Healthy Water

Coastal Fens and Carnivorous Plants of Northern Michigan

October 8, 2020

The northern shores of Lake Huron are home to teal-blue waters, sun-bleached coasts of ancient bedrock and plants that eat meat. The thin soil found here contains very few nutrients, so plants like butterwort, bladderwort, sundew and pitcher plants have adapted to life in this rugged habitat by eating insects, much like the well-known Venus flytrap of the eastern United States. … More Coastal Fens and Carnivorous Plants of Northern Michigan

Our Wildflower: Protecting the Rare Habitat of the Dwarf Lake Iris

September 29, 2020

The official wildflower of the Great Lakes State is right at home anywhere it can get its feet wet along the rocky coast of Northern Lake Huron, but those places are getting harder to come by. This pint-sized perennial is known for its deep blue flowers that emerge mere inches above the ground for a fleeting few weeks in May and June. It’s a bit of a miracle this fragile flower exists at all. … More Our Wildflower: Protecting the Rare Habitat of the Dwarf Lake Iris

Beyond Rare: Restoring a River for Michigan’s Endangered Beetle

September 14, 2020

Michigan’s most endangered species is also one of the state’s smallest animals. The Hungerford’s crawling water beetle is smaller than a watermelon seed and its numbers are so few that Michigan’s entire beetle population—which is virtually every known Hungerford’s crawling water beetle on Earth—could fit in the cupped palms of your hands. … More Beyond Rare: Restoring a River for Michigan’s Endangered Beetle

Huron Pines Improves Trout Habitat with 32-Foot Timber Bridge

August 27, 2020

A newly completed timber bridge on Gilchrist Creek southeast of Atlanta is the first of four such projects Huron Pines has planned to improve fish passage and correct seasonal flooding problems within the Thunder Bay River watershed. … More Huron Pines Improves Trout Habitat with 32-Foot Timber Bridge

Reconnected At Last: Huron Pines Restores ‘Pivotal’ Shingle Mill Site on E. Branch Black River

July 21, 2020

A pipe culvert that obstructed the East Branch Black River for decades is gone and with it the persistent problems it caused with erosion, flooding and fish passage. In its place, a shiny aluminum arch ushers wild brook trout to 20 miles of habitat upstream of County Road 622 — vital spawning and nursery grounds supporting the river’s famed fishery. … More Reconnected At Last: Huron Pines Restores ‘Pivotal’ Shingle Mill Site on E. Branch Black River

Read the River to Boost Fishing, Fun

June 29, 2020

There’s a story I tell my fishing friends to explain why they’re not catching anything in their “hotspot” when it was paying off just a week prior, and it involves 80,000 people dancing in the Tennessee countryside. For most of the year, a field outside Manchester, Tenn. sits undisturbed. In late spring, semi trucks and … More Read the River to Boost Fishing, Fun

Restoration Work to Begin on Gilchrist Creek

June 18, 2020

Huron Pines will break ground the week of June 22 on a project to correct seasonal flooding problems and improve fish passage on Gilchrist Creek at Harwood Road southeast of Atlanta. The roadway will be closed for an estimated six weeks as a set of three undersized culverts are removed and replaced with a new … More Restoration Work to Begin on Gilchrist Creek

Bring Out the Good Bugs With Native Plants

April 20, 2020

Picture a spring when mosquitoes and blackflies are free of predators. Swarms of biting bugs take over campsites and patios, unfettered by swooping swallows or dive-bombing bats because there are none. Chances are you’ve had a perfectly good camping trip or backyard picnic spoiled by bugs before but, in the absence of natural predators, they … More Bring Out the Good Bugs With Native Plants

Understanding and Protecting Vernal Pools

March 23, 2020

That chorus of frogs you hear erupting from the woods on spring evenings is coming from a special but fleeting place. One of those songs belongs to the wood frog, just a couple inches long but with a voice that fills the air with a warm reminder winter is over. These frogs hang out among … More Understanding and Protecting Vernal Pools

What Is Stormwater?

February 25, 2020

Welcome to the first installment of The Nature of Things, a monthly discussion with Huron Pines on environmental and conservation-related topics. This column is shared with newspapers across Northeast Michigan to help build an understanding within the communities we work in hopes of engaging future partners and volunteers in shared conservation goals. By Chris Engle … More What Is Stormwater?