Commercial forest lands, duck hunting regulations process and year two of the moose project

In this episode of the Wildtalk Podcast, Eric and guest host Caleb Eckloff start off the show with some background on commercial forest lands. That's followed up with a chat about the duck hunting regulations process. Finally, the show is wrapped up with some discussion about year two of the moose project. 

Episode Hosts: Caleb Eckloff and Eric Hilliard
Producer/editor: Eric Hilliard

• All things habitat
  • Commercial forest program
• All things feathers
  • Michigan.gov/Waterfowl
  • Mississippi Flyway
• All things fur
  • Moose

Questions or comments about the show? Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 (WILD) or email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov.

Transcript

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Speaker

You know what that sound means. It's time for the Michigan DNRs WildTalk podcast. Welcome to the WildTalk podcast where representatives from the DNRs Wildlife Division chew the fat and shoot the scat about all things habitat, feathers and fur. With insights, interviews and your questions answered on the air. You'll get a better picture of what's happening in the world of wildlife here in the great state of Michigan.



Caleb

Greetings, all. Welcome to the Wild Talk podcast. This is your guest host, Caleb Eckloff. Trying my best to fill in for Rachel today. And joining me on this March episode is my co-host, Eric Hilliard. Eric and I have linked up in a remote fashion because I work at the Marquette DNR office in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, which is a far stretch north of the normal studio at the state capitol. So I've been allowed to stay at home. Thank you, Eric, because the weather has been somewhat challenging as of late. And here in the far north, I work as a wildlife technician for the DNR.



Eric

Yeah, and honestly, I'm not even sure if you would have been able to get down here anyways because from what I understand, the Mackinac Bridge has been on again off again, closed and open, closed and open because of falling ice. And so even if you had wanted to come down this way, you might not have even been able to get through here. So with that said, what do we have cooked up for, today's episode for our listeners?



Caleb

Today we have a U.P. flavored show. First up, I want to chat a little bit about private land forest management. Specifically, I wanted to dive into the Commercial Forest Program. Next, we're going to tackle a unique all things feathers segment and discuss hunter harvest regulations, setting processes for waterfowl. And lastly, I want to cover the recent moose collaring project for the all things furs segment. I'm super excited for that one.



Eric

Yeah, I had the opportunity to be up north for that for a few days and that was quite the experience. So really looking forward to kind of chatting about that one a little bit.



Caleb

Oh yeah. I really want to hear about your experience in particular, Eric, since this was your your first foray. This is my second go around with the moose collaring project. But let's first listen to a word from our warblers.



Speaker

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Caleb

So for the all things habitat segment, I want to talk about something that's a little out of the ordinary, but I want to enlighten the listeners to the value of commercial forestland. So the Commercial Forest Act, CFA for short, allows private landowners to enroll their lands, those privately held lands in this program for a tax break. So basically, the benefit for private landowners is the the money side of things. And in rural lands are commonly known as commercial forest lands or CF for short. So you'll be you'll hear me interchange CF or commercial forest throughout the duration of this segment. Does that make sense, Eric?



Eric

Yeah. And so we're not talking about places where film crews go out to shoot commercials in the forests. This is something completely different, where people are getting tax breaks for the land that they own. And what exactly—so they're getting a tax break. What does the public get in exchange for that tax break?



Caleb

Yeah. So the public actually get access to these lands. So there's they're it's almost like hunters trappers and anglers can can treat these lands like like state managed forest lands or otherwise they're publicly accessible. So essentially just to, just to try to wrap this up a little bit before we do too deep of a dive. Private landowners can enroll their, their lands that have to be managed for timber production. So that's another caveat. So these lands are explicitly managed for timber a renewable resource. They get a tax break as long as folks can can access those lands for hunting, fishing and trapping. So it kind of feels like we're just getting some bonus lands. But there's there's actually some legislative teeth behind this program, and it's been going on for quite some time now. And and it certainly is a big thing, at least here in, in the state of Michigan, because here's here's my numbers segment. There's 2.2 million acres of privately held lands enrolled in the commercial forest program. 97% of which is actually located in the Upper Peninsula. If you're quick with math, there's basically 2.1 nearly 2.2 million acres in total that's available here in the state.



