Grass River Natural Resource Area
When we first got to the Grass River Natural Area we headed
to the visitor center to learn some more about this property. Things like its
history, the wildlife we may be able to see and then I saw something that made
my week. It was probably the funniest taxidermized owl I have ever seen, and I
spent the next 30 seconds holding in a laugh. That owl was the start of an
amazing day getting to explore and look for new insects at the Grass River
natural Area
Interesting Owl Taxidermy
The history of the natural area begins in the 1960’s when
land developers began to fill the wetlands in northern Michigan to prepare new
building sites. One of these sites was a 62-acre plot owned by Alfred Austin. This
plot was originally a pristine cedar swamp that would regularly flood when the Grass
river overtop its banks. Austin clear cut all the cedars and began to fill in
the site with sediment dredged from lake Bellaire. There was one major
roadblock that stopped Austin in his tracks, the new land would not drain,
rendering it unusable. After seeing what happened to a pristine part of
riverfront Austin regretted his attempt to develop the land and went to the
local conservation services office where he met Warren Studley.
View of Grass River From the Boardwalk
Warren Studley was the local soil conservation officer for
the district and had an Idea to restore the property. At a public meeting Warren
shared his idea to create a natural area out of the land and was able to gather
lots of public support. At the meeting a county commissioner asked if he would
present his proposal to the Antrim County Commission. The next day Warren
presented and was written a $2,000 dollar check to begin work on a new natural
area. After some federal grants and many years of hard work from volunteers and
guidance from The Nature Conservancy, the county was able to protect the land
and make it a Natural Area in 1977.
During our trip to the site, we started off from the visitor
center and took the Sedge Meadow Boardwalk Loop. This loop took us through multiple
habitat types, including northern fen, northern wet meadow, rich conifer swamp,
and poor conifer swamp. About a third of the way through this loop we took a
turn to go to the dock which overlooks the Grass river and is supposedly a good
spot to see otter (we didn’t see any).
On the back half of the loop, we were able to see the habitat
transition as we got father from the river towards more inland mesic northern
forest. On this section of the trail, we were able to spot alderflies, swallowtail
butterflies, and a black swallowtail.
There was lots of wildlife to see throughout the natural
area including green frogs, bullfrogs, and northern water snakes. I ended up
seeing two northern water snakes but was only able to catch one.
As we continued on the back half of the loop, we were able
to observe how the habitats change the farther away from the river you get. The
river side was quite swampy with sections of cedar swamp and northern fen. As we
moved away from the river the ground became drier and the habitat transitioned
into a mesic hardwood, predominately composed of maple and aspen with a smaller
amount of white pine.
The trip to Grass River Natural Area was an overall fun and
educational experience and it was interesting to explore types of habitats that
are fairly uncommon due to land development. I would recommend the natural area
to anyone looking for a fun and easy hike.
References
https://www.michigan.org/property/grass-river-natural-area
https://www.grassriver.org/history.html
http://www.createmiplace.org/placemaking-articles/grass-river-natural-area.html
https://www.northernexpress.com/news/feature/how-a-near-environmental-disaster-spawned-a-wetlands-laboratory/
https://www.grassriver.org/flora-and-fauna.html
Comments
Post a Comment