The Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network (WIN) has awarded the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy (CWC) a $1,000.00 Community Action Mini-grant in support of our Hall’s Lake Deer Exclosure. The CWC will provide a matching $1,000.00 for the project, which is designed to show the effects of browse damage by deer and rabbits on the forest understory. An area of approximately 250 square feet will be protected with 8-foot high fencing to exclude deer and rabbits on one portion, and only deer on another portion. The aim of this multi-year project is to demonstrate how effective deer and rabbit management will return a healthy understory including wildflowers such as trillium and others. This will serve as a local community education tool to show how scientific study can be used to provide decision-making input for future stewardship of natural space, and the results will be used to help inform our consideration of deer management (hunting) as a tool on our properties.
WIN is a volunteer organization that focuses on opportunities to better link the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of Saginaw Bay communities in order to sustain and improve the region’s quality of life. Eleven area foundations and corporations work together as a network to support WIN projects. More information about WIN is available on its website at www.saginawbaywin.org.
If you would like to contribute to this project, click on the donate button on the home page and choose either Network for Good or Paypal, and designate your contribution for “Exclosure Project.”
