Turkey Hunting on Beaver Island is some of the best!

President: Jeff Powers

Vice President: Paul Johnson

Secretary: Jacque LaFreniere

Treasurer: Mark LaFreniere

Newsletter editor: Jacque LaFreniere,

Directors: Phil Wyckoff, Bill Detwiler, Gary Mor-gan, Don Tritsch, Bruce Beaudoin, Bob Tidmore, Tom Kludt

Board of Directors

April 2013

P.O. Box 103 Beaver Island, MI 49782

Volume 6 Issue 1

Beaver Island Wildlife Club

Spring turkey hunting on Beaver Island is an

exciting adventure. If you didn’t apply for the

lottery season (first two weeks) , it is not too

late to get in on the hunt. Over the counter li-

censes can be purchased up until May 1 for the

general hunt which lasts the entire month of

May.

Our turkeys came through the winter well,

consuming lots of corn and flocks ranging in

size from 20 to 150 are all over the island.

These photos were taken in one spot with the

largest flock. The males are drumming, and

have been fanned out since February. The fe-

males are only now becoming somewhat inter-

ested. There are many big Toms with long

beards around the island also. New this year, the Wildlife Club has pur-

chased beautiful patches to hand out to suc-

cessful Turkey hunters. These patches are

dated 2013 and make a terrific souvenir of

your Beaver Island Turkey Hunt. Bring proof

of your success to Jacque LaFreniere. Call

448-2220. We only ordered 30 patches so get

yours as soon as you bag your bird! Upcoming Events

April 30– Last chance for

over the counter turkey

licenses for general hunt.

Second Thursdays– club

meetings

During the long winter months here the

Beaver Island Community Center has

been in the process of developing a

“Beaver Island App” for use by our resi-

dents and summer visitors. It was

developed, as the Community Center

has become the “go to” place for island

visitors and guests and their questions

about the island. “Where can I take

my children fishing; how far it is to the

Kuebler Trail, what are the rules for

using my ORV on the island; etc.?”

While many of these questions can be

answered using current on-line re-

sources they are not consolidated in one

place and for the most part are not com-

patible with mobile devices that now

constitute over 60% of web accesses.

Island activities including boating, bird-

ing, kayaking, scuba diving, shipwreck

viewing, geocaching, lighthouse visit-

ing, exploration of our outer islands,

bicycling and additional information on

environmental subjects.

The Wildlife Club is

also working on a

special Hunting sec-

tion. The goal is to

make it a mobile one-

stop resource for all

Beaver Island infor-

mation.

By..Bob Tidmore

Page 2 Beaver Island Wildlife Club

NAME

____________________________________

Address :____________________________

City/

State_______________________________

Zip _______________________________

Would you like to help the wildlife club

fund its many activities? Join now:

Youth (under 16): $5

Adult one year: $15

5 year: $50

Lifetime: $200

Would you like email updates from the

Wildlife Club? Yes No

Email: _____________________________

Return to:

Beaver Island Wildlife Club

Attn: Treasurer Mark LaFreniere

P.O. Box 103

Beaver Island, MI 49782

Membership

Page 2 Beaver Island Wildlife Club

Beaver Island App

The Beaver Island Wildlife Club

worked on a listing of the Key species of

wildlife for management. Included in the

plan were the following wildlife species:

White-tailed Deer

Wild Turkey

Ruffed Grouse/Woodcock

Ducks and Geese

Gray Squirrel

Snowshoe Hare

Common Loon

Coyote

Double Crested Cormorant

Ring-necked or Sichuan Pheasant

(Possible future key species)

Fisheries Key Species included:

Large and Small-mouthed Bass

Yellow Walleye

Yellow Perch

Northern Pike

Panfish

Salmon and Trout

Carp

Within each listing were included the

economic and biological value of each

species including current ongoing man-

agement actions and future plans. Also

stated were objectives to survey and cen-

sus habitat and populations and monitor-

ing of those populations. Results of these

assessments would be communicated to

the public through both internet and lo-

cal news media sources.

This document is intended to be fluid

(changing with conditions and plans)

and ongoing. Anyone with an interest in

any of the areas is encouraged to attend

wildlife club meetings, discuss with club

board members, or email/write to the

club.

BIWC works on listing of Wildlife Key Species for Beaver Island Archipelago

Therefore the Community Center decided

to equip folks’ mobile devices with easy and

complete access to information about the

Island to make their excursions here more

simple, convenient, and relaxing.

An app developer in Petoskey was hired to

create the app for Apple and Android devic-

es and it’s now available on the Google Play

Store and has been submitted to Apple for

their approval.

The initial app now contains material and

maps about things to do on the island, such

as hiking, fishing, camping, boating, and

swimming, as well as environmental sub-

jects and information on the Beaver Island

Community Center and its scheduled activ-

ities. Work is underway to add more Beaver

.BIWC is on Facebook! A great way to

keep in touch and see what the club is

doing. There will be photos and updates

on projects, membership information,

hunting notes and more! Keep in touch

on the wall!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/

manage/#!/pages/Beaver-Island-

Wildlife-Club-Beaver-Island-MI-

49782/190943384280936

Want to contact the wildlife Club?

Email us at

biwildlifeclub@hotmail.com

We are also working on a webpage.

Stay tuned for details on that.

The Harold Lounsberry Scholarship

Fund received $312 from the Shamrock

and the Wildlife Club. The Club match-

es the dinner donation from the Sham-

rock each year for this scholarship.

About the same number of dinners were

served t his year at the annual Harold

Lounsberry Annual Memorial Hunter’s

Dinner on Nov. 17th.

.Please check your address label.

There will be a date or LT (lifetime) on

the label to show when your membership

is due.

Your membership dues help to support

all of the many projects of the Beaver

Island Wildlife Club. Please renew now!

Page 3 Volume 6 Issue 1

We’re on Facebook!

Membership Renewals

Big Buck Contest

Ron Wojan, Beaver Island resident,

won the Big Buck contest for 2012 with

this 9 point buck. It’s total score was

97.5. Two other bucks were submitted

by Brian Kubish– 83.7 and 88.5 scores.

Congratulations Ron!

A reminder that you must be entered

into the contest PRIOR to Nov. 15 and

your buck MUST be scored on Beaver

Island by Deny Keehn (or other design-

ee of the Wildlife Club). Deer checks

ARE NOT scores for the purpose of this

contest.

Other Contest Winners

Winner of the Deer Survey contest was

Eric Peterson’s camp. We received 13 sur-

veys this year.

Rifle Raffle winner was JimMcDonough.

The GPS was won by Mark Beaudoin.

The Binoculars were won by Tom Kludt.

There were many other prizes given out as

well as 50/50 raffle winner. Congratula-

tions to all!

Scholarship Donation

Walleye Pond

The Walleye pond has undergone some

significant improvements. Last fall, the pond

was drained and the fence repaired. Hard-

ware cloth was installed along the based to

prevent frogs and turtles from entering the

pond. School kids in the afterschool program

spend an afternoon removing the old liner

that was torn. This spring a new well and a

new pump were installed making ready for

the Walleye fry to arrive at the end of April.

They will remain in the pond until they have

reached appropriate size to be released into

Lake Geneserath. A BIG THANK YOU to

Jon and Sally Fogg for the use of their proper-

ty and the well.

Multiple opportunities present them-

selves for tree planting for wildlife on the

island this spring. A couple of years ago,

Jacque LaFreniere collected seeds from

the island’s only American Chestnut trees

and sent them to the DNR where they

were planted and nourished until this

spring when they will return to the island

to be planted. American Chestnut trees

were one of the native trees decimated

early in a blight brought to the New

World. With the demise of many of our

beech trees, it is thought that the Chest-

nut might produce well and provide food

for the island’s wildlife.

The CRA has once again offered free

trees including red oak and several cher-

ry/berry trees. The Wildlife Club will

bring about 100 of them to the island and

distribute them for planting. Those re-

ceiving trees are encouraged to protect

them for several years from wildlife.

Ed Wojan in cooperation with the Wildlife

Club is developing a plan for fruit (apple)

tree planting on the island. The Club

plans to purchase a number of trees to be

given out with instructions on how to

plant, protect and manage the trees until

maturity.

Planting Trees for Wildlife on the Island

Beaver Island Wildlife Club

P.O. Box 103

Beaver Island, MI 49782