Cultivating a Better Future

SKILLED VOLUNTEER SHARES EXPERTISE, BOOSTS RESTORATION EFFORTS

When Rick Hager and his wife Patricia discussed where they would retire, the Iowa couple had never been to Traverse City. Yet she had read about the bayfront town in a magazine, and while visiting Detroit over Labor Day, they extended their trip and headed north.

In just three days, Patricia was hooked. Rick took more convincing, but by Memorial Day–following a weeklong stay in Sutton’s Bay–they were making plans to relocate.

Five years later, Rick was greeted with warm hugs and familiar smiles while walking the halls at the McMullen Family Conservation Center on a cold January afternoon. A retired natural resource management professional and one of the Conservancy's most active volunteers, he has become a vital member of the team.

“His willingness to share his expertise, time, and knowledge has benefited our restoration efforts on numerous properties,” said Senior Conservation Ecologist Angie Bouma.

Hager is no stranger to making fresh starts. He spent four years in the U.S. Air Force before earning a master’s degree in Geology from the University of Iowa. He worked for nearly two decades in the oil industry across the country until layoffs caught up with him. He then returned to Iowa to study parks and natural resource management at a local junior college.

Originally, he planned to launch a career in landscape design and establish a greenhouse. Yet while interning with Carl Kurtz–considered “one of the deans of the great tallgrass prairie revival”–at the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF), Hager’s plans changed once again.

“My idea of a landscape got bigger,” he said of his time helping Kurtz raise his prairie.

He went on to work with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, where he spent 17 years fighting wildfires across the western United States and raising a 6,000-acre prairie at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.

“I loved every minute of it,” he said. “Essentially, I killed weeds and non-native trees, and was a steward for the bison and elk herds.”

When former INHF president, Mark Ackelson, heard wind that the Hagers were moving to Traverse City, he called Rick and told him, “You’ve got to meet Glen Chown.” On one of their first trips up north, the Hagers connected with Chown, who laid out what the Conservancy did and pointed them in the direction of GTRLC’s volunteer program.

“We decided this would just be a great place to live for a while,” Hager recalled. “That kind of set the hooks into thinking, ‘Well

I know where I’m going to be spending my time.’”

Figuring the best way to get to know an area is to learn from people who knew about it, Hager took geology, botany and other earth science classes at Northwestern Michigan College. Everywhere he went, he imagined how the landscape could improve; he noticed many of the trails needed maintenance, and spotted invasive weeds threatening to outcompete native plants.

“The area lends itself to natural beauty,” he said. “But once you have conservation on your mind, you look at things and think about how they could be better.”

Though northern Michigan’s landscape looks different than Iowa’s vast prairies, Hager has applied his skillset to restoring critical habitats throughout the region. In just a few short years–from building trails to leading invasive species removal work bees–Rick has improved habitats and recreational experiences at dozens of nature preserves and natural areas, totaling almost 600 cumulative hours of volunteer service.

“Everything has its rewards,” he said. “I like seed collecting in the fall because it’s such a great group activity that people seem to really relish. And all the seeds you collect do so much for all the areas the Conservancy manages. In the winter, I enjoy coming out with the chainsaw and removing fallen trees from trails. The spring is sowing season, and of course, removing non-native plants in the summer.”

As volunteers and staff worked to restore habitat at Mitchell Creek Meadows: The Don and Jerry Oleson Nature Preserve–during what was their busiest field season yet–Volunteer Coordinator Erica DesJardins credited Hager for championing the program. “Rick has brought the technical expertise we needed to kickstart restoration,” she said. “He has been a huge help. He took me under his wing and taught me a lot about working with volunteers.”

Bouma agrees that his unique experience has helped him successfully engage other volunteers in GTRLC’s work. “He’s great with explaining the process and why we’re restoring habitat to volunteers,” she said. “He brought seed collection to another level, and he has been instrumental in getting autumn olive into a more manageable state.”

Rick has provided invaluable guidance behind the scenes, especially as the Conservancy was preparing to move to Mitchell Creek Meadows.

