1. Neithercut Woodland Management
Steve Berg
TJ Nantais
Shannon Wheeler
Brandon Evans

2. Introduction Group of Mammals of Neithercut
Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes fulva)
Bobcat (Lynx rufus)
Coyote (Canis latrans)
White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

3. Red Fox Vulpes vulpes fulva Smallest member of Canidae
Common by late Pleistocene
Crossed Beringia and released by settlers
Red, Silver, or Cross coat types
Barbara Simpson

4. Red Fox Breeding season December-April in Midwest
Sexually Mature in the first Year & monestrous
Gestation lasts days
Mean litter of 5 pups
Both parents provide care
Exploring begins after 3 weeks
Weaned at 5 weeks
Dispersal brought by onset of puberty (usually end of summer)
31 and 11 km dispersal for males and females respectively
Hank Velder

5. Red Fox Super Generalist Active hunters Fruit & Vegetable in summer
Carnivorous in Winter
Small mammals most important

6. Red Fox Most widely distributed carnivore in the world
Arctic to desert and everything in between
Larivière and Pasitchniak-Arts 1996
adapted from others

7. Red Fox Lowland hardwood prefferred Swamps avoided
Well drained sandy soils needed for Den sites
Territorial
Common and occurs in Neithercut

8. Red Fox Scale is serious issue
Successful in fragmented and heterogeneous landscapes
Home range is 4.9 to 11.8 times the size of Neithercut
Home range affected by sympatric predators

9. Red Fox Predators: man, coyote, wolf
Man mortality: hunt and harvest 83%, car kills 11%
Diseases play minor role

10. Bobcat Life History: Smallest non-domesticated cat in Michigan
Typically 2-3 times the size of any domesticated cat
750-1,100 mm long, tail being mm
Largely active at night
Expert tree climbers
Diet consists mainly of small mammals and birds
Camoflauged coloring assists in hunting
Average litter size is 3
Very solitary
Uses urine markings and feces to mark its “own” territory

11. Bobcat
Habitat:
Once was found in mountains, semi-desert, or forested areas
Upland hardwoods, hardwood-conifer mixed forest, lowland swamps, and riparian zones
Highly adaptable despite habitat lost to human settlement
Likes to have lots of vegetation to hide in while hunting
Often have several den sites

12. Bobcat Range: Once was found in all parts of Michigan
Due to human settlement, and agriculture, there are now areas in Southern Lower Michigan without bobcats
Will travel anywhere from sq km for food and mating purposes, sometimes even 12 km in a single night
Typically a female’s territory will not overlap another females, but may however overlap with adjacent male territories

13. Bobcat Status & Occurrence:
Found from southern Canada, all the way throughout the U.S. and Mexico
Found all throughout the Upper Peninsula and the northern half of the Lower Peninsula
Recently a bobcat was killed in Albion, Michigan
This suggests that the bobcat very well could have extended its range much further into southern Michigan.

14. Coyote (Canis latrans)
Origins:
Fossil record traces back to the Pleistocene epoch
Roughly 1 MYA
In fact, many canids trace their origins back to this period
-coyotes, foxes, dingos

15. Physical Characteristics
Coyote
Physical Characteristics
Primarily brownish gray with cream colored underside and throat
Varies from nearly black to red to nearly white
Long, slender muzzle with large canines
Bushy tail that’s half body length
Abnormally large ears in relation to body size
Sexual dimorphism
Males average 14 kg
Females average 13 kg
Larger in eastern U.S.

16. Coyote Commonly misidentified as wolves Size Tails Tracks Muzzle
Canine

17. Coyote Reproduction Courtship 2-3 months January to March
Females in heat for up to five days
Gestation Period: 9 weeks
Up to 19 pups/litter (6)
Venture out at only 3 weeks
Weaned at 6 weeks
Altered by conditions
Maturity: 9-10 months (both)

18. Coyote Ecology Dens Territoriality Activity Lifespan Packs?
concealment, high prey availability, proximity to water
Utilize those of smaller animals like woodchucks and badgers
Territoriality
Highly territorial
Males = 42 square kilometers]
Females = 10 kilometers
Overlap?
Activity
both day and night, primarily nocturnal
Lifespan
6-8 years, max 10 yrs
Packs?
Alpha pair, but up to 10 individuals

19. Coyote Prey Opportunistic, generalist Omnivorous
Foxes, opossums, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, mice, birds, snakes, insects, young/weak deer, carrion, fruit, vegetative matter
Livestock
Family pets

20. Coyote Predators MI trapping from Oct 15 to Mar 1 Private Property
Wolves and competition

21. Coyote Habitat and Range Originally plains and sparsely wooded areas
Now deserts, swamps, tundra, grasslands, brush, and dense forests below sea level to high altitudes
urban
All of Canada and Alaska except severe and most of Central America

22. Coyote Status and Occurrence Not listed and endangered or threatened
More overabundant in areas(not Clare County)
0-3 individuals/square kilometer in optimal habitat

23. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Description
Tan/brown in summer and grayish brown in winter. Has white on its throat, around eyes and nose, stomach and underside of tail.
Males (Bucks) weigh lbs. Males have antlers and regrow them every year.
Females (Does) weigh lbs.
Stand 3.5 ft. at shoulder.
Life span =10 years in wild.
Predators
Wolves
Coyotes

24. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Range: Throughout the majority of the North American continent, expect many areas west of the Continental Divide and colder areas of the north.
Status & Occurrence: Found in every county in Michigan. Deer’s home range is less than a sq. mile.

25. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Habitat use:
Requirements
1) cover- escape and protection from predators, bedding, thermal protection in winter.
2) space- activities and homeland.
3) water- surface or preformed areas.
4) food- browse, forbs, grasses, and succulents.
Ideal habitat = dense thickets (in which to hide and move about), edges (which furnish food), and openings to encourage deer to stay in area.
Potential habitat = forested cover, croplands, grasslands, urban areas.
Habitat needs vary by season and area of state.
Spring/summer-green growth (high nutrition value-recover from winter)
Fall – night night.
Winter- cover to protect from cold temps + winds

26. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Behavior
Nervous/shy species, very cautious and depend on keen sense of smell and hearing.
Social creatures- establish herd hierarchy and warn each other of potential danger through vocal, visual, and olfactory (smell) cues.
When alarmed they stomp hooves and snort to warn other deer. Also raises it’s tail, “flag”, to show white underside.
Very fast runners (can reach up speeds up to 40 m.p.h.), leapers (up to 15 ft. and as far as 30 ft.), and swimmers.
Social Units:
Doe/fawn groups.
Buck groups. Alone during breeding season.

27. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Reproduction
Mate in 2nd year some females can mate as young as 7 months.
Breeding season: Oct.-Dec.
Gestation is approx. 6.5 months ( days)
During the “rut” bucks mark their territories with scrapes and rubs.
Bucks travel many miles out of their home range to breed with several does.
Does go into heat in Nov. for a short 24-hr. period. If she doesn’t mate she will go through a second estrus 28 days later.
1-3 fawns.
Fawns weigh 4-8lbs at birth and have a reddish-brown coat with white spots.
They are able to nibble on vegetation a few days after birth and are weaned by 10 weeks, they remain with doe until the next breeding season starts.
Their spotted coat is replaced in 4-5 months and they reach their max. size in 3-5 years.

28. White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Diet
Browser/grazer
Foods high in nutritional value.
Grasses, legumes, leaves, twigs, agricultural crops – corn, alfalfa, buckwheat. Also orchids, garden vegetables, and ornamentals.
Deer prefer particular plants and will not eat others until preferred is no longer available (winter= starvation foods).
Whitetail’s are ruminants - four chambered stomach. 
Allows the animal to gather a lot of food at once, then chew and digest it at a later convenience.

29. Management Goals & Objectives
Maintain Biodiversity of Neithercut Woodland
Assess mngt. techniques similar to adaptive mngt. diagram
Determine extent of management needed for species addressed
Determine population levels through mark-recapture studies and other techniques

30. Management Goals & Objectives
Increase denning habitat for bobcat
Create and maintain coarse woody debris (CWD)
Decrease road mortality
Build underpasses through US-115

31. Management Goals & Objectives
Increase early successional, grassland, and shrubland habitat
Clear cut three 10 acre plots leaving treetops
Burn and plow 10 acre field to plant native grasses
Invasive plant species control (Autumn Olive)
Plant native fruit-bearing species (wild raspberry and blackberry)

32. Description of Area
Neithercut Woodland is found five miles northwest of Farewell, MI in Clare County off highway US-115 and is surrounded by forests to the north, west, and east, and farmland to the south.
This property consists of 252 acres that was donated to CMU from the Littlefield family.
At this scale of classification, Neithercut is predominately forest and wetland with little open areas.

33. Current Conditions
Major habitats include: mixed hardwood forests(mixed stands of aspen, oak, sugar maple, and white birch), , cedar swamps, beech-maple climax forests, cattail marshes, shrub swamps, prairies, meadows, vernal pools, and creeks.
Edge habitat varies within these major habitats as well as the successional stages from lowland to upland forests.
Areas immediately surrounding Neithercut Woodland are largely herbaceous and open field/agricultural type vegetative habitats.
This figure shows specific types of vegetation in and around Neithercut Woodland.
Sandy loams and loamy sands were lumped into the same category and muck is a coarse classification of very poorly drained soils.

34. Management Recommendations
Proposed ten acre plots for clear-cutting and controlled burn.

35. Management Recommendations
Proposed sites for underpasses allowing safe passage for wildlife under US-115 into Neithercut Woodland which is outlined in black.

36. Evaluation and Monitoring
Trapping and mark-recapture
General population estimate
Radio telemetry
Patterns of movement and habitat use
DNA analysis
Scat samples and hair from snares
Track surveys
Patterns of habitat use, corridors

37. Year One
Contact Road Commission and propose possible locations for underpass
Spring/Summer/Fall:
Trapping and mark-recapture for population estimates
Radio telemetry study to establish habitat use in and around Neithercut Woodland
Send out bids to logging companies
Physical removal of invasive autumn olive
Winter:
Track surveys
Cutting autumn olive and applying herbicide to stem
Year Two
Based on data from year one, solidify direction of management recommendations
Continued negotiations on underpass
Spring/Summer:
Burn and plow field and plant
Clear cutting
Year Three
Finalize plans for underpass
Continued removal of autumn olive
Continued planting of native plant species in early successional habitats created in previous year to reinsure their yearly stability
Year Four
Begin construction of underpass
Continued autumn olive control/removal
Year Five
Complete construction of underpass
Maintain clear cut areas through selective cutting
Year Six Through Year Ten
Begin monitoring success of management plan
Track surveys, trail cams in underpass and clear cut areas, DNA analysis, trap and mark-recapture
Assess and evaluate whether further autumn olive control is necessary
Evaluate results and begin further management recommendations
Timeline

38. Budget YEAR 1 TOTAL ($3,950) YEAR 2 TOTAL ($5,777) YEAR 3 TOTAL ($170)
TOTAL COST OF IMPLEMENTATION
($2,516,027)
(SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
ALL MANUAL LABOR IS VOLUNTEER-BASED

39. Questions ???