Caleb

And most of it is is in the U.P.. Just to add some some contrast. The the Michigan DNR manages 3.9 million acres of state forest land. So state forests, which are more equivalent to commercial forest lands because they're managed for timber primarily, is 3.9 million acres and 1.9 million of those acres are actually in the Upper Peninsula. So almost 2.2 in the U.P. versus 1.9 state forest land acres in the U.P.. The real winners in this conversation are the public land users that get to recreate on those lands in in their entirety, which is pretty cool. That's some really cool stuff that we have available in our state, and specifically the U.P..



Eric

Obviously, millions and millions of acres of commercial forest land is not something that the wildlife division could certainly handle on their own. Who actually manages that here in the DNR? Or I should say, maybe you know who who manages and administrates that program here in the DNR?



Caleb

Administration duties actually fall to our sister division, Forest Resources Management Division. And they have a dedicated team of foresters that oversee the, the CF program because, like I mentioned earlier, these private lands to be enrolled in this program have to be managed for timber production. So there's there's a whole bunch of rules that are associated with the Commercial Forest Act. Somebody's got to oversee it all. And that's where this team of foresters comes into play. So we covered the, the the real big nitty gritty components of, of the CF program. But an even bigger reason that I find value in these forests and and why I'm bringing it up today is this because all forests in terms of ecosystem services have an intrinsic value to fish and wildlife. So those 2.2 million acres across the state surely are home to a great variety of critters according to their individual needs, even though these private landowners are managing specifically for timber first and foremost, which is a required portion of the of the program.



Eric

And so when we talk about the effects of timber harvest in general, timber harvest, the way that we do it is a net benefit for wildlife. A lot of times people will look at an area where a timber harvest has occurred, and they maybe feel that this is bad for wildlife because they see less trees in the place where they previously saw them before. And we want to talk maybe just a little bit about how the harvest of that timber ends up is a net benefit to wildlife over the short and long term.



Caleb

That sentiment of that moonscape of a timber harvest clearcut definitely evokes passionate feelings in passerbys who are looking at at any forest land that thats quote unquote slicked off. It depends on the goals for that area, depends on the timber that's available on that parcel of land. So 2.2 million acres intrinsically are intrinsically valuable to a whole host of species. If you're going to dive into species by species, a lot of timber harvest benefits or at least early successional wildlife.



Eric

So, so when we say early successional species. So Snowshoe hare, Ruffed grouse, turkey, deer, moose, what do we mean by early successional?



Caleb

Young trees, essentially is is like a simple way of thinking about early succession. So



Eric

So we're not talking about. So we're not talking about the wildlife species as an early successional. We're talking about the forest itself being early successional and how that helps out the wildlife.



Caleb

Bingo. Bingo. That's perfect. Thank you, Eric, for helping drag that out of me. Sometimes we get caught up in the in the workspace vernacular, and it's important to help help make it digestible. So yeah, early successional refers to the the timber itself, the plants that are now growing and they're relatively young. Picture an Aspen stand that is 40, 50, 60 years old. That timber type is traditionally managed with clearcutting. So you get that moonscape effect that looks unsightly. I'll admit it. It doesn't have a green, you know, warm and fuzzy look to it when there's a bunch of tree stumps and slash. That is in itself valuable. But in a couple years there was Aspen, which starts to pop up, and within 5 to 20 years of of that timber harvest, you're looking at some fantastic early successional habitat and that young trees that are valuable for Ruffed grouse, Snowshoe hare, it's a really great food resource for for Whitetail deer as well. So timber management in this scenario can be valuable from a financial standpoint. And it can also be valuable from a wildlife habitat standpoint too. It also depends on the wildlife. So on the other side of that coin, there's definitely value in mature forests as well because other species depend on those upper level forest canopies for, for, you know, nesting habitat. Warblers are a good example they like mature hardwoods. Those guys the warblers really, really like that sort of stuff. More so than that five year old aspen different place, different space. And you got to have a little bit of it all for the whole host of species that we have on the landscape.



Eric

The delicate balancing act within a government organization, you have all these multiple layers, you've got administrative layers, you've got the actual boots on the ground type concerns, you've got various partnerships that you're trying to, you know, balance.



