The beginning of the new year brought Northern Michigan a mild winter, and allowed Alpena FRO Partners for Fish and Wildlife Biologist Heather Rawlings several more days to survey potential wetland restoration sites. 

Four potential wetland sites were surveyed on two private landowner properties in Alcona and Presque Isle Counties.  Winter truly hit by the second week in January, which shut down the field season until April. 

Time then fell to drawing up projects and submitting permits for wetland restoration to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.  Nine permits were mailed to the landowners for submission during the month of January, and four additional sites that did not require a permit were drawn up and mailed out. 

On Friday, January 19^th Rawlings met with Patrick Ertel from Huron Pines Resource, Conservation & Development (RC&D) to review river restoration work plans for the 2007 field season.   

Huron Pines RC&D and the Service work together on many river restoration projects throughout Northeast Michigan. 

2007 projects include two road/stream crossing restoration projects in Otsego (AuSable River Watershed) and Montmorency Counties (Thunder Bay River Watershed), and stream bank erosion projects in the AuSable, Pine/VanEttan, Ocqueoc and Black River watersheds.