NWTF Michigan joins Kirtland’s Warbler Festival in Roscommon

Edgefield, S.C. — The Kirtland’s Warbler Festival has been actively celebrating the songbird’s conservation success for more than 30 years. This year, the Michigan National Wild Turkey Federation State Chapter was invited to be part of the celebration, held recently in Roscommon.

For those who may have never heard of the Kirtland’s warbler, almost the entire population breeds in north-central Michigan.

The warbler shares a similar story to the wild turkey in that it was on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss. In the late 1980s, there were only 167 singing males recorded. Thanks to habitat management programs that included managed burns, clear-cutting and the planting of jack pines, as well as the monitoring and control of nest-parasitizing cowbirds, the number of singing males rebounded to over 2,300 by 2015.

Mike Petrucha, now the festival’s chair, vice chair, treasurer and secretary, was a part of the efforts to reestablish the lost habitat when he was working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Jack pines get in your blood,” Petrucha said. “It makes good deer habitat, and when it’s young, it’s the best snowshoe hare habitat there is. Turkeys certainly use it, especially the openings, which are grassy with lots of grasshoppers and insects for them to eat. Ruffed grouse, spruce grouse and bears use it as well.”

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Petrucha transferred to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, where he worked until he retired. In this position, he was a part of the live turkey trap and transfer programs. Early in