Caleb

The great example of habitat management considerations and collaborations with with CF partners has been our mainland moose, because the majority of their core moose range, like we were talking about earlier, is located where CF landowners have have their properties at the intersection of Marquette, Iron and Baraga counties. It's pretty hard to manage for a species as a Wildlife Division when we don't have lands to manage in that area. But timber companies are actually actively managing for timber production in those lands, putting a mature stand of Aspen, for instance, or Red maple. Another example, causes a reflash of younger Aspen and Red maple, which is perfect for our largest deer species here in Michigan.



Eric

Yeah, you're not kidding about them being the largest because being up close and personal with a moose. Thankfully, while it's unconscious, while our teams do their work ups, it's one of those things where I don't think people quite appreciate the size of these animals until you've seen one up close, like they are massive animals.



Caleb

They are indeed. There's an intimidation factor with those really, really long legs. I don't think is replicated in any other wildlife species we have in North America.



Eric

I'm looking forward to kind of chatting a little bit more about that in the all things fur segment, for sure.





But let's not get ahead of ourselves too far. Eric. We've got all things feathers coming up.



Speaker

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Caleb

So if you want to hear about the biology of a feathered critter, this next segment is going to be a little different. I find the hunting regulation setting process for waterfowl is fascinating because it's steeped very heavily in history. So let's let's take a walk back down memory lane. About 100 years ago, 150 years ago, ducks and geese were heavily utilized during the market hunting days of old, and it caused the dwindling populations of mallards and Canada geese, for instance. And we've largely reversed those population trends. I just I just wanted to take a quick pause right there and say, that's a conservation success story caused directly by hunters and their attention to to conservation efforts. Because hunters in the early 1900s, they had to make major changes and state and federal regulation agencies had to make some some big decisions. And that's the reason why I'm bringing this up, because today we have the we we still have some of those. There's regulation setting processes in place, and we go through this this process on an annual basis for, for waterfowl. And it's an incredibly complicated pathway. And as as we talk about this, I'm hoping you learned something. Because when I got this job ten years ago, I knew none of these intricacies of of regulation setting.



Caleb

I learned a lot, and I'd like to share some of that with you all today. So migratory birds have the unfortunate wrinkle of being managed by state and federal agencies. And the reason being is as migratory birds travel from state to state, if one state were to take an incredibly large slice of the pie, so to speak, that would be to the detriment of of hunters in other states. So you have this overarching management framework that the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees to help balance the harvest from state to state. And that framework is called the adaptive harvest management system. And it it takes into account harvest that might be allowed for a mallard population in in Michigan. And then that same population as it flies south into Indiana all the way as far as they go to the wintering grounds. So each state has a different has a shot at those same birds. And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service takes that into account.



Eric

This is a test of the adaptive harvest management system. What you're hearing is only a test when you say adaptive harvest management system and like the feds like that's exactly what comes into my head is, you know, the test of the emergency broadcast system. I'm guessing it's probably a little bit different than that.



Caleb

It is. It is right so the adaptive high risk management system is is specifically designed to take in a bunch of data. And the model accepts things like waterfowl population estimates, nesting habitat availability and even like our our waterfowl banding program. But those those data are input into the system. And then it adapts from year to year with different harvest frameworks or allowable harvest frameworks. And bear with me, I'm going to try my best to explain this because it's it's somewhat complicated, but essentially every year we've run surveys as as wildlife professionals, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent personnel does the same thing. Wisconsin and Canada like we're all working within a similar survey or similar survey parameters.



Eric

But so you're talking we.



Caleb

Were collecting data.



Eric

Even ith Canada. So so really what we're talking about is three levels here, right? We're talking about state and then federal and then even international.



Caleb

I forget about that international thing because we get so wrapped up in the US. Fish and Wildlife Service sends down rules to the states from which we as state managing agencies, can define and set regulations for the coming year. But yeah, Canada is a player too, they are the the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Immediately to our north are our big players in nesting habitats for for geese and and dabbling ducks. Big time. Canada definitely deserves a seat at this, at this discussion because it's incredibly important to the whole flyway waterfall management system. So the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a bunch of data that they input into their adaptive harvest management model, and then that model spits out harvest frameworks for each state to consider. And those three frameworks are defined or those you meet, excuse me, those frameworks are defined in three ways. 



