The Munuscong River Watershed
Planning Study - The Chippewa/Luce/Mackinac Conservation District received a grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in 2010 to perform a planning study for the Munuscong River Watershed. The study is expected to be completed by the end of year 2012.
The Munuscong River Watershed project is located in central Chippewa County in Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula.
Prior to European settlement, the Munuscong watershed was approximately 58 percent wetland (87,926 acres) and 40 percent upland forest (60,893 acres). The poorly drained interior of the watershed, supported hardwood/conifer swamps with balsam fir, balsam poplar, hemlock, northern white cedar, tamarack, trembling aspen, white pine, black spruce, and white spruce. Hemlock, white pine, sugar maple, elm, basswood, and birch stands coursed throughout the watershed along the sandy deposits and ancient beach ridges.
Since the settlement of the area, thousands of acres of wetland have been drained and thousands of acres of forest have been harvested and cleared.
Today, upland forest accounts for approximately 23 percent of the land use/land cover. Agriculture accounts for over 42,317 acres or 28% of the land with a mixture of hay and livestock farms. Timothy, trefoil, and clover are the primary crops which are grown for livestock forage.
The Munuscong Watershed consists of approximately 149,101 acres: upland forest (23%), agriculture (28%), wetland (40%); urban (3%) and open field (5.6%).
The watershed includes the Munuscong River, the Little Munuscong River, and School, Demoreux, Fletcher, Taylor, Hannah, Rapson, and Parker Creeks.
January 2011 Newsletter Published - Click here to view the first Munuscong River Watershed Newletter.
Pickford, Michigan and Munuscong River from view of an ultralight aircraft (Photo courtesy Denny Mills www.iowaflight.com)