in length. Moreover, very few young-of-year (< 4 inches) alewives were captured at any transect location. These results may indicate that 2022 was a low recruitment year for alewives, but also that predation and other mortality was low, allowing some to survive to larger sizes.
• Finally, acoustic density estimates and midwater trawl catches of bloater have been increasing in recent years; 2022 survey results suggest that densities of bloater continue to remain high and may be increasing regionally in Lake Michigan.

Overall, the forage community is showing signs of improvement that bodes well for future fishing on Lake Michigan.

Walleye abundance appears strong, and there are large year classes being documented from 2021 and 2022. Observations of a strong 2021-year class were supported by a large catch of juvenile walleye ranging in size from 10 to 12 inches. The evidence supporting the predicted strong 2019-year class will have to wait until all specimens can be aged in the laboratory this winter. Overall, the mean catch of larger walleye in gillnets (36.6/net) was slightly higher than the average (33.8/net) since 2003. The mean catch of young-of-year walleye in trawls was the highest since 2009, and second highest ever, indicating young walleye production remains very high.

Yellow perch appear to continue to be very depressed in numbers and may be nearing record lows. The catch of larger yellow perch in gillnets remains low (33.5/net), and much less than the average since 2003 (45.3/net). The production of young yellow perch was also noted to be very low, and the trawl numbers were the lowest since 2014. Research also indicated that the survival of yellow perch in their first year of life was low.

Preliminary forage fish numbers appeared to have declined for the second straight year, too, and were below the long-term mean but slightly above the last 10-year mean. The most common forage fish in the trawling by number were trout-perch, sand shiner, white perch, round goby and young age-0 yellow perch.

While the DNR has been working cooperatively with partners including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey to restore native cisco to the Saginaw Bay area, no cisco were collected during the survey. A juvenile lake sturgeon, another species with active rehabilitation efforts, was collected in a gillnet and then tagged and released.

“Overall, walleye continue to dominate Saginaw Bay and its fish community, while efforts to improve yellow perch continue to struggle with that component of the fishery and forage fish numbers are generally stable,” said David Fielder, Alpena Fisheries Research Station, research biologist. “We expect the Saginaw Bay fishery will continue to look similar to 2022 for the next few years.”

Fisheries surveys and other companion surveys are critical to maintaining this fishery, which Michigan shares with New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania and the Canadian Province of Ontario.

The DNR does two surveys using the R/V Channel Cat to obtain information from Lake Erie’s complex fisheries community:

• The first is a bottom trawl survey that examines the number of young-of-year walleye and yellow perch in Michigan waters of Lake Erie, contributing to interagency knowledge about reproduction for these two species. This survey, in its ninth year, also documents the relative abundance of forage fish species that live near the bottom.
• The second survey is a gillnet survey that samples the abundance and age structure of yearling and older walleye in Michigan waters. These data drive the population models that are used to determine the total allowable catch and daily bag limits for walleye in this valuable water. This survey was conducted in October at four locations with two index stations (Stony Point and Luna Pier) that have been sampled every year for 45 years.

Walleye populations remain near the all-time high, with trawling indicating that recruitment continues to be very strong. The age-0 walleye catch rate in the bottom trawl (14 fish caught per 10-minute trawl tow) was comparable to the past two years, coming in above the nine-year average of 11 fish per 10-minute trawl tow. Walleye reproduction during the past seven years has been strong, with multiple large year classes beginning in 2015.

Similarly, older walleye were caught in gillnets this year at rates (150 fish per net lift) 40% greater than the long-term average. This was a 150% increase from last year and the highest rate at index stations since 2005. Of the 404 walleye captured and measured for biological data, nearly 75% were above the minimum size of 15 inches. All these fish have had their stomach contents examined; 80% had food present, with 66% of them having eaten gizzard shad. More information on these larger adults will be gathered this winter when the fish are aged.

Yellow perch populations were found to be holding their own. While reproduction was down, as the trawl catch rate of age-0 yellow perch dropped from last year (>1,200 fish per 10-minute trawl tow to 157 fish per 10-minute trawl tow). This level of young-of-year relative abundance is not unprecedented; in fact, it is comparable to observations during the first four years of the survey (2014-2017).

Survival of young-of-year yellow perch to older ages is needed to increase the abundance of harvestable-sized fish. This seems to be occurring, as the catch rate of yearling and older yellow perch (46 fish per 10-minute trawl tow) was at a six-year high and above the time series average of 33 fish per10 minute trawl tow. Creel data from clerks’ conversations with anglers will be available later this fall and should show whether these fish are appearing in the recreational fishery.

Sufficient number of forage fish are required to support Lake Erie’s important recreational fisheries. Even though bottom trawling shows that forage catch rates were down, driven by a decrease in age-0 white perch and age-0 yellow perch, anglers shouldn’t be concerned about their favorite target species running out of food.

“These collections are on the low end of the range of forage catch rates observed during the last nine years. However, this doesn’t mean that there is a lack of forage in the lake, as our trawls only sample fish that live near the bottom,” said Todd Wills, Lake St. Clair Fisheries Research Station manager. “Walleye health, as measured by visceral (stomach) fat, is very good, and their diets often contain gizzard shad, which are not sampled well by our trawls and live higher in the water column.”

The DNR will know much more about this remarkable urban fishery when all of the fish are aged, survey data is fully examined, creel census data is proofed and creel census biological data is available in early 2023.

To learn more about how the DNR manages fisheries in Michigan, visit Michigan.gov/Fishing.