Caleb

It can be a liberal season, a moderate season framework, or a restricted season framework. And each of those three designations basically says, all right, we got we got a lot of ducks and geese on the landscape. We can have a liberal harvest structure, or we've got a medium amount of ducks and geese on the landscape we can harvest like a moderate amount. And then if it's restricted, it's pretty minimal harvest allowances. And then there's actually a closed season structure too. For consideration to any of for anybody who's familiar with waterfowl systems. In the last couple decades, the Mississippi Flyway has been under liberal harvest frameworks. That's to say we can harvest six ducks, for instance, as opposed to a moderate structure that's only four, or a restricted structure that allows for only three ducks or even closed at at the very basal level. Six ducks, it doesn't get much better than that in the Mississippi Flyway. So we've been doing we've been doing pretty good as of late. However, just just a caveat that the adaptive harvest management structure looks at a variety of parameters every year and makes a and that system is assessed to see what framework of regulations could be allowable. So a liberal moderate or restricted thing is, is always a question that that we seek an answer for on an annual basis. And then once the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does their number crunching, it's given up to the state to make decisions at a finer scale within the structure that the the feds allow. Does that make sense? Eric.



Eric

Yeah. And so for us, that might be?



Caleb

Usually in Michigan, what we do is we've got season dates that we can play with. So right now with the season structure as it is, we're allowed up to 60 days for ducks to to harvest ducks. And then six ducks a day, no more than 18 in possession of. But you could tweak the the number of hen mallards that might be allowed within that six duck limit. It could tweak maybe the number of of Wood ducks or Pintails, which are questions that maybe are asked, at the at the state level each year. I did make some of those up just for consideration purposes, but there are like specific details that maybe our species by species basis that our sources for questions that that are wrestled with.



Eric

Okay. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.



Caleb

Yeah. So was the feds get get their stuff and they disperse it to the states. That's when the DNR comes into play. There's a dedicated group of waterfowl and wetland minded biologists called the Waterfowl Work Group, that's comprised of DNR staff members. And we kind of take the first stab at what we're seeing and hearing from the landscape hunter considerations and conversations. And we try to we try to take the framework that, that the US Fish and Wildlife Service provides and we'll, we'll divide it will we'll apply it to the different zones that Michigan is divided into for sure waterfowl hunting. So we've got the North zone, (the U.P.) the mid zone, (which is the northern part or northern half of the Lower Peninsula), and then the South zone, (which is obviously the southern half of the Lower Peninsula). And we try to apply those frameworks to each zone. And make, make considerations. And then we take those, those that information, those data and we bring it there. We present it to another group. This time it's a group of passionate citizens that have similar meetings and discussions among their waterfowl hunting cohorts. And then all of that comes together in a blend of biological and social science, that it culminates with a set of waterfowl hunting regulations that's brought forth to the NRC.



Eric

That's right. That's the Citizens Waterfowl Advisory Committee, also known as CWAC.



Caleb

Yes, sir. 



Eric

Yeah. Or quack. Quack if you do, if you do the hard C, so do they. Is it do they refer to it as CWAC or do they refer to it as quack? That's what I want to know.



Caleb

This is why I love talking with you, Eric. Nobody has ever called it quack. But a hard C makes total sense just to just to sum up, because that was kind of a big, deep dive down in some legislative stuff. You start at the federal level, which includes data that's collected internationally. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collates all that information in and that in an adaptive harvest management model, that model spits out different harvest frameworks that that change from year to year depending on various parameters. Those frameworks are then distributed to individual states, and those individual states can make decisions that are in agreement or alignment with the framework as provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Or they can make more restrictive regulation decisions. So essentially what that means is you can make you can have a duck hunting season, but it can't be any more. It can't lead to the the over harvest of, say, mallards, because we've given you the maximum allowed in this framework that the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service presents. However, states may make it more restrictive if they feel the if they feel the need in the due process of blending biological and social science with their citizens advisory groups.



Eric

It's a very robust explanation of of the process. And I think a good number of people kind of like in last month's episode where we talked about some of the research going on with mallards, it's a bit more of a nerdy topic, right? But I think it's one of those topics that is fascinating in its own right, in the intricacies that are involved with these regulations, setting processes.



