Michigan Conservation Results Report
In 2021, TNC and our partners made big strides for Michigan’s lands, waters, wildlife and people. View our 2021 report to explore these accomplishments.
Introduction
Big, Bold, Necessary
Nature is a part of us. It’s the water we drink, the forests that protect our atmosphere and the soil that grows our food. Our future is inseparable from nature’s future, too. Our planet faces tough challenges but, with nature’s help, we can overcome them.
In 2021, TNC made big strides for Michigan’s lands, waters, wildlife and people by collaborating with many partners—including nature itself. I’m proud to share highlights of these accomplishments with you in this report: from research that’s addressing key questions for fisheries restoration to 15,000 acres protected in the Upper Peninsula that conserve an incredible piece of Michigan’s forest legacy.
From the heart of the Great Lakes, our Michigan team is making a tangible contribution to TNC’s global 2030 goals. These are the bold, science-based goals that lay out what TNC needs to achieve this decade to help shape a greener, healthier world.
What does that mean? It means high-priority conservation projects based on proven science. It means policies and investments that support nature and its solutions for climate mitigation, clean water and more. It means brave new partnerships and system-scale innovation.
Let’s demonstrate what is truly possible for Michigan by doing the big, bold work this decade calls for—with urgency, at scale, together. Thank you for your partnership!
In conservation,
Patrick Doran
Associate State Director
Resilience, Rebuilt
TNC centers the conservation of resilient lands and waters in our work to ensure the living legacy of Michigan’s unique and irreplaceable biodiversity. From northern forests to southern fens, this also provides numerous benefits to the well-being of people, including climate mitigation and clean water.
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15,416
Acres of land protected
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51,450
Trees planted on TNC & partner lands
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715
Acres surveyed and treated for invasive species
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26.2
Miles of trails maintained at TNC preserves
More from the Report
- A Connected Network: Partnerships & Lands
- Cycles of Restoration
- Planting Where the Sun Shines
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT | Investing in Our Preserves
TNC’s preserves across the state represent many facets of Michigan’s natural communities and offer unique opportunities for people to explore and connect with nature. When these places are accessible, well marked and thoughtfully managed, visitors can have richer and more immersive experiences.
That’s why, in 2021, we did a comprehensive review of the Ross Coastal Plain Marsh Preserve’s trail system, looking for ways we could reopen closed trail sections and offer visitors a more varied experience of the preserve’s many natural features, without negative ecological impacts. We also completed a new parking lot at the Carl A. Gerstacker Preserve and are enhancing and expanding trails.
We’re also taking the preserve experience online, so that everyone can learn about these special places even when unable to visit in person. Digital enhancements include virtual tour events and three new audio tours for McMahon Lake Preserve, Helmut & Candis Stern Preserve at Mt. Baldy, and Mary Macdonald Preserve at Horseshoe Harbor. This is all part of a multi-year effort that TNC has launched to enhance the trail systems, infrastructure and programming at 20 of our most popular preserves and reserves in Michigan.
Rising to Opportunity
TNC acts with nature, for nature, when the moment calls for us to do so. This includes responding to urgent conservation opportunities, driving collaborative dialogue and more—at a pace and a scale that matter.
More from the Report
- A Way Forward for Fisheries
- Aligning Great Lakes Habitat Restoration
- Mapping on the Edge
- Hidden Benefits of Restoration
- OpTIS: Mapping Success in the Saginaw Bay Watershed
A Foundation in Science
TNC's work is grounded in science. We answer fundamental conservation questions to inform tangible, lasting results across all of our strategies—for Great Lakes fisheries, coastal resilience, clean water and much more.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT | Grand Traverse Reef Restoration, 5 Years Later
In 2015, TNC, MDNR and Central Michigan University researchers used 450 tons of cobble rock to rebuild a degraded reef at the Elk Rapids reef complex in Grand Traverse Bay. At that time, we committed to at least five years of monitoring fish egg and larval fish survival to ensure this restoration effort had the intended impact on local fish populations.
Five years later, here’s what we’ve observed:
- Cisco (lake herring) generally use the entire reef complex, with a preference for depositing eggs at depths of 15 to 20 feet.
- Whitefish prefer shallower reefs for their eggs, around 10 feet below the surface.
- Our restoration substantially improved reef habitat by making the rock layer larger and deeper, thus increasing the amount of space for eggs to settle and be protected.
- Egg retention is higher on the restored reef than on control reefs, meaning fewer eggs are getting lost during storms or eaten by invasive predators.
Our observations are corroborated by the experience of local anglers, who have noted improvements in their catches that they attribute to the project. While this single study is not enough to draw broad conclusions about reef restoration, its success provides important insights and has already inspired similar efforts elsewhere in the Great Lakes.
More from the Report
- Conservation Achievement Award
- Green Stormwater Infrastructure
- Opening Doors to Forest Health
Partnerships for Impact
TNC knows that tackling big global issues like climate change and biodiversity loss will require collaboration like never before. We cultivate partnerships across sectors and geographies for outcomes that meet bold, shared goals for people and nature.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT
Partnering at the Source
Many Great Lakes rivers begin as springs, wetlands, creeks and streams within forests. For a decade, TNC has worked with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in the Hiawatha National Forest and Ottawa National Forest to restore and steward public forestlands, with a focus on areas that are especially important to healthy rivers and streams. TNC’s contributions include:
- 1,106 acres planted with 280,200 trees over three years, along rivers and streams that flow into Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.
- More than 400 wetland and riparian area surveys completed.
- Seven natural areas recommended by the USFS as representative sample areas due to their high and/or unique ecological values.
- 600 road-stream crossings surveyed and evaluated for repair needs, which helps improve stream connectivity for fish.
- Funding and technical support to Michigan Tech University to complete research that informs protection and management of coastal wetlands in the Hiawatha National Forest.
Building on this long collaboration, we are now expanding this restoration program to new areas of the Northwoods, including the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin, in true cross-boundary cooperation.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT
Growing Green
In 2019, TNC completed a signature project with Sacred Heart Church (SHC) to unite form and function in this historic Detroit church’s parking lot, with a green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) installation. This installation uses native plants and nature-based engineering to manage nearly all the stormwater runoff from a two-acre area (an estimated 3.5 million gallons per year) and helps the church cut its drainage charge in half. In addition to slowing and filtering stormwater runoff, it also provides wonderful habitat for pollinators.
Now heading into the third growing season, the native plant gardens are thriving. They will continue to thrive thanks to contributions by dedicated SHC volunteers, who are completing a GSI Maintenance Training Program that TNC launched in 2021. After the 2022 growing season, SHC will take over the project, leading the city with the first large-scale GSI project at a faith-based institution.
Conservation Update
2021 Michigan Results Report
Explore our work across the great state of Michigan.