Announcer:
You know what that sound means. It's time for the Michigan DNR's Wildtalk podcast. Welcome to the Wildtalk podcast, where representatives from the DNR's wildlife division chew the fat and shoot the scat about all things habitat, feathers and fur. With insights, interviews, and your questions answered on the air, you'll get a better picture of what's happening in the world of wildlife here in the great state of Michigan. 

Hannah:
All right, welcome to Wildtalk. I'm Hannah Schauer and co-hosting with me is Emily Pomeranz. 

Emily:
Today, we'll be talking about wildlife research with Steve Beyer. Later in this episode, we'll be talking about what in the wild, and of course, answering your questions from the mailbag.

Hannah:
But first, we're gonna give you a rundown of what is happening around the state, so stick around!

Announcer:
Pure Michigan Hunt applications are on sale now. If you want your shot of what is considered Michigan's ultimate hunt, pick up a five dollar application or two. There's no limit to the number you can buy. If you're one of the three lucky winners you'll get a hunting prize package worth thousands, as well as licenses for elk, bears, spring and fall turkey, antlerless deer and first pick at a managed waterfall area for a reserved hunt. Purchase anywhere hunting licenses are sold, or online at michigan.gov/pmh.

Emily:
Welcome back to Wildtalk. Mark your calendars. The southeast and southwest region managed waterfall hunt areas, or Wetland Wonders, will be hosting spring birding tours later this month and in April. The bird tours are a great opportunity to meet the staff, take a driving tour of the area, and see the diversity of birds that live on Michigan's managed waterfall areas. These bird tours are great for birders, wildlife watchers and photographers. There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions and familiarize yourself with these great birding locations. 

Emily:
The Maple River State Game Area, Fish Point State Wildlife Area, and the Fennville Farm Unit of the Allegan State Game Area will host their tours on March 30th. 

Emily:
April 6th, the Harsens Island Unit of the St Claire Flats State Wildlife Area, Muskegon County Wastewater System and Shiawassee River State Game Area will host tours. 

Emily:
April 13th, Nayanquing Point State Wildlife Area and Point Mouillee State Game Area will have their tours.

Emily:
For more information, visit mi.gov/dnr and click on 'things to do.' At the bottom of the page, click on 'events' for the calender of upcoming dnr events. Get out and enjoy that great early spring weather and enjoy viewing some great birds. We hope to see you there.

Hannah:
Yeah, those should be a ton of fun for everyone to get out and, like you said, see a whole variety of different birds and get to meet the staff and just check out those awesome wetland habitats that we have available to folks.

Hannah:
Also, across the southern lower peninsula and once all the snow melts from the grasslands, savannas and wetlands, springtime prescribed burning can begin. So wind, humidity and temperatures must be just right to conduct these burns safely, and the wildlife division works very closely with forest resources division to make sure these burns are conducted in a safe manner. So prescribed burns are fires that are carefully and intentionally set to achieve a specific purpose, and generally these burns are conducted in grasslands and savannas to remove that woody vegetation like shrubs and trees and to encourage the growth of wildflowers and other beneficial grasses.

Hannah:
These burns benefit a whole suite of grassland wildlife, including songbirds, pollinators, deer, pheasants, all kinds of different critters that you might see there. Prescribed burns in those wetlands help discourage the growth of invasive plants like phragmites, and also remove some of the cattail biomass in the marsh. So wetland dependent wildlife prefer to have wetlands that have equal parts open water and equal parts cattail cover. So this work helps to keep wetland wildlife thriving in those preferred habitats, and really makes it good quality habitat for those critters.

Emily:
Up in the UP, staff have been receiving applications for the 2019 UP Deer Habitat Improvement grant, whose application period closes today, March 1st. This deer habitat improvement partnership initiative is a grant eligible groups can apply for to make bigger, better and more deer habitat across the UP. Grants awarded are anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000 dollars. This is the 11th year with over 82 projects awarded to date. Successful applicants will be notified by March 18th, and projects will be completed throughout the year. Visit mi.gov/dnr-grants to learn more.