Caleb

For everybody who's stuck with me. Thanks for hanging in there.



Speaker

3,300 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, 11,000 inland lakes, 56,000 miles of rivers and streams. Fish? Too many to count. All you need to do is grab your gear, buy your fishing license and get out there. Get your Michigan fishing license in store in the Michigan DNR Hunt fish app or online at Michigan.gov/DNRLicenses.



\*Transition music



Caleb

Thinking back, some listeners might recall from a podcast last season, episode three, specifically the moose collaring project was discussed. So that was covering the 2025 capture and colony project, in which 20 moose were successfully collared. This year's effort was to build upon the success of last year, so our goal in 2026 was to capture 40 to 42 moose and put collars on them, and I'd say we did a pretty good job. And Eric, I'm totally turning the tables on you today. You were a part of the capture effort this year in 2026. I want to hear your experience like lay it on us. What was your what was your goal? What did you have envisioned as far as this project and what it would look like, and how did that compare? Like hit us with all the details; I want to know.



Eric

Yeah, I mean, I think first of all, one of the things, just as a casual observer, as a communications person, I was very impressed with the organization that went into this. Both, you know, prior to and leading up to the actual capture operations. But then also the safety briefing, the first day and everything else talking about, you know, because there's a lot of moving parts there., right? It was like every I was dotted, every T was crossed. And then just the coordination in general between the spotter planes, the helicopters, the base station and then the ground crews was phenomenal. I think that last day we did like 18 moose collared it like that's an incredible number of animals. And it was just like one right after the other. And you know, so you've got these you know, obviously I was there getting, you know, photographs and footage and things of that nature. But watching, you know, our incredible team of professionals, you know, just watching these teams of biologists and wildlife technicians and wildlife assistants, you know, professionals in the field, both not only with, you know, from the Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Division, but also from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Sioux Sainte Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and Northern Michigan University as well. Like a phenomenal process to watch unfold the way that it did and then to be on the ground with those crews as they worked up these animals, gathered the biological data, got them collared, woke these animals back up, and then to see, you know, these massive, you know, animals just come to kind of sort of with a, you know, almost like go, what the heck happened? You know? And then all of a sudden they're like, oh, there's people over there. I should go the other direction. And then just like, see them stand up and you're just like, holy cow, what a tall animal. And then, you know, watch it lumber off into the woods. Just the whole experience was both fascinating. And then just, you know, really kind of bringing about a sense of pride in our wildlife professionals that we have and all that it took to pull this off, just really kind of an incredible thing to be a part of.



Caleb

I really wanted to hear from you today about the Moose Capture Project, and we'll get into the nitty gritty details and talk about the logistics and how the puzzle pieces fit together in a moment. But this is your first foray into the to do moose capture projects this year, correct?



Eric

Yes. I was supposed to be up there last year, but the dates ended up shifting over a time when I was on vacation, and so I was out of the country at that moment and could not participate last year. So I was very much looking forward over the course of the previous 12 months, getting, you know, the shot, you know, getting the opportunity to to be a part of things. 



Caleb

And that excitement is totally infectious because I, I just jumped right into asking you what your what your experience was like. And I had a bullet point list of how I wanted to go about this segment, but I just wanted to really hear from you. So I want to backtrack now after hearing about both your your vantage point for about all the the moose capture stuff in 2026. Let's take a step back and talk some logistics. So 40 animals, 40 to 42 animals was our goal to be captured and collared this year. Breakdown was 10 bulls, 20 cows and 10 to 12 yearlings. So that's calves that were born the spring and early summer of 2025 that are approximately eight months old at this point. And the system and strategy that project leaders Tyler Petroelje with the DNR, Erin Largent of the DNR, Diana Lafferty of NMU and Aaron Johnson of KBOC what they put together was a multi-pronged approach, with a contract helicopter darting through. So that's that's wildlife and mobilizing professionals that work together. And they do this all across the globe. They would go out in the helicopter and dart moose and begin the the the work up process. 



