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Fiscal Tear Hepart

197U

Personnel

Robert H. Timmerman Kefnge Manager Gary A. Evans. Asst Refuge Manager

(tranaferred 8/5/73) Gaylord J* Bober Astt. Refuge Manager

(transferred l/h/lh) iuobert G. Johnson Asst. Refuge Manager

(BOD li/3/tli) Janis A* Turner * Refuge Cleric Lanronce J. Blaao«««. - Engr. Equip. Operator Kenneth H. Ghelley.. MedliM Equip. Operator

neighborhood Youth Corps Personnel

Jin Robinson Kike Williams Rues Ross Lou Williams

United otates Department of the Interior Fi^h and Wildlife Service

Shiawassee National Wildlife Uefuge ^975 Hover !^oad

^aginaw, Michigan IcGfOl

L U J 1 1 W 1 J> Page

I• General A* Weather Conditions. 1 B* Habitat Conditions*.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1

1* Water 1 2, Food and Cover i

II. Wildlift A. Migratory Birds. J-B. Upland Geune Birds 3 C. lig viase Animals.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.. 3 D. Fur Animals, Predators, Rodents, and

Other Mammals. 3 2. Hawks, Eagles, Owls, Crows, Havens,

and Magpies ^ F. Other Birds. G. Fish. H. Reptiles I. Disease... b J m a are and Endangered Gpeciea lx

III. Refuge Development and Maintenance A. Physical Development h B. Plantings. 5 C. Collections and Receipts 5

. D. Control of Vegetation.•••••• 6 S. Planned Burning. F. Fires......

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IV. Resource Management A. Graaing B. Haying C. Fur Harvest 6 D. Timber Remcval E. Coimiercial Fishing F. Other Uses....•••••• •••••

V. Field Investigation or Applied Research A. Banding 6 3, Wood Duck Thesis 6

. c. D. E.

VI. Public Relaticns > • " - - k ' A. Recreational Uses.•«••••• ••••••••••• B. Refuge Visitors •••••• C. Refuge Participation ^ D. Hunting •••• ? S. Violations •••••• 6

VII. Other Ite-s A. Iteras cf Interest. > 2. Photographs •••••• ••••• C. Signature.... ••• H

I. CSNEHAC,

A. Weather Conditions - Fiscal Y ar 197li

We exoerienced near normal* weather conditions during the number and fall which allowed work and harvest to orogrejs as scheduled. Winter rather was variable as can be expected for thin area. The spring was wet and cool.

Habitat Conditions.

1. Water. Pools could not be maintained at aoorovcd elevations because of the condition of the levees. However, an attempt was made maintaininc approved elevations and the problem vas too much water rather than not enough.

Lake Huron water level remain1 high causing flooding problems for us. trong winds caused damage to the Riverside and Center levees as well as lower dikes. A hole developed in the south Trinklein levee on March but was immediately detected and repaired. Heavy reins on May 17 throughout the watershed caused a major flood. About a sixty-foot section of the south Trinklcin levee blew out completely flooding the tract.

2. Food and Cover.

Food and cover conditions were good throughout the fall and winter of 1973-7U even though the Hart, Almy and most of the Fawcett tracts could not be faimed because of high water.

Food conditions will not be as good during the fall and winter of l?7'i 75 due to a lack of food in the Trinklein tract.

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II. WlUfclFS ;

^cratory Birds.

I. Whistling irwans. wane maae very little use of the refuge during the fall migration, v eversl flocks were seen flying over out only two were actually observed on th^ area.

The first birds of the spring arrived In early "arch with a peak of almost 7#000 reached in April. All birds were gone by the end of May.

v. 2

pr a : Snrlntr v waii Populations

mi 7,000 1973 6,000 1972 ; ii.ooo 1971 3,600 1970 L,ooo '

1969 6,000 1968 2,000 1967 2,000 1966 2,500 196^ • 2,000

2, Geese, Gosling; nroiuction in the coring of 1973 was estimated at 230. There vas such a variation in size, that we decided not to drive trap and band because we were afraid of killing too many. In 197U the May 16 flood hit just as hatching was taking place. Only about 100 goslings survived. No banding vas attempted.

The fall migration began during the middle of September and the population reached about 6,000 by the first of October. The population peaked at aoout 12,000. .All geese were gone by the 20th of December

The birds vere not gone for long as about 300 were back in late January. The peak spring population of 30,000 was reached during late March. All migrants were gone by the end of May.

