By Pat Stinson
From his living room window, Dale Doepker uses his telescope to spot loons in their nest on an island 100 yards from his dock. Doepker said the loons nested on the island’s opposite shore this year so he could not see them or their eggs, as he had in years past. Instead, he had to jump in his pontoon boat and motor slowly around the island to keep tabs on the loon pair and their speckled, tan eggs before they hatched.
Doepker is a Loon Ranger, one of 300 volunteers across the state who share a love of loons and agree to observe and protect them. Loon Rangers educate lakefront owners about the importance of loons, a threatened species in Michigan. They talk to lake owners and visitors, to let them know of any resident (nesting) loons on the lake. They also post Loon Alert signs at boat launches to advise boat owners to keep at least 100 feet from loons. In some cases, the rangers write about the loons in lake association newsletters and other publications. Loon Rangers also count and report the number of loons, eggs and chicks they see.
The Loon Ranger program is administered by the LoonWatch committee of the Michigan Loon Preservation Association, originally founded in 1986 as the Loon Registry by the Michigan DNR Nongame Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy. At that time, according to Michigan LoonWatch State Coordinator Joanne Williams, Michigan’s loon population was declining rapidly. She said the state wanted to know why and what to do about it.
The name of the program changed, but the mission did not. Protection is the number one goal of the rangers, Williams said, and they operate using guidelines of the Michigan Loon Recovery Plan published in 1994-96, under the direction of the MDNR.
A Loon Ranger does not have to live on a lake but must be able to observe loons on the same lake over time. Williams said many rangers are summer residents or weekend visitors.
Loon Rangers count loon pairs on their lakes – as well as eggs, hatched chicks and fledglings – and report losses as they observe them. They also pinpoint the locations of loon nests on lake maps provided by the MDNR and share information on loon habitat. Sometimes, they even build artificial nests for the loons. Williams retrieves this information from the rangers each fall and compiles the data for MDNR. She said the agency uses the data from the Loon Ranger program – specifically, the nesting information – in its permitting process. The presence of loons is considered when lake levels are managed, lakeshore projects are reviewed, and decisions are made about herbicide treatments.
“Our main goal is not to count loons,” Williams said. “The main thing is to find and protect them; the statistics are an aside.”
She said the organization is always looking for more volunteers.
Williams explained that loons are an ancient species, 65 million years old, and remarkably intelligent. She said their presence on a lake is an indication of “good, clean water” as they are “sight” hunters, meaning they use their eyesight underwater to catch small fish.
Ross Powers, a recently retired Loon Ranger and retired U.S. EPA biologist, echoed her statement.
“Loons are an environmental indicator of a good, clean, healthy lake,” he said. “If the water is cloudy, turgid or full of weeds, they can’t follow the fish. It takes a good, healthy fish population (such as bluegills) to attract them.”
He remarked that some anglers view loons as competition for big fish.
“It’s a matter of education,” he said. “(Loons) don’t take the big fish; they’ll do a good culling of some of the overpopulated species.”
Williams said it is the larger fish that sometimes go after loon chicks, and adult loons feed their chicks aquatic insects more often than minnows.
Powers noted that the presence of loons on a lake has an added benefit to those living there.
“Real estate agents will tell you it increases the property value,” he said.
To learn more about the Loon Ranger program, or to support the loon preservation effort, visit www.michiganloons.org and follow them on Facebook @MichiganLoonPreservationAssociation
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