Eric

This was just a complete luck of the draw situation. Right place, right time. And so we were out. We had just finished with a workup on a moose. And so we got back on our snowmobiles and we and we were getting ready to kind of like head up and then loop back around to go back the other way. And all of a sudden the helicopter is just there and there's like, they're pointing that there's another moose, like right there. We see it all the sense like, holy cow. Like there's another moose right there. And so we were right there as they darted this other moose. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, it was one of those things where it happened so quick. I didn't get my camera with the telephoto lens out until, you know, they had already done the darting and were basically like pointing it out on the ground, like, you know, where it had kind of fallen asleep and come to rest. But it's still some interesting footage, even just from that standpoint. And the it was just one of those things was like, wow, how cool is that? That we just happened to be here, you know, and another moose just happened to be like went around like, oh, look, there's another one. It was it was a nice sized bull moose. It had already dropped its antlers, but, you know, it was still really cool.



Caleb

And hearing that experience made me want to be on the ground crew next year. And I say that because last year I was on an aerial helicopter handling crew. So like, the helicopter would pick me up after they darted it and myself and a partner would, would continue the workup. This year there was another unforeseen challenge with having spotters in airplanes. So we had DNR airplanes go up three of them and they would look for moose with a pilot and a spotter. And I was one of the spotters this year because I love to fly and I can handle being in a in an airplane all day. So I got to see I didn't get to see the moose you're describing from the air run by you, but I saw other moose run by other ground crews from like 2,000ft above the ground vantage point, and it was incredible to watch it all unfold. I wish I could have been like having I wish I could have had a direct line of communication with those ground crews at that time, because I would have loved to have heard their thoughts. Anywho, circling back. So spotter planes and spotter crews were finding moose providing those locations to the helicopter. Helicopter would go in and find the the moose that we had identified. They would in some cases dart the moose. Sometimes they'd look for a different a different moose, maybe that that fit the profile that they were looking to achieve. Because like I said earlier, we had a specific bull cow calf ratio that we were looking to achieve with collars. Sometimes the moose are actually they just run into tall trees and wouldn't leave. Not a whole heck of a lot you can do when a moose is standing in the trees. Can't see it, you know it's in there. But the helicopter, despite their best efforts and with the pilot and crew, they couldn't make that moose run into the opening where they could safely dart the animals. There are unforeseen challenges like that that we ran into this year that were different from 2025, and that's okay. But another thing you touched on. So like we got the helicopter, the aerial handling teams, the spotter planes, the ground crews. If I heard that, maybe I mentioned those already, but you mentioned specifically the communications crew. That was huge. This year we had a base station of of of three operators communicating with spotter planes, communicating with ground crews and trying to collaborate and and try to streamline the process, recording data all the way. That was by far the most notable thing that I want people to hear about when when they listen to this podcast is it's like, yeah, it's cool to put collars on animals. Yeah, it's cool to be up close and personal with the moose. The unsung hero in all of this are the the folks that that can communicate all of the goings on and make it an operation like this runs smoothly. Either with prior preparation or, in the moment, kind of chances to sync thoughts over the radio, over the phone, just to help guide people and guide an operation of this magnitude to a safe and speedy conclusion. It was a really, really cool project.



Eric

Yeah, there was, it was it was an incredible thing to sort of just to watch the orchestration. I think orchestration is the right word here because it was movements, it was coordination. It was a symphony of wildlife research to, to put it mildly. I mean, it was, I don't know, in the, in the 13 years I've been with the Wildlife Division, I don't know that I've been a part of something this large in scale that had so many moving parts to it, and to come in and just see how well everybody did, you know, was amazing. And, and, you know, this particular project, only about 1% of the funding comes from the Game and Fish Fund. And, you know, we really have to give a shout out to our federal partners in the conservation grants that made this possible, our tribal partnerships and how they make it possible, as well as the university resources and how really these partnerships, it's not just a Michigan DNR wildlife division saying like, this is a partnership, a massive undertaking with many partnerships that make this possible, both in terms of staffing resources and financial resources. To really kind of help us get the answers that we're looking for. As far as, you know, where Michigan's moose population is at currently and maybe why it's not where we would like it to be.