The Blue and 2now goose use was limited to hO during the soring.

Peak Goose Ponulstion Ura ani Production

Tear Sarins Fall Production

197U 30,000 15,000 100 May flood

1973 2d,000 12,000 230 1972 30,000 15,076 ; 265 1971 30,000 20,160 ^ 292 1970 32,000 25,000 31? 1969 30,too­ 37,000 100 May flood i960 ls, 000 19,600 300 1967 19,100 9,160 160 1966 15,00c Id,300 200

1965 22,300 32,200 #100

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3. DiickJ. Ducks began bullaing up an the refuge during August. The peak of about li3,000 "was reached during November. All ducks were gone by December rO, Ko duck use was recorded during January and February. The soring peak of about 12,000 was reached during Kar^h. Vfry few ducks were oroduced on the refuge.

li. Coots and Gallinules. About 500 coots were present during the 5-uTmer and there was some renroduction. A slight build­up occurred during: both soring and fall migrations.

Some Common Gallinules were present during the summer. Some reproduction took place. Two broods were observed in Pool 2 on July 7.

5. Other Water Birds. The only unusual observation was that of a Cattle Sgret. This was the first year that Common Egrets were known to have used the Gre^t Blue Heron rookery.

4 6. Shorebirds, Gulls and Terns.' liothing unusual to report.

B. Upland Game Birds. f ————— I I

Ring-necked Pheasants are still present in small numbers in the Svon Road area and on the north side of the refuge.

The Morning Dove population probably peaked at about 300 during September.

C. Big Game Animals

The White-tailed Deer is our only big game animal. The popula­tion appears to be down slightly anJ is estimated at kOO at the end of the period.

D. Fur Ani^ls, Predators, Rodents, and Other Mammals.

Many young Muskrats were probably lost during the 197h flood.

We still have a f«v Seavei but they are causing no nroblems.

Mink and Weaselr are present in small numbers.

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3* Duck3. Ducka began building up on the refuge during August. The peak of about ii3#000 xaj reached during Novcwaer. All ducks vera gone by December 20. No duck use was recorded during January and Feoruaiy . Tie spring oeak of about 12,000 was reached during, March ̂ Very «f sw ducks were oi oduced on the refuge.

li. Coots and Gallinules. About 500 coots were rresent during the ruflmer and there was scrao reproduction. A slight l»iiid-uo occurrej durint: both soring and fall migrations.

Some Common Gallinules were present during the summer. Some reproduction took olace. Two broods were observed in Pool 2 on July 7.

5. Other Water Birds. The only unusual observation was that of a Cattle Kgret. This was the first year that Common Egrets were known to have used the Gre«t 31ue Heron rookery.

6. Dhorebirds, Gulls and Terns. Nothing unusual to report.

^ • 4, . • ®• Upland Game Birds.

Ring-neckeJ Pheasants are still present in small numbers in the £von noad are* and on the north side of the refuge.

The Morning Dove pooulation probably oeaxed at about 300 during September.

C. Bife Game Animals

The khite-tailed Deer is our only big.game animal. The oooula-tion appears to be down sl ightly and is estimated at hOO at the end of the oeriod.

D. Fur Animals, Predators,..Rodents, and Other ̂ ammils.

Many young Mus*arats wore probably lost during the May I97h flood.

still have a few Beaver but they are causing no nroblems.

Mink and koa^lr are oresont in s^all numbers.

The Raccoon and Red Fox oooulations appear to increasing.

E. Havks, aaglesj Owls, and Crows. Nothing anufnial to report.

H. Reptiles and Amphibians. Nothing unusual.^

I. Disease. Nothing to report.

«!• Hare and Endangered Species, None are known to use the refuge.

III. REFUGE DEVELOPMENT AND HAINTSNANCS

A* Physical Dcvelor>men*>.

1. Contract work completed.

The only contract work done was the conioletion of two new vault-tyoe toilets at the new visitor parking lot; during the susimcr of 1973. The flood Juring May of 197li floated these buildings away before they were even used. An attempt will be made to salvage and rebuild them.