Emily:
And, in the east UP, a birding trail is under development. Staff on the east end are working with MSU Extension and Sea Grant to create a driving route in Chippewa, Mackinaw, [inaudible 00:04:43] and Schoolcraft Counties to connect existing birding routes that are in place.

Emily:
And finally, planting projects are being planted at GEMS which are great grouse and woodcock locations, specifically Halifax, Melstrand and Drummond Island GEMS. Red oak are being planted everywhere, and red-osier dogwood is going to deer wintering complexes around Newberry. 

Hannah:
That'll be some awesome habitat improvement to check out, especially if you're in the UP or like to hunt those GEMS up in the upper peninsula. Alright. So, our fiscal year 2018 annual report is now available. In it you can find highlights from each of our regions and sections. Habitat work, species management, funding, administration, policy and regulations, and wildlife health updates, to name some of the topics that are covered. 

Hannah:
For example, in the northern lower region section, you can learn a bit more about projects like the Reedsburg Dam upgrades occurring in Missaukee County. The maintenance walkway was completely replaced and repairs were made to the damaged concrete and steel. The project is planned for completion in 2019.

Hannah:
And did you know ... I'm sure Emily knows this ... but wildlife division had 26 active research projects going on during 2018. I figured I'd mention it since we'd be talking a little bit more about wildlife research in the podcast later on. Be sure to check out our annual report and learn a little bit more about what we've been up to this past year. The annual report is available online at mi.gov/wildlife and we'll include a link in our show notes. That's all from around the state. Next up is our interview with Steve [Buyer 00:06:18] so don't go anywhere.

Announcer:
Did you apply for a spring turkey license? Find out if you got the early hunt you applied for and check your drawing results at michigan.gov/turkey on March 4th. If you didn't apply, leftover licenses and hunt [inaudible 00:06:32] or before licenses can be purchased by any hunter beginning March 18th starting at 10am. Licenses can be purchased online or anywhere hunting or fishing licenses are sold. Learn more about this year's turkey hunting opportunities at michigan.gov/turkey.

Hannah:
Alright. Welcome back to Wildtalk, everybody. We are here now with Steve Buyer, the supervisor for the biological and social sciences section, and he's gonna tell us a little bit about some of the research projects that we have going on and kind of talk about how those play a role in our day-to-day work. So welcome, Steve! Thanks so much for being here with us today.

Steve:
Certainly. I'm glad to be here.

Hannah:
Alright. So to kick us off, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how long you've been here with the division?

Steve:
Well, I've been with the wildlife division now just over 20 years. I started back in 1998 as a biologist at the Barry State Game Area after spending some time with the West Virginia DNR. And then I was probably at Barry 4 or 5 years before I then became the [inaudible 00:07:47] coordinator with the wildlife division, and then after that I supervised the research and management section which then later split up and formed just the biological and social sciences section. 

Hannah:
Awesome. Cool. So can you give us just kind of a brief overview or picture of what sorts of research projects the division works on?

Steve:
Well, right now the division has over 20 different research projects going on and there are quite a variety of them. So, we have things that are fairly traditional wildlife research projects. We put a bunch of radio transmitters on 40 elk as part of a study to look at how elk are impacted by recreational activities in the Pigeon River. We have radio collars on some deer and a couple of different projects going on right now to look at how deer move, particularly in relation to how that can influence chronic wasting disease. 

Steve:
But we have some other projects that have branched off into some different areas. More social and economic areas, for example. We're working on a study right now to look at the social and economic impacts of the elk herd to local communities in Michigan. We've also recently completed a study that looked at wildlife values of Michigan citizens and what they're looking for in wildlife and what they value about wildlife. And so we have quite a range of activities going on.

Emily:
So, Steve, why is research important to the wildlife division in ... How does the research section help support the conservation activities of the wildlife division?