“I see the same things here as we were doing at our wildlife refuge,” he said. “So I hope to keep the Conservancy from making some of the mistakes.”

Among his many contributions to the preserve, he helped mow the Looyenga Family Trail before the aggregate and boardwalk sections were in place and advised on which native plants to add to the landscape. “Natural areas take a long time to restore, but there are things you can do to make them more appealing earlier,” he said. “You want people to turn off Three Mile Road and think, 'I want my property to look like this.'"

He has also been integral in setting up the Conservancy’s onsite greenhouse, where native plants will be cultivated and used to restore critical natural habitats. In addition to advising on how to set up the irrigation system in the greenhouse, he applied his background in prairie restoration to identify local seed sources that have already adapted to the environment–saving the Conservancy time and money. And calling on his past experience at the wildlife refuge, where they grew up to 50,000 plants per year, he has been assisting Bouma in developing a planting system that will set the program up for success.

“Having him around helps me because I know I can trust his judgment,” Bouma said. “He has been involved in most steps along the way.”

While overlooking the grounds at Mitchell Creek Meadows from the Conservancy’s main office, Rick discussed the impact he hopes to have on the region through his volunteer work.

"I hope to make it better than when I got there,” he said. “If we want these pieces of land to be beautiful in the future, we’ve got to do more than stand by and watch. We have to nurture them–we have to help them along.”

For more information about volunteering with the Conservancy, contact volunteer coordinator, Erica DesJardins, at edesjardins@gtrlc.org or (231) 929.7911 and for a full list of opportunities and upcoming events, visit our website at gtrlc.org/volunteer.

Mitchell Creek Watershed Restoration

Over the winter, our friends from Conservation Resource Alliance and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians joined GTRLC staff at Mitchell Creek Meadows: The Don and Jerry Oleson Nature Preserve to conduct a large woody debris inventory of streams throughout the property.

Large woody debris, including fallen trees, logs, and branches, is critical to a healthy stream ecosystem. These materials provide cover and safe hiding places for fish and other aquatic organisms. They also provide a surface for algae to grow and trap other food sources for aquatic macroinvertebrates–an essential component of fish diets.

By creating obstacles, large wood slows the flow of water, decreasing its ability to erode streambanks and carry sediment that can impair spawning habitat. It also helps divert high flows from heavy rains and snow melts to the nearby floodplain, which naturally absorbs sediment and nutrients and reduces the impacts of flooding downstream.

The collaborative group will use this initial survey as a baseline for future restoration work. The survey also identified stream reaches needing woody debris to enhance aquatic habitat and reconnect the stream to its floodplain, as well as areas requiring re-meandering to address slope issues and impediments to fish passage.

Using this information and other data collected, the group’s members are seeking grant funding to address restoration needs at the nature preserve and within the watershed to improve habitat and water quality.

Support for Habitat Restoration

The Conservancy was one of 15 organizations awarded funds from the Wildflower Association of Michigan to encourage the preservation of native plants. GTRLC plans to use the $1,200 grant to prepare a raised bed area with sand for native wildflowers and dunegrass. The site will demonstrate a mini dune garden at the Mitchell Creek Meadows as a microhabitat within the larger native landscaped area. Additionally, signage will provide information about our efforts to protect and restore dune habitats in the region and highlight the diverse flora of these critical landscapes. Accessible to visitors of all abilities, over time, the dune garden will showcase native species that may otherwise be difficult to view in their natural habitat.

GTRLC also received an award from Project Wingspan to support restoration efforts at Mitchell Creek Meadows: The Don and Jerry Oleson Nature Preserve. The Conservancy will be given a mix of native wildflower seeds and plants to enhance habitat for species like monarch butterflies, hummingbirds, bumble bees, and other important pollinators crucial for our region’s natural and agricultural lands.

According to GTRLC’s Senior Conservation Ecologist Angie Bouma, both awards will boost restoration efforts until plants can be propagated in GTRLC’s Native Plant Greenhouse. “This fall, we hope to have our own plants from the native plant greenhouse ready for installation,” she said. “Until then, these plants will be one year older and the seed will be needed in many areas.”