2. Dikes.

(1973) Fill was hauled by trucKs to build uo low spots in the Trinklein tract levee and the levees along the west side of Pools 3 and $. All snillways ^ere renaircd. Ex­tensive dragline work was done on the Riverside dike and along the east side of the Eastwood Drain.

(197U) To temporarily give some orotection to the farmers in the Trinklein tract the nature trail across the north end of Pool h and between 3A and 33 was built up to an elevation of approximately 590' by hauling •'n fill by truck. : ome of the fill was hauled in our own trucks and nartly by trucks hired from Seaman Trucking Company. The fill was borrowed along the .inauldinj Drain on the east side of ^ool 3 and loaded using our own crane. Much more extensive levee work wa^ cone out will be reported in fiscal yeai 1975-

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3. idtchef.

we finally ner^uaded Leach 5 to move their porno from the refuge where they Dumped In the uastwood Drain, often flooding the refuge roads and farm land. They agreed to relocate it to th^ir own |and wtiere they could pump directly into the Misteguay Drain. We "agreed to work on the ditch along the refuge boundary to reverse the flow of water to the new pump site.

We had two draglines but only one operator and he had more levee work than he could get done. Wa hired two temporary equipment operators to do the ditch work using the crane. Neither of them lasted any length of time. One found another Job which paid him almost twice as much money and the other decided he could make.more money operating his own equipment;

We finally ended up having Kaintenanceman Wood Holbrook from Ottawa Refuge do ^ost of this ditch work. Hr. Holbrook stayed up here during the week and went home on weeicends.

b. Posting. i

The buoys were put out marking the Lake St. Clair area closed to hunting on September 17, by Thomas, Paspaschal, Sober, and Timmerman. These buoys were picked un on November 26 by Thomas and Sober.

S* Miscellaneous Jobs.

The vehicle storage juilding and check station, the imall storage building and the oil house were painted by Kelley's Home Repair.

B. Plantings.

The Hart, Almy and most of the Pawcett tracts could not be farmed due to high water levels and levee damage.

C. Collection and Receipts.

Sggs were collected from the great oluc heron rookery on the refuge for pesticide analysis. ,

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D. Control of Vegetation.

Permittee farmers take care of all weed control in farm crops using approved chemicals.

IV. iiESOURCS MANAGEMliNT A . *

A. Fur Harvest.

The trapping season on the refuge ran from November 15, 1973, through February 28, 197U. A drawing, was held and four trapoers were assigned the available units. Dach traoper was allowed one assistant. The total t«*ke was 3,001 muskrats, 3? raccoons, 13 oppossums, and 2 skunks. The refuge s ̂ hare of UOf of the mnskrat oelts was $3,067.70. The tracser took lOQt of all other fur trarved.

V. FISLD INVS3TIGATI0H OH APPLIED P£SSfi;(CH

A. Banding

A preseason quota of 500 mallards was successfully completed during reptember using cannon nets on two trap sites.

B. Wood Puck Thesis

Roger L. Boyer, a graduate student ai. Central Michigan . University, completed his study and published his thesis.

The title is } A : urvey of Wood Duck Nesting Sites and Brood Rearing Habitat On The hiawassee National Wildlife Refuge".

He also asked for and vas granted permission'.to publish several shorter articles. .

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VI. PUBLIC KSLATI0NS

A. Recreational Use. i

- Recreational use dropped from about 10,500 to b,500. This drop in ure can mainly be attributed to the natur e trail being closed most of the time due to unsafe conditions and construc­tion work.

d. Refuge Participation.

Both on and off refuge uicipation was down due to lack of personnel.

C. Hunting.

X. Manager Gooae Hunting.

Not many changes were made in the uay our goose hunting *as handled. However, we were only able to hunt ?h blinds instead of hO because cart of the area that we normally hunt was flooded. The season oocned on October 1 and we hunted on odd numbered days only. The hours were from legfO ; hooting time until noon.< $ * - .

All blinds for each day of the season were again assigned by advance mail apolications oostmarked oy September 1?. 31inds that were not claimed by reservation holders were made avail­able to hunters signed in on the standy list at one hour before shooting time. All blinds were filled -"ost days of the season.

