Love for the warbler
To understand this bird's passionate following, look to IPR's "State Bird CAWcus" earlier this year.
Northern Michigan’s ice storm hit forests hard, destroying or damaging potentially millions of trees.
But the habitat of one beloved bird species, the Kirtland's warbler, was mostly spared.
The yellow and gray songbird is picky when it comes to habitat, opting for dense, young jack pine forests of a certain height.
Once on the brink of extinction, conservationists spent decades creating that exact habitat for the birds in northeast Michigan, which lay directly in the path of the ice storm.
"Fortunately ... the jack pine seemed to fare fairly well," said Jeff Stampfly, chief of the DNR's forest resources division and Michigan's state forester. "So you know, we're not anticipating any impacts to that at all."
The same can't be said for thousands of acres of red pine, sugar maple, oak and other tree species, which provide habitat to a number of birds and other wildlife.
Kirtland's warblers will begin arriving in Michigan to breed in May.