Steve:
So, research has been elemental to wildlife management since the beginning of wildlife management. In their early days of trying to handle a lot of population's that had become very scarce through habitat destruction and over exploitation by people, some of the early studies were focused just around some basic research, basic science, you know, what do these critters need, what kind of habitats do they need, where do they get food, water, cover and space. So it's just figuring out and understanding what's limiting these populations and what do we need to work on so their numbers come back.

Steve:
Through time that got to be a little bit more applied where we started to figure out in certain areas that maybe there were things restricting the recovery or species or that were impeding our ability to be effective managers. So, we started to branch out into some other areas and we started to look at things a little more sophistication in nature. Not just habitat, but how do the different components in habitat, how are they arranged and does that make sense; is water close enough, for example, to a species where they're finding cover so that they can actually use it.

Steve:
There was work on, well what's the best way to manage for habitats in order to maximize species. And so you had things like the concept of edge. If you have an edge between two different habitats you could have more species occupying that edge because presumably you'd have the species from one type of habitat and the species from the other type of habitat both using the edge areas.

Steve:
But then we also found out that managing for a lot of edge isn't always necessarily a good thing, because some species are actually harmed by edge. And so we grew into understanding the concepts of pack size and fragmentation, and so there are some species that need interior conditions. Those conditions that are found far away from the edge. If you think about certain grassland species of birds, they hide their nests in dense grasses but if they're too close to the edge with a forest type habitat then raccoons traveling down those edges could wander out into the grasslands a little ways, they don't like to get too far away because then they feel vulnerable, but they'll find those nests.

Steve:
And so the birds that are too close to the edge, they don't do well. So then we started to realize it's not just providing a variety of habitats, it's also providing the right amount of habitats in the right spacial or space design. And now we see that a lot of our research goes in even further directions where we're starting to look a lot at humans. So, how do humans want to interact with wildlife? How do they interact with wildlife? How do humans behave affect how abilities to manage wildlife and what can we do about it? So, there's always been research involved with wildlife management. From the beginning, it's an elemental part of what we do. And all of our management practices are based on prior research.

Hannah Schauer:
Quite a wide range and wide variety of different types of research projects that we could be undertaking at any different time. So given that huge umbrella and wide range of things that we might be working on, is it just our wildlife division staff in your group that conduct all the projects, or do other organizations, universities, non-profits, those types of things, help with these research projects as well?

Steve:
Well, it can really vary. So, and we run the [inaudible 00:12:44]. At a simple face, for example, we might have a completely internal research project going on at any given time. For example right now we're trying to evaluate whether or not the use of trail cams can be a technique that's useful to estimate certain populations of [inaudible 00:13:01]. And if it is, how do you actually do it, you know? Do you bait the area, do you not bait the area? What types of cameras? When do you have to be capturing images? And then some of the statistics behind calculating what you see in the images out to what the actual population is. So we're working on something like that. 

Steve:
And those types of projects are being handled completely internally. And really just by our section staff for the most part. There's certainly a lot of other projects where we involve staff from across the division. So, as we're working on trapping deer in the UP, for example, to capture them and collar them to study their movements, particularly in winter, we will use ... and a lot of folks will cooperate and help out in going out and actually doing the trap, finding the right sights, baiting the sights, setting the traps and then of course capturing the deer and putting the collars on them. And that involves a lot of people.

Steve:
Then we also do ... a lot of our research is actually done in partnerships with other research agencies. For example, most commonly it's universities. So we'll work with universities and the great things about working with partners at universities is that universities can stay on top of the latest and greatest in terms of technology, in terms of understanding of statistics and analytical methods, in terms of sampling techniques and so on and so forth. And they can make that technological skill and resources available to us through partnerships and ... where we will have an objective to deal with some sort of management problem we're having and then they can design, help us design, study, to figure out how ... what's the way to remove that impediment. 

Hannah:
You know, seeing as how our headquarters is [inaudible 00:14:52], do we work a lot with Michigan State University?