On the first mf the season 7? hunters Killed h9 geese for a success ratio of The season could run from October 1 through the end of November. The otate has a quota of 2,000 Canada geese for the Saginaw County Goose Kanagement Area, encompassing Federal, . tate and privately owned lands within the designated area. The kill did not drop off as rapidly as it usually-does after opening day on any of the lands. The quota was reached and the Canada goose season closed within the zone at the en i of iOctober. Ue had only 16 days of hunting on the I'efuge. During this period l,0d2 hunters killed 2bfe geese for an overall succe-^ ratio of 2f&. The young/adult ratio in the kill was 1 :li on the refuge. , ^

We had no way to contact the individuals who had reservations for November. We had the lists of names but no audressr?:. The State did a good job of getting out the publicity about the closure and the zone boundary was well sorted* Although some of the invalid reservation holders ware not too haony mostcf thorn got the message in time to erevent making a trin for nothing.

This was the second year that Shiawassee Refuge was designated to particinate in the iron shct oiogram. The use' of iron shot was not mandatory for all hunting on the refuge but we did have some of the- better ol in is designated for iron shot only. Wo sol i the trhells for Sh a box to c'-nyone wishing to purchase the*. Kuntei reaction was generally cuite good but

did not roll anywher? near Uie amount of h^ll:^ that ve

B

had antlcipateci. Thin waj partly to the season length oeute cut in half. We sent 15 cases of 3'.>ells to Bombay HOOK and ^tijil have -uorc than enough .he'.li> left for another season.

• . -4. ; " ^ ."l ' . • Archery Doer Huntiry .

We have no gun deer hunting on the. ref. The entire refuse is ooen to archery hunting durint the month of JLtecembor. boecial permits are required during the early Dart of the month with no 3pec5.al dermic required during the remainder of the month. This year in an cttemrt to cut down.the ooetiing bay kill we charged the number of oermits issued.

The uiaving was held on November 2. One hundred oermits wero issuei for the first day, COO for the second day, and 500 for the week of December 3-p. he issued a total of dOO oermits raid an aidditional 9fO were informed that they were not successful ir obtaining a oerrnit but coulJ hunt without one starting oa the 10th.

Hy issuinr only 100 permits for the first day we wpre able to decrease the kill fi^m over ^5 in 197? to a knoVn kill of six this ;rear. Wo j timaleJ that oximately 70 deer were killed by 3,A00 hunters during the month. The known cripoling loan was five but the actual number was rrobably higher.

e aie \rcbaol:> going to hr.7-» to go to sppcial oormito for the entire season. On the first attr-day after no oermits are required we have entirely too many hunter:, on the area. Some of these are comnosed of large numbers from archery clubs that really orpanired to kill deer. Not only do hey kill a iot of aeer they drive moi.* of those ^ maining fiom the area. We ai^e orobably over harvesting this deer herd and oy going to oermits only we can control the kill.

S. Violations.

The serious violation that took :lsce was when Assistant Manager Bober was threatened by a named fohn ^ort^r witt a .ahotgur wi n he vas found trescatsr hunting or. the refure. The violator ointed the shotgun at Bober anl ordered nxn to leave the area. Mr. 3ouer got in his rehicl . along with Fefugo Clerk Jauis Turner, and urovo ouu of uhot ur. range.

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o h 5 a - O t t a u s j t e f u ^ e C o p l e y . - ''• i^ i;y- '•./ 'r- • ' 1'• ; . • 'V i .; |; •: • • .?• ;•• j;-; ;

Ihe hl^was^;e-Ottawa Hef u^e complex was formed early in 197ii and both arda'j 'aco*1 under the manarer at ̂ htawasifseft. Fefu^e Manager Fryo war t'-snrferred to o«neyRefuge. - The Msictant Manager became the Roiil ient Manager. One Maintenanceman vaa ^ IFod. The clerk position was reduced from full time to three days a week. It aeemj to have woiked out quite well thank.? to the excellent re^Tinse from the nersronnel at Ottawa, .e hope to reo them function as a separate unit again in the near future.

Credits.

We were rot exoecting to be writing LMl repor t and consequently do not have as good a records as we should have had. Rome of these things took place almost two years ago znl our memories are not that good. 3ob Timmerman wrote the reoort. Tyning and asaembly were done by Janis Turner. .

SIGHAiWRE PAGE

" * r Submitted ty:

Date

Approved, Regional Office:

Date:

- •• 9 w' '"^2l ^Signature) Robert H. Tiiwiorman

. SO; J Refuge IfaMeer

• * Title

(Signature)

Regional Refuge Supervisor