Caleb

Yeah, I think by the time this research project is done in another couple of years with, I believe, two more capture efforts to collar and some additional animals in 2027 and 28. Hopefully we'll have the answers, or at least an inkling to the answer is about the mortality of moose movement and reproduction, which are three big things that we're trying to trying to answer with this collaring effort, which as of right now, just, just some real quick anecdotal things that we're seeing on the landscape, our moose can move more so than ever thought possible based on other other collared North American moose. So Michigan's pretty darn unique. And I'm very excited to see where this research heads.



Eric

When you say the moose can move, do you mean like on the landscape? Like they were collared in one location and they just were like, yeah, we're moving, you know, way the heck over here now. And this is this is where I live.



Caleb

Yeah, that's that's exactly what I mean. So we've got some homebodies, which was, I would say the expected and anticipated, result from looking at a GPS collared animal on a map like, oh, it's relatively, relatively close together. Some seasonality of where they hang, you know, during the winter and summer. There is one particular cow with twins last year that moved, I think, 50 or just over 50 miles from her collar collaring location to where she spent the summer. And then she came with that cow with one of her calves actually returned to her like the main core moose range, and left one of her calves up there. Well, I shouldn't say left. One of her two collared calves actually stayed in the Keweenaw. Why why that occurred? We don't know, but it's it's cursory evidence to suggest our moose are making use of a broader space across the Upper Peninsula than we ever thought to be the case.



Eric

Yeah. I mean, it's it's interesting, some of the things that we have taken away, even in just the year that this research has been going on. And like you said, I mean, once we've got data for a few years, it'll be really interesting to see kind of that, that fuller picture emerge. 



Speaker

There are many camping and lodging opportunities available in Michigan state parks. When you choose state park campgrounds, you get more than just a campsite. State parks offer a diverse range of recreational opportunities, including hands-on instructional classes, nature programs, places to fish, boat launches, family-friendly events and much more. Reservations can be made six months in advance, so why wait? Visit my MIDNRreservations.com or call 1-800-44-PARKS to make a reservation.



\*Transition music



Caleb

Now was the part of the show when you can enter to win a WildTalk Podcast mug. As a thank you to our listeners will be giving away a mug or two every episode if you can correctly answer a trivia question. Our February mug winners are Chad Brooks and Juan Guerra. Check your email, we will be reaching out to you soon. They correctly answered the question from John Darling last month when he asked; how soon after hatching, can Mallard ducklings leave the nest and the correct answer is...Eric?



Eric

But I imagine it's it's probably a range, but within 24 hours would be my guess.



Caleb

That that was news to me. I didn't realize it was that quick, but yeah, Chad and Juan guessed correctly or maybe they knew correctly and they'll be getting a mug very soon. To be entered to win a mug this month, test your wildlife knowledge and answer the following wildlife quiz question. This month's question is; the name moose is derived from the Algonquin word moose, which is spelled m-o-o-z, what is the meaning of the word mooz? Submit your name and answer to us at DNR-Wildlife@michigan.gov. To be entered for a chance to win a mug, be sure to include the subject line as "Mug Me" by March 15th to be entered. We will announce winners and the answer on next month's podcast. Be sure to tune in to see if you won and for the next mug me questions. Good luck!



Speaker 

Michigan Conservation officers are working hard to protect and keep the outdoors safe for current and future generations. If you witness a natural resources violation, you can call or text the Report All Poaching Hotline 24 hours a day at 1-800-292-7800, or fill out the complaint form available at Michigan.gov/RAP. If you would like more information on becoming a Conservation Officer, click on "Become a CO" at Michigan.gov/ConservationOfficers.



Caleb

Thank you everyone for joining Eric and I on this March edition of the WildTalk Podcast. I've really enjoyed this unique opportunity to step into a role, and I really hope you, the listeners, learned a thing or two. If you have any questions about wildlife hunting or trapping, please reach out by phone at (517) 284-9453 or email us at DNR-Wildlife@michigan.gov. To paraphrase a contemporary conservationist, Doug Duren, it's not ours, it's just our turn. On today's episode, I hope you learned that our natural resources of today were once our forbearers, and that how we choose to work with those natural resources, consume them, and conserve them will determine what will be available to future generations.



Speaker

This has been the WildTalk Podcast, your monthly podcast, airing the first of each month and offering insights into the world of wildlife across the state of Michigan. You can reach the Wildlife Division at (517) 284-9453 or DNR-Wildlife@michigan.gov.