Steve:
We do. We absolutely do. We have a number of research projects going on with them right now. We also have a special partnership relationship with them that goes beyond research, but we certainly take advantage of it in our research. But it's not to say that Michigan State is the only university we work with. We work with quite a few others. We have research personnel stationed in the UP. They have been partnering on project with Michigan Tech University, Northern Michigan University and things like that. We have actually worked with out-of-state Universities depending on the technical skills that we're looking for. Right now, we have some projects that we're doing in cooperation with the State University of New York and we have worked with others in the past. 

Steve:
We have worked with other Michigan schools, including Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University and so on. But it is true that with Michigan State being right here and having the quality of their Fisheries and Wildlife department that they do have, that we rely on them quite heavily.

Emily:
So Steve, one of those special partnerships with MSU, the partnership for ecosystem research and management or PERM just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Could you tell us a little bit more about PERM?

Steve:
Sure. This is a really exciting partnership and it has a long history between us and Michigan State, and it's not just with the wildlife division, it's a departmental agreement that also fisheries division's involved with and our forest resource management division is involved with. The great thing about this partnership is what we knew under this partnership is we've actually expanded our capacity. What I mean by that is we don't have the ability to have all the types of researchers that we want at any given time to cover any type of action that might come up. And what this partnership provides us is to have access to other people who are at the top of their game doing cutting edge research to not only do specific research projects with us, but to also consult with us about those fields and help us navigate through them, so that when we do design a project we can make sure it's the best project to reach the study objectives.

Steve:
And currently right now the wildlife division is co-supporting five different faculty at MSU that are providing these services to us. And these services range from economic and social considerations to human dimensions work to ecological systems work, and to work around engagement and communication. It also provides the ability to train our own staff. We have currently two staff that are working on developing a PHD while they're working on their work for us as an agency, and that's just part of that cooperative agreement which adds a lot of benefit to us because then those folks are better able to do their job.

Steve:
And we have used this pathway in the past. We have a few other folks that are with us with the PHD now that they earned through this association. What the university gets out of the partnership is they get to have these professors focus on training students who are gonna be the next generation of conservation leaders, and getting through the work they need to do to learn their craft, but also in a way that gets them exposed to real world problems; to problems that are facing agencies that they get to work on that helps train them and gives them a leg up when they get out into the world and will make them better conservation leaders.

Steve:
And in an addition, we get a cost share saving from MSU through this program that actually helps us with other research projects through this partnership. Like I said, it's been in place now for 25 years. It's been wildly successful.

Hannah:
Well, thank you so much, Steve. We really appreciate you taking the time to tell us a little bit more about the research going on within the wildlife division. So thanks very much for coming and chatting with us today.

Steve:
Sure. Thanks for having me and I think we'll make available some websites of a couple of the research projects we have going on.

Hannah:
Yeah, absolutely. So in our show notes today, folks, we will have some links to some of the research projects that are currently going on. So you can learn a little bit more about those if you're curious. And again, that will be in our show notes for this episode. Be sure to stick around because we'll be right back with the mailbag. 

Announcer:
Base licenses are now available for 2019. Purchase your base license online or anywhere hunting or fishing licenses are sold. Are you a non-resident who enjoys hunting and fishing in Michigan? Take advantage of all Michigan has to offer with the hunt-fish combo, which includes your base license, two deer licenses and an all species fishing license. Non-residents can save over $150 dollars when these licenses are purchased as the hunt-fish combo package. Visit michigan.gov/hunting for license information.

Emily:
Welcome back to Wildtalk. Now it is time to answer your questions in our Mailbag. 

Hannah:
Alright, so I'm gonna rummage around in here and find our first question. So, Cindy writes that, "I live on a small, manmade lake in a subdivision. We have heard coyotes often and last year we saw one across the lake from us walking on a community trail. Is there anything that can be done about the coyotes because they are in a residential area?" 

Hannah:
This is a question we get a lot this time of year, because coyotes and fox as well are in the midst of their breeding season. You know, we just wrapped up Valentines day last month and so they're getting the timing right for this time of year. And coyotes are very common throughout the state, especially in urban areas. That's not unusual to find them in residential areas. They can be found in pretty much any habitat type, so rural to urban and everywhere in between. Fox as well are common throughout Michigan and can be seen in all those places as well. So a lot of what ... I'm gonna talk mostly about coyotes but most of this is applied to fox as well.

