Types of Natural History Research
Currently Taking Place at CNC

CNC Land Inventory – CNC staff with the help of many volunteers have inventoried the fauna and flora found on CNC’s properties and this information has been added to CNC’s database. You can get species lists if you stop by the Visitor Center.

Frog and Toad Surveys – CNC staff have been involved in the Michigan Department of Natural Resource Frog and Toad Survey since 1996.Ten sites, four which are on CNC property, are monitored three times a year to determine diversity and density of frogs and toads at each site. Data is sent to the state to be used in their statewide survey database.

Butterfly Count – CNC staff along with many volunteers have done a butterfly count every July since 1988.The number of species and individuals are recorded.

Deer Harvest – CNC staff has conducted helicopter surveys and deer harvest information to monitor deer densities on the property.

Invasive Exotics – CNC staff has been monitoring which methods for controlling invasive exotics work best but have also done some mapping to determine impacts of its control efforts.

Bird Banding – Mike Bishop, President of the Michigan Bird Banding Association, has helped CNC start its first bird banding program during the summer of 2004.Banding information gathered from this summers work will be used in the national database.

Michigan State University Toxicology Study – CNC has been working with Michigan State University, under the direction of Professor John Giesy, Ph.D., and Professor Matthew J. Zwiernik PhD. to conduct an ecological study on the Tittabawassee River basin. The Dow Chemical Company has provided a grant to MSU to investigate and ultimately quantify the risk of harm posed by polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and other stressors of concern to wildlife residing within the Tittabawassee river basin. CNC property is only one of six sites included in the study.

Sediment Testing – LTI – LTI Environmental Engineering, a consultant for The Dow Chemical Company, is doing water sampling for total suspended solids in the Chippewa and Tittabawassee rivers. The ChippewaNature Center has one test site on the Chippewa River and two others are on the Tittabawassee off of CNC’s property.

Ash Disease Study – CNC has been working with University of Michigan, under the direction of Professor John Witter, Ph D. on the ash monitoring project. In this study there will be two monitoring plots on CNC’s land where they will be marking ash trees and then rechecking 3 years from now. This is part of a statewide study to monitor and evaluate the health of ash trees in Michigan’s rural forests.  

Monarch Larva Monitoring Project – This project is a cooperative study of monarch egg and larva densities in America. Volunteers will be gathering data once a week during the monarch breeding season at CNC to gain information that can be added to the international efforts to conserve and understand monarchs and their phenomenal annual migration.

USFWS Lamprey Control – The United States Fish and Wildlife Service conducts a sea lamprey treatment program in the Chippewa River and Pine Rivers to help control this invasive exotic species.

If you would like more information about natural history research taking place at CNC or are interested in being involved, contact Tom Lenon at 989-631-0830 or lenon@chippewanaturecenter.org.  

Land Management at Chippewa Nature Center

General Land Management Goals

Chippewa Nature Center’s natural resources are its main interpretive feature for visitors and are maintained and improved for the purpose of interpreting the natural environment and the relationship people have to it. The Center’s land management focus, whether at CNC’s contiguous property or elsewhere, is to produce and maintain ecosystems that are:  

• Healthy - (i.e., with vigorous activity or production, diverse and numerous interactions between system components, and resilience, which is the system’s capacity to maintain structure and function in the presence of stress.)

• Natural-appearing - (i.e., with minimal appearances of human structures)

• Historically native to the county in which the land lies

• Composed of plant communities primarily consisting of “plant” species historically native to the county in which the land lies. (Considerable effort will be required to exclude numerous exotic species.)

• Inhabited by animals in balance with the vegetation

• Generally characterized by natural events, such as:
  
  a. the natural succession of historically native species
  b. natural “plant” and animal population cycles
  c. natural erosion, and woodland openings created by windstorms
  

• Show Diversity—Diversity of ecosystems is an important consideration to the management plan that may require restoration efforts or maintenance activities to provide examples of historically native ecosystems.

Recent Restoration Projects at CNC

Wetland Spillway Project - During the fall of 2005 three wetland spillways were replaced with new water control structures that are more aesthetically pleasing and will give CNC more flexibility to manage these wetlands in the future. This project also included removing large slabs of concrete that were along the Burgoon drain and throughout the Wetlands Area.

Native Grassland and Wildflower Planting - During the spring of 2006 in cooperation with Ducks Unlimited, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the approximately 20 acres of fields in-between the marshes at the Wetlands was replanted with native warm season grasses, such as big and little bluestem, Indian grass and a wide variety of native wildflowers. The goal of this project is to replace this field area that had mostly exotic species of plants with species that were likely to be found in Midland County before major human disturbance. This field area will then be maintained by occasional mowing and pre-scribed burns as an open area that animal species requiring larger areas of grasslands can utilize.

Invasive Exotic Control Efforts - Control of invasive exotics is important to restore healthy native plant communities. CNC began major efforts to control autumn olive in 1987.Since that time large amounts of money and time has been spent on autumn olive control. Even with all the effort, autumn olive is still abundant at CNC and many new invasive species have moved in and taken over areas of native plants. Currently CNC is focusing most of its effort on approximately a dozen invasive exotic plant species, especially in areas that are not heavily infested yet, areas that are becoming monocultures of a certain species and in areas where they are crowding out trails.

If You Want to Help with Land Management
There are often many projects that need to be accomplished that can be done by volunteers. If you are interested in helping with Land management projects, contact Tom Lenon at 989-631-0830 or lenon@chippewanaturecenter.org.