Michigan Pheasant Restoration Initiative

2017 Annual Report

Inside:

What is the MPRI?

Pheasant Cooperatives

A New Staff Member

Grassland and Wetland

Habitat Improvement

Landowner Assistance

Improving Hunter

Access

Wildlife Habitat Grants

New Funding Sources

Recruiting a New

Generation of Hunters

Grasslands are GREAT!

For a full list of

MPRI Coalition

partners and to

learn more

about MPRI, visit

mi.gov/pheasant

What is the Michigan Pheasant Restoration

Initiative (MPRI?) The MPRI is a conservation initiative to restore and enhance Michigan

pheasant habitat, populations and hunting opportunities on private

and public lands. The MPRI works by acquiring state and federal

resources to assist landowners within cooperatives in improving wildlife

habitat on their property and by improving habitat on selected state

game areas, recreation areas and other public and private lands.

MPRI partners work to secure adequate staffing to accomplish MPRI

habitat improvement, hunter access, education and outreach, hunter

recruitment, retention and reactivation and population monitoring

goals.

Pheasant Cooperatives

At the end of 2017, 12 cooperatives were actively working to expand

and improve pheasant habitat on about 12,000 acres. Staff are

working with landowner leaders in 30 additional cooperatives.

Adopt-A-State-Game-Area

A new position in Pheasants Forever was created to accelerate

grassland restoration on state lands through a program called the

Adopt-A-State-Game-Area Program. The coordinator will raise

funds for contracting habitat work on 20 priority State Game and State

Recreation Areas in the MPRI. Funding for the position was provided by

Pheasants Forever, Michigan DNR, and the Hal & Jean Glassen

Memorial Foundation.

2017 Annual Report

Grassland and Wetland Habitat Improvement

The MPRI Coalition works cooperatively to improve grassland and wetland habitat for pheasant

nesting, brood rearing and wintering. This work is completed on both private and public lands.

State Game Area Grassland Acres

Enhanced

Grassland Acres

Restored

Food Plot Acres

Planted

Wetland Acres

Enhanced

Shiawassee River 0 0 30 190

Sharonville 237 65 53 0

Grass Lake and Goose Lake 0 38 5 0

Cornish 191 0 6 0

Adams 0 0 10 0

Verona 600 100 74 0

Gagetown 25 9 0 0

Thumb Mini SGAs 155 35 45 0

Gratiot-Saginaw 50 0 15 0

Maple River 177 21 13 0

Rose Lake 20 9 26 3

Nayanquing Point 0 0 20 100

Allegan 475 20 45 150

Edger Waterfowl Production Area 30 0 0 0

Totals 1,960 297 342 443

Coalition Organization Grassland Acres

Enhanced

Grassland Acres

Restored

Food Plot

Acres Planted

Wetland Acres

Enhanced

Wetland Acres

Restored

Pheasants Forever 5,318 0 11,250 0 10

Ducks Unlimited 299 0 0 750 0

US Fish and Wildlife Service 85 282 0 50 119

Totals 5,702 282 11,250 800 129

Landowner Assistance

MPRI Farm Bill Biologists and DNR Private Lands Biologists provide technical and

financial assistance to landowners as they improve habitat for grassland wildlife. The

DNR provided technical assistance to 22 landowners with 540 acres of improved

habitat. The DNR also provided $51,650 in financial assistance to 15 landowners to

enhance 298 acres of habitat. MPRI Farm Bill Biologists provided technical and

financial assistance to 601 landowners with 5,639 acres of improved habitat. In

addition, 34 Conservation Reserve Program/MPRI Cooperative Workshops were held with 1,108 participants to recruit and educate landowners.

2017 Annual Report

Improving Hunter Access

The Hunting Access Program provides hunters with access to private land

hunting opportunities, especially in southern Michigan where 97 percent of

the land base is privately-owned. There are currently 200 properties and

25,000 acres enrolled in HAP state-wide. 21,000 of these acres are in

southern Michigan.

Wildlife Habitat Grants

Through the DNR’s Wildlife Habitat Grant program, over $200,000 was

awarded to various habitat projects in Jackson, Washtenaw, Lapeer, and

Huron counties. These projects focused primarily on grassland habitat

improvement for pheasants and other grassland dependent wildlife.

New Funding Sources The DNR received a $500,000 Competitive State Wildlife Grant from the US Fish and Wildlife

Service to study grassland management techniques. Funds will be used over the next two years to

monitor the impact of prescribed fire and discing on plant and pollinating insect diversity in

established grasslands.

Recruiting a New Generation of Hunters

The MPRI Coalition offered a number of education and recruitment events in 2017. Pheasants

Forever offered 26 Learn to Hunt events, 83 Shooting Sports events, five Pollinator Projects and

seven State Park Pheasant Fridays. 5,305 youth and 2,184 adults attended these activities.

The National Wild Turkey Federation offered 45 Mentored Hunt events, 15 State Park Turkey

Thursdays, one Shoot-off Competition, four Wing-shooting 101 events, one Conservation Field Day,

39 JAKES youth events, six Wheelin’ Sportsmen Hunts and four women in the outdoors events. Over

2,500 participants were reached.

In addition, the DNR presented 11 MPRI programs to various user groups, and the coalition hosted

the Great Outdoors Jamboree with 650 participants and 16 youth chukar hunters in September.

Grasslands are GREAT!

In 2017, the MPRI began a communication strategy aimed at highlighting grasslands and their

benefits to wildlife and people. Ten “Grasslands are Great” email blast stories were sent to

approximately 250,000 people per story. Story topics included grasslands and their benefits to

pollinators, birds, wintering wildlife and air and water quality. About 16 percent of the 250,000

people opened and read our stories, for a total of about 40,000 readers. About 1 percent clicked

on links provided in the articles for a total of about 2,500 people per story looking for more

information about MPRI!