President’s Message | October 2025
September 26, 2025
WHRRI News – October 2025
September 26, 2025
Greetings Fellow Club Members!
If you’re like me, you’re excited and getting ready to once again experience fall in Michigan’s great outdoors. For this month’s column I’ll touch on two topics: the Kirtland’s Warbler and the departure of MUCC’s CEO, Amy Trotter.
Kirtland’s Warbler
For those of you familiar with the very unique Kirtland’s Warbler, please bear with me. There’s a new reason for you to re-acquaint yourself. For those not familiar … this beautiful warbler had diminished to only about 200 breeding pairs in the world in the 1970s.
And those birds nest and reproduce only in Michigan (with a few exceptions). They migrate to the Bahamas during the winter. We discovered that the cause of their decline (and near extinction) was because of loss of the very unique habitat they require for nesting. Jack pine stands 5 to 15 years old in sandy soil like that found near Mio is essentially the only area in the world where they breed.
Prior to the mass arrival of humans, forests experienced wildfires frequently enough to regenerate Jack pine stands naturally, thus making suitable habitat for Kirtland’s Warblers always available. For most of the 20th century, we followed Smokey the Bear’s advice and squashed all forest fires. Once we discovered the connection and started managing Jack Pine habitat, the number of Kirtland’s Warblers increased. In 2019, it was removed from the endangered species list (but is still listed as threatened). A number of years ago, a friend and I spent 4 days chasing Kirtland’s Warblers in an epic search to photograph an endangered species. We found them and I captured the photos below.
Now the bad news: the estimated total number of Kirtland’s Warblers has declined from 2,245 breeding pairs in 2021 to 1,489 breeding pairs this past June. Experts expect the numbers to drop even further in the coming years based on the progression/ non-availability of suitable habitat. The conservation lesson for us here is that some species (known as being “conservationreliant”) will always and forever require the intervention of humans to be sustained. This is only one story and one species. There are many similar conservation stories that illustrate why we must uphold the OCSC conservation pledge to ” … faithfully defend the natural resources of my country: air, soil, and minerals; forests, waters, and wildlife.”
MUCC CEO
MUCC announced last Thursday, September 18, 2025, that Amy Trotter is no longer with MUCC. She had been with the organization for over 18 years and has served as Chief Executive Officer for the last 2 plus years. Mike Mitchell will serve as interim-CEO while a search is conducted for a permanent replacement. I’ve searched for more information on the circumstances of her departure but have found nothing. It is somewhat interesting that outdoors media personality Mike Avery announced Amy Trotter’s departure 10 days before MUCC did. I’ll relay more information as it becomes available.
Kind regards,
Dave Budnick
OCSC rep to MUCC
(248) 978-3454
davebudnick@comcast.net
davebudnick.com