Hannah:
So with having the increased activity, because it's mating season you'll most likely see pairs of coyotes starting to defend their territories and maybe look for a den site to raise their pups. So making sure that you don't have any food sources such as pet foods that are left outside or bird feeders, those might attract coyotes to the area and they might not be there to eat the birdseed necessarily but they're gonna be there to eat what eats the bird seeds. So those smaller birds and mammals.

Hannah:
Make sure you don't have garbage out overnight 'cause that might attract a curious coyote. And make sure, if you do have small dogs or cats, accompany them outside, keep them on a leash, especially at night. Now coyote can be active at any time, day or night, but they're most actively hunting dawn and dusk time periods. That being said, coyotes are naturally fearful of people, they don't really like us or anything to do with us, so for the most part they should be pretty easy to scare off. Now it is possible for them to be habituated or get used to people, but making sure that you make them feel unwelcome and remove those food sources is a good way to keep them at a distance.

Hannah:
Now, if you are in an area where you're having issues and you're needing to get a coyote removed from your private property, there are nuisance wildlife control companies or organizations who are permitted to do that for you. If you're in an area where you can hunt, coyote hunting is available year 'round state-wide. And if you're having coyotes that are doing or about to do damage to your private property, you can take them year 'round without needing a special license or permit if they're on your private property.

Hannah:
So if you need to learn a little bit more about hunting or trapping for coyote, you can find that information online at mi.gov/trapping. Alright, Emily, what questions have you gotten in our mailbag today?

Emily:
Jenny wrote in with a question about beavers. She says, "we seem to have a beaver on our property that is cutting down our live trees. Who do I contact to get this beaver off our property?" Well Jenny, beaver are again species that can be harvested during the open trapping season. But where you are located in the state determines when beaver trapping season is open. So, visit mi.gov/trapping for more information. You're also welcome to grant permission to a licensed fur harvester to trap for beaver on your private property if you choose.

Emily:
A nuisance wildlife control permitee may also be able to assist with beaver removal from private property, including during the closed season. Each situation is unique, so please contact your local DNR wildlife biologist, or visit mi.gov/wildlife for local contact information for additional assistance with beaver management options in your area.

Hannah:
Yeah, so each of those situations ... I know we get questions sometimes about a variety of different beaver problems, either there's flooding happening from a beaver dam down the road or, like in Jenny's case, actually having beaver cutting down trees on their property. So each situation is very unique. That's why it's usually a good idea to talk with the local biologist to find out what your options are in those cases.

Hannah:
Alright, so my next question also has to do with coyotes, no surprise there. And this particular question is a little bit different. It's more along coyote hunting lines vs coyote breeding season. So, James writes in, "I only have access to State Game land in St Claire County. Can I use a center fire rifle during daylight hours on those public state game areas? Or is that for private land only?"

Hannah:
This is a good question and I wanted to preface it with saying St Claire County is in the limited firearm deer zone and ... so you can find that zone and map in any of our hunting digests to get an idea where that is, but it's essentially the southern half of the lower peninsula. And so there are different firearm restrictions for that area. But, center fire rifles may be used to hunt coyotes during regular daytime hunting hours state-wide. The restrictions for center fire rifles on state land in the limited firearm deer zone come into play with nighttime hunting.

Hannah:
So, for nighttime hunting of coyotes, center fire rifles or center fire pistols .269 caliber or smaller may be used, except center fire rifles and pistols may not be used in state park or recreation areas state-wide, or on any public land in the limited firearm deer zone. So again, that's specific to night-time hunting. There are those center fire restrictions. 

Hannah:
For more information on nighttime further hunting regulations, you can look at pages 22 and 23 of the fur harvester digest. And that also, as we mentioned before for coyote hunting regulations, is available at mi.gov/trapping.

