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MDNR Report
The Michigan DNR has confirmed the presence of invasive red swamp crayfish in an outdoor muskellunge rearing pond at Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Mattawan, Mich.
After stocking muskellunge in Thornapple Lake in Barry County and Lake Hudson in Lenawee County, hatchery staff found the carcasses of two unusual crayfish in the collection basket of Wolf Lake Hatchery Pond 20 (where the fish were reared) after the pond was drained. Crayfish traps were quickly deployed in Pond 20 and two adjacent ponds, resulting in the capture of one live, positively identified red swamp crayfish in Pond 20.
Though native to the southern U.S., red swamp crayfish have been prohibited in Michigan since 2014 and considered invasive in the state because of their ability to aggressively outcompete native crayfish for food and habitat, their high reproductive rate and their destructive burrowing along shorelines that can destabilize banks and infrastructure.
Populations of red swamp crayfish were first detected in Michigan in 2017, with simultaneous discoveries in Sunset Lake in Kalamazoo and a drainage pond in Pontiac. To date, isolated infestations have been confirmed in Kalamazoo, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, Van Buren and Wayne counties. Infestations are believed to result from the release or escape of aquarium pets, live bait or live crayfish brought to Michigan for crawfish boils.
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MDNR Report
The Michigan DNR, with help from many conservation partners, is halfway through completion of a $5 million grant project to remove 27 stream barriers, including 16 DNR-managed dams. Efforts to date have reconnected more than 140 miles of streams.
Funding for this work was awarded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s America's Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (formerly the America the Beautiful Challenge), which seeks to conserve and restore aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, improve resilience to flooding and other threats, and expand community access to nature.
What’s been accomplished so far
The DNR was awarded grant funding in 2022, and work on the project began in June 2023. Since that time, the following components have been completed:
- Crawford County: removal of Hulbert Road Dam.
- Emmet County: replacement of 5 Mile Creek Road-stream crossing and Wycamp Creek Road-stream crossing.
- Jackson County: removal of Portage Creek Trout Pond Dam.
- Luce County: removal of Spring Creek Trout Pond Dam. (Spring Creek, shown above, after dam removal)
- Mackinac County: removal of McAlpine Trout Pond Dam (expected completion September 2025).
- Mecosta County: removal of Altona Dam.
- Oceana County: removal of Marshville Dam.
- Oscoda County: removal of Mio Walleye Pond Dam (expected completion September 2025).
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MDNR Report
What started as a fun and tasty culinary trend – growing exotic mushrooms at home from a simple storebought or online kit – has become another threat to Michigan’s natural resources.
A recent article published in The Conversation describes U.S. Forest Service researchers’ findings regarding the impact of golden oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus citrinopileatus) on Wisconsin forests.
Native to Asian and Russian hardwood forests, these imported mushrooms are now growing in the wild in areas of the Midwest, including Michigan’s southern Lower Peninsula.
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MIDNR
The Michigan DNR is busy preparing 126 properties for sale via online auctions later this summer. River frontage, lake frontage and forested acreage surrounded by private ownership – these characteristics describe some of the parcels that will be available in August and early September.
It may seem counter-intuitive that the DNR should make any land available for sale, but it’s important to note that the public benefit of some properties is severely limited due to factors such as lack of legal public access, size limitations that prevent appropriate public use, and development on adjacent privately owned land that impacts public use such as hunting. Further, the proceeds from surplus-land sales are deposited into the Land Exchange Facilitation Fund and specifically used to acquire replacement properties that are usable by the public, protect important natural resources and provide accessible, quality recreation opportunities.
For all of those reasons, the DNR determines some properties to be more suitable for private ownership.
These surplus land sales are a regular part of the DNR’s public land strategy (one supported and further defined by the Michigan Legislature with the passage of Public Act 240 in 2018). And since such parcels were determined to be better suited for private ownership, they could prove to be the perfect fit for the right owners.
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MDNR Report
While bowfishing in Monroe County, an angler from Newport, Mich. caught a new state-record fish: a flathead catfish weighing in at 64.46 pounds and measuring 45 inches!
Codie Carlson was bowfishing Plum Creek in the early-morning hours of Sunday, June 29, when he brought in the record-breaker.
This fish beats the previous state-record flathead catfish — 53.35 pounds, 43 inches — caught in 2022 by Lloyd Tanner, of Hobart, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River in Berrien County.
DNR fisheries biologist John Buszkiewicz, who works out of the Michigan DNR Lake Erie Fisheries Management Unit, verified Carlson’s new state-record fish. Buszkiewicz and his crew may have even caught this exact fish during a survey in the same location in 2020; at the time, the fish caught weighed 55 pounds and measured 43 inches.
Carlson, a self-described "true fishoholic," said, "I thought I was about to shoot a channel catfish for dinner. Turns out, I guess we do have flathead catfish in these waters."
About state-record fish
Michigan's state-record fish are recognized by weight only. To qualify, fish must exceed the current listed state-record weight and be weighed on a certified commercial scale, and identification must be verified by a DNR fisheries biologist.
To view a current list of Michigan state-record fish by species, visit Michigan.gov/StateRecordFish.