Family-Outdoors

Viewing wildlife in its natural habitat sometimes is easier said than done, especially when visiting the 106,500-acre Pigeon River Country State Forest. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources encourages citizen scientists visiting the forest to try iNaturalist, a tool that can help them navigate the forest’s natural features – providing an exact location to observe a bull elk or find white pine trees, for example – and then share their observations. “We want to i ncrease the recreational use of the Pigeon River Country State Forest by encouraging visitors to record their observations on iNaturalist,”  said DNR Field Operations Manager Brian Mastenbrook. “ This tool fosters an appreciation of Michigan’s natural habitats by getting visitors to interact with and learn about the environment around them as they explore the forest and share their findings for everyone to enjoy.” A social network where people can share information about biodiversity as well as help others lea...

Michigan’s amateur herpetologists will go afield over the course of the next several months, listening for the songs of frogs and toads across the state. This annual survey – now in its 20th year – is proving to be an important tool, as wildlife officials try to keep track of what’s going on with the state’s amphibians. “Our volunteer survey was kind of looked down upon by the scientific community when it first started,” said Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Lori Sargent, who helped design the survey and has headed it up since the beginning. “Nowadays, our citizen-scientists are being lauded,” she said. “Our data have been used in a number of graduate-degree studies, which is what we hoped – that it would attract the attention of additional researchers.” The survey is simple. Volunteers follow a 10-stop route – each at least a half-mile away from the previous stop, so the same toads and frogs aren’t being counted – and record which species of amphibian they hea...

Spring bird migrations can be an extraordinary sight, and state game and management areas – especially those that encompass wetlands – are popular destinations for bird watchers who wish to observe the waterfowl and shore birds that wing their way north from wintering climes. There's another significant wildlife migration happening right now, one that can be just as spectacular but often flies below the radar. Michigan’s salamanders are on the move. “Salamanders are kind of a mystery,” said Tom Goniea, the fisheries biologist who oversees herptiles (reptiles and amphibians) for the Department of Natural Resources. “They’re mostly nocturnal or subterranean. Springtime is when people run into them the most because that’s when they’re moving over land to breeding pools.” Most Michigan salamanders are land-dwelling species that breed in the water, often in small, temporary wetlands. After their eggs hatch out, the creatures go through a larval stage until they mature and ...