SWMLC gets two grants to help restore Prairie Fens and Savannas

The Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC) is the recipient of not one but two grants to help us restore prairie fens and savannas and the threatened species that call them home.  The State Wildlife Grant came from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) for $113,000 to restore habitat on a number of SWMLC preserves and private land.  It is a portion of a larger federal grant that covers a larger target area throughout Michigan and Indiana.  Those funds are being used to implement conservation actions that protect Mitchell’s satyr butterfly habitat through out Southwest Michigan.  Cook Lake Fen in Cass County is now a doubly protected site as it previously enjoyed protection through SWMLC and now, because of federal interest, it enjoys further protection from development. 

The second grant, for a total of $8,000, came from two sources: the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the John E. Fetzer Institute Fund.  Those funds were specifically designated to engage in restoration work at Bow in the Clouds Preserve in Kalamazoo, to enhance, improve and maintain a botanically rich natural area that supports a broad diversity of wildlife.  Historical records show that the area was part of what once was a vast oak-hickory forest, but nonetheless maintains a prairie fen at the preserve.  It is also habitat for the rare Eastern massasauga rattlesnake, a federally recognized threatened species that makes its home in prairie fens. 

The SWMLC stewardship crew and volunteers have been hard at work clearing invasive species such as common and glossy buckthorn and honeysuckle.  As a result of the cleanup effort, an ox-bow section of Spring Valley Creek was uncovered (see photo).  A boardwalk that winds its way through the fen/wetland is in the process of being repaired.  Additionally, trails and bridges that travel from the boardwalk up through the oak-hickory forest and over Spring Valley Creek will also be added.