CRAWFORD COUNTY, Mich. – A Michigan military base received over $200,000 in funding toward three conservation projects.
Michigan National Guard Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center received $224,000 from the U.S. Army 2024 Environmental Resilience Funding program.
Recommended Videos
The conservation projects aim to focus on climate change conservation resilience through a Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Army and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“Camp Grayling has a rich history of taking a proactive approach to ecosystem management and engages in ongoing collaboration with several public and private entities for projects such as flora and fauna inventories,” said Matt Kleitch, natural resource specialist for CGJMTC. “These projects will improve the ecological health of natural communities and associated species, thus improving resiliency. Additionally, the habitat restoration component will result in a reduction of wildland fuels and further mitigate wildfire risk.”
Habitat Restoration in a High-Quality Natural Area
The project aims to conduct surveys and ecological management/restoration to help Federally threatened species found within the High-Quality Natural Area at Camp Grayling.
The Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake and Voss’s/Houghton’s goldenrod are species Federally listed. Additional species include the following:
- Wood and Blanding’s Turtle are being considered for federal listing
- The secretive locust and dusted skipper which is on the Army’s List of Priority Species at Risk
- 30 State Threatened & Endangered and special concern species
Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake Surveys in CGJMTC using the Adapted-Hunt Drift Fence Technique
The goal of this project is to better understand the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake‘s distribution across Camp Grayling and to learn if the snake’s detection rates are different between seasons and the habits they use for overwintering and the active season.
The Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to factors such as habitat loss, human persecution, and snake fungal disease.
Conducting conventional sampling methods such as visual encounter surveys can help detect the snakes. According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, the tactics are time-consuming, labor intensive, and rely on environmental conditions favorable for snake activity.
Using camera traps along drift fences can help the project sample a suitable habitat for the rattlesnakes in Camp Grayling.
Hungerford’s Crawling Water Beetle Surveys
This project aims to understand suitable streams and habitats in Camp Grayling for the federally endangered Hungerford’s crawling water beetle.
The beetle was first detected in the military base in 2019 and found in four locations on a cold-water stream.
The project requires fine-scale monitoring to ensure the long-term viability of the beetle population and inform adaptive management actions.
