Barry State Game Area Conservation Project Update

 In 2009, SWMLC worked with a diverse group of Barry County conservation partners to develop the Barry State Game Area (BSGA) Conservation Plan, a project with a vision to further protect this valuable resource — one of the truly wild places in our service area. 

Since then the group has met at the beginning of each year to discuss and evaluate tasks undertaken throughout the previous year and develop an action plan for projects in the upcoming year.  The success of implementing the Conservation Plan is a result of the willingness of all the partners to share information and collaborate on projects.

Below are highlights of our collective BSGA conservation projects during the past three years.

Outreach and Education

• The Conservation Roadshow — attendees visited several conserved properties along the east side of the BSGA highlighting wildlife and habitat issues and the work of SWMLC, MDNR, and Michigan Audubon.
• Created a monthly informational column in the Barry County Reminder called Conservation for the Community where each of the partners highlights an activity or an issue of concern throughout the year.
• Pierce Cedar Creek Institute held the Land Management Planning Workshop: Encouraging Healthy Natural Resources, providing guidance to private landowners surrounding the BSGA on managing wildlife habitat on their land.

Grant Projects

• SWMLC was awarded a Barry Community Foundation Grant to restore the natural hydrology to Tyden Creek as it flows though Hidden Pond Preserve before entering Glass Creek.
• Awarded funding from a USF&WS North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant for wetland restoration that will replace water control structures, plug ditches, remove drain tiles, and create wetland scrapes on private and public land.
• Awarded an MDEQ 319 Watershed Grant for $270,000 to conserve high-priority wetland parcels along Glass Creek which flows along the eastern edge of the BSGA.

Habitat Management and Research

• Collectively, the partners restored over 125 acres of native grasslands at several sites, which includes sowing, mowing, and burning for wildlife habitat.
• Conducted population surveys and nesting success research for the Cerulean warbler, producing data indicating that there is good male survival but low reproductive rate due to poor nest success and predation.
• Undertook natural community assessments documenting the highest quality woodlands and wetlands on all of the state land.

Land Protection

• Acquisition of the 67-acre Hidden Pond Preserve eliminating future development in an in-holding within the BSGA and re-wilding the property through removal of all structures and restoring the agricultural fields to grassland.
• Purchased the 285-acre Gun Lake Conservation Easement, protecting a large block of forested wetland between the main BSGA and the Fish Lake Unit of the BSGA.
• Protected the 77-acre Wolterstorff property with a conservation easement; property contains a portion of Cave Creek before it flows into Fish Lake Unit of the BSGA as well as geologically unique caves within the embankment along the creek.

In 2013, the BSGA Conservation Plan partners will conserve more land along Glass Creek as part of the MDEQ 319 grant, work together on restoration projects, share research, apply for at least one additional grant, hold an education seminar on surface and groundwater flow, install water gauges and centralize the data, and explore designating natural beauty roads within the BSGA.