Stewardship UPDATES

BY JOY MITTIG

In my current role as Stewardship Manager, I’m able to be a responsible, hands-on steward of the land; enacting holistic land management, and fostering our community’s connection to nature.

HeadWaters has 8 nature preserves and I am honored to step into the role of Stewardship Manager for the organization to oversee their care and management. The work being done now ensures that we have diverse forests, healthy wildlife populations, and sustainable, resilient ecosystems for the future.

I have many activities and projects planned for 2023, but one overarching endeavor between all preserves is the installation of routine ecological inventories. This will enable us to track how the natural ecosystems change over time, measure the effects of stewardship activities, catch forest health problems in a timely manner, and capture the presence of rare or endangered species.

For these inventories, I will be collecting stand-level data, such as vegetation composition, soil data, tree density, presence of invasive species and more. This stand-level information will be paired with preserve-level data, specifically, previous stewardship activities and historic management. The information gained from these inventories will be used to steer future activities for long-term management on each of the preserves.

Specific stewardship projects for 2023 include expanding our trail systems across preserves old and new, habitat restoration, installation of property signs at Avalon, Porcupine Run, and Blackbird Marsh, invasive species control, and rubbish pile removal.

I look forward to a bright future with HeadWaters, our partners, and community here in northern Michigan.