There are 40,000 acres of State land in the Ann Arbor vicinity including the Lower Peninsula’s largest state park – Waterloo State Recreation Area – that provide a variety of wilderness experiences without having to drive for hours to get there.
Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources is always looking for dedicated volunteers to help with the work of maintaining and managing these parks. If you’re not ready to take on something like either the Adopt-A-Park or Adopt-A-Forest programs, the MDNR is conducting stewardship workdays in the month of July.
The MDNR is looking for dedicated volunteer to help restore and maintain fragile, native ecosystems in more than twenty state parks across southern Michigan including several in the Ann Arbor area. Volunteers will pull invasive plants like spotted knapweed and sweet clover from prairies and dunes and cut invasive shrubs like honeysuckle and buckthorn from wet mesic flatwoods to restore balance to high-quality natural areas.
Work days scheduled for our area state parks are:
- Waterloo Recreation Area –Saturday, July 7
- Island Lake Recreation Area – Saturday, July 7
- Brighton Recreation Area – Sunday, July 8
- Island Lake Recreation Area – Saturday, July 21
- Brighton Recreation Area – Sunday, July 22
- Waterloo Recreation Area – Sunday, July 22
- Pinckney Recreation Area – Saturday, July 28
Stewardship volunteers are asked to complete a volunteer registration form for efficiency and to ensure the best possible volunteer experience. More information about volunteer stewardship workdays, including a calendar of opportunities, is available at michigan.gov/dnrvolunteers. To register, please complete and submit the stewardship volunteer registration form.
