Woods & Waters

06/02/2026

FYI We will be closed June 2 & 3 due to scheduled appointments. See you all Thursday!

05/28/2026

Also, this is a great FYI for Aldo Leopold Festival trips using the Birge this weekend.

05/27/2026

😍

05/26/2026

Today by 6:00 PM is the deadline to fill out the survey for The Nature Conservancy about the Narnia Trail! Here's the link for the survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TNC_JAW

05/20/2026

For years, numerous Michigan communities have been experiencing firsthand the adverse effects of forever chemicals on their local ecosystems, and our state has been at the forefront of advocating for increased awareness and action to protect public health, as well as holding polluters accountable for remediating contaminated areas. The EPA's recent retraction is a significant setback for ensuring access to safe drinking water.

Our main recourse is to continue letting your local, state, and national representatives know that this is unacceptable.

The agency touted the move as a win for the Make America Healthy Again movement, but environmentalists said it would increase exposure to the chemicals.

05/12/2026

E-bike alert for all you Mackinac Island-bound riders, don't miss this update!

City officials have amended local laws to allow e-bikes on Mackinac Island, but that doesn’t mean you can sail over and go for a cruise.

05/06/2026

The first meeting is tonight at the Hessel School House. Here's the link for the survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TNC_JAW

04/29/2026

A fish tale.

The DNR's newly updated fish stocking dashboard shows exactly where trout, salmon, walleye and muskellunge are being stocked near you this season.

04/28/2026

ABJ and Fe have both returned to Seney! Still in different “relationships”.

WORLD’S OLDEST LOONS RETURN TO SENEY

On Saturday morning, April 25, a female loon on I Pool beheld a relatively frequent spring sight: two males battling, with beating wings and stabbings bills, for control of the breeding territory. The observer was Fe, who was first color-marked as an E Pool mother in 1990, and who will thus turn at least 40 this summer. The hostilities were brutal but brief, and after only a minute one of the combatants discerned that this was not his day, after which he shortly took flight for less perilous waters. With the challenger vanquished, Fe and the unbanded victor, who was likely but not certainly her mate from 2025, initiated a circling round of bill dipping and jerk diving, aspects of courtship involved in forming, or re-forming, a pair bond for the season.

Concurrently on nearby H Pool, Fe’s former partner of 25 years, ABJ, was engaged in scouting for potential nest sites with his current companion, Aye-Aye, with whom he bred unsuccessfully on H last year. Although ABJ, who will turn 39 this June, hatched a record 32 chicks with Fe, since their split in April 2022 he has failed to produce further offspring, and she remains the only mate with whom he has ever sired young. Along with the broader Seney loon population, which includes color-marked adults who are embarking upon their 24th, 27th and 33rd Refuge seasons, ABJ and Fe and their respective partners will spend the next few weeks engaged in territorial defense, habitat assessment, copulation and nest building ahead of 27-29 days of egg incubation that, with luck, will culminate in the emergence of one or two downy fluffballs in early-mid June.

Thanks to Dani Fegan for her extensive documentation of the migratory return of Seney loons.

Damon McCormick
Common Coast Research & Conservation

PHOTO: On April 25, Fe observes with alarmed but restrained interest as two male Common Loons battle to lay claim to Seney’s I Pool territory. Photos by Dani Fegan.

04/25/2026

Water, water everywhere. Gifted article so you can read.

Earthen embankments at Seney National Wildlife Refuge collapsed under the strain of rapid snowmelt.