LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) announced its first Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) verification for woodlot owners.

Warren Suchovsky of Stephenson, in Menominee County in the Upper Peninsula, became the state’s first landowner to achieve the Forest, Wetlands and Habitat System verification under MAEAP, in October. Under an agreement with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), MDARD awards grants to conservation districts across the state to provide education and one-on-one technical assistance to private landowners and communities regarding local forest health issues.

Professional foresters working out of 17 district offices provide coverage for more than 40 counties in the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. The purpose of the program is to assist conservation districts in their efforts to help landowners better understand, plan and manage their forests.

A survey conducted by Michigan State University of non-industrial private forestland owners concluded only 20 percent of the 11 million-acre resource is actively managed. Conservation districts would like to increase the number of landowners and acres under active management.

“I am pleased to announce that Mr. Suchovsky has taken the steps necessary to become the first Forest, Wetlands and Habitat System verification,” said MDARD Director Jamie Clover Adams.

“This verification underscores agricultural producers’ and landowners’ long-term commitment to protecting the environment, while maintaining economic success.

“Michigan is leading the way nationwide in effective stewardship practices with the voluntary, incentive-based MAEAP program.”

MAEAP encompasses four systems designed to help producers evaluate the environmental risks of their operation. Each system – livestock, farmstead, cropping and forestry, wetlands and habitat – examines a different aspect of an operation, as each has a different environmental impact. By participating in all four systems, producers can comprehensively evaluate their entire operation for potential environmental risks.

According to Suchovsky, when the Michigan legislature passed the MAEAP forestry module it wanted to increase the active use of private forestland in addition to encouraging environmentally positive practices. Suchovsky said he became the first landowner to achieve verification under this new protocol mostly because he sits on the legislature’s MAEAP advisory board and helped develop the legislation.

“Our forest here has been under some sort of management plan since the 1960s,” he said. “About 2000, I started a forest management plan under DNR. That plan hit the end of its timeline.”

Now he’s managing his 500 acres of forestland through MAEAP. As for why he’s so interested in active land management, Suchovsky asked, “What business doesn’t plan ahead? If we don’t have a plan we won’t know when we get there.”

Among other concerns, he thinks about non-game bird species on his property, such as songbirds.

MDARD woodlot verifier Erin Satchell said best management practices that could be part of a MAEAP woodlot plan might include not doing certain things near a body of water, such as operating certain kinds of equipment, or not loading logs in areas that are considered environmentally sensitive. Each plan is developed on an individual basis, he said.

He noted four other landowners are in the process of becoming MAEAP-verified under this new system.