Hannah:
Alright, Emily. I think we've got one more in our mailbag. Is that right?

Emily:
Yep. I've got a question here from Scott about the spring turkey hunting licenses. Scott asks if there are leftover spring turkey licenses in hunt unit ZB and if so, where can they be purchased? Drawing results aren't available quite yet, but they will be posted on March 4th. If you applied and didn't get drawn for a license, leftovers will be available for purchase by unsuccessful applicants on March 11th at 10am. Any licenses remaining will go on sale to any hunter beginning March 18th at 10am. This includes hunt 234 which is sold as a leftover license with no quota. And remember, you can only purchase one spring turkey hunting license. Check your drawing results at mi.gov/turkey.

Hannah:
As we zip this segment to a close, remember, if you have questions about wildlife or hunting you can call 517 284 WILD. That's 9453. You can email us at dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov, or you can stop by one of our DNR offices. Your question could be featured on our next mailbag.

Announcer:
It's that time of year again. Coyote breeding season. Don't be surprised if you see more coyote activity during the next couple of months. Coyotes are found state-wide and can survive just about anywhere. Coyotes can become comfortable living near people, particularly if there are food sources available. Remove attractants like trash bins, bird feeders and pet foods. Take advantage of a coyote's natural fear of humans and scare them off if you see them. Remember, coyotes can be good neighbors to have because they eat plenty of rodents.

Hannah:
Alright, welcome back to Wildtalk. As we're wrapping up this month's podcast, we thought we'd take a few minutes to tell you a little bit about What in the Wild. It is a card game that we've developed and hopefully you've heard us mention this game before. If not, you will now be able to say that you have.

Hannah:
Just to give you a little background, the What in the Wild card game came about because we wanted to come up with a new tool to help children and families learn a little bit more about wildlife we have here in Michigan and their habitats and what sort of habitat needs that they have. We wanted it to be a different way to learn about wildlife, trying to come up with something fun and engaging that might get kids excited about learning even though they're not realizing that they're learning. So it's sort of sneaky that way. We also wanted to consider teachers or educators that might have students that are stuck indoors in the cold winter months, or other situations where they just can't get outside. This will still give them that opportunity to learn a little bit about wildlife and habitats even if they can't be out in the habitat per se.

Emily:
What in the Wild includes 120 cards in the deck and five different games that can be played. Cards contain plant and animal species found here in Michigan as well as the food, water, shelter and space they need to survive. Games include a little something for everyone, with activities like cooperative ecosystem building or a race to assemble a habitat to meet specific species' needs. 

Hannah:
Yeah. So when you're playing, you'll notice that the What in the Wild games focus on cooperation and collaboration to succeed, much like wildlife conservation in the real world. What in the Wild was designed to tie in with our Go Wild for Michigan's wildlife kindergarten through fifth grade curriculum. And this is where students are learning more about wildlife and their habitats found here in Michigan which also ties in with the current Michigan educational standards.

Hannah:
Now you don't have to be a teacher to enjoy this game. Anyone can purchase a copy. Individual games are available. A print and play version is also available. And we also have classroom packs, which include five decks of cards. All those different types are available for anyone to purchase.

Emily:
As an added bonus, proceeds from the sale of What in the Wild are used to distribute copies of the game to educators in Michigan for use in their classrooms to compliment the Go Wild for Michigan's wildlife curriculum. So, get your family together and see if you have what it takes to build a home for wildlife.

Hannah:
You can visit mi.gov/dnreducation and look for the heading Wildlife Classroom Curricula to find out about the What in the Wild card game and other wildlife curricula available for educators. On this page, you'll also find a link to get to the website where you can purchase the game. We'll also include a direct link to the game sales page in our show notes for you as well. 

Hannah:
So I think that's all for this month's WildTalk. Thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you next time.

Announcer:
This has been the WildTalk podcast, your monthly podcast airing the first of each month and offering insights into the world of wildlife across the state of Michigan. You can reach the wildlife division at 517 284 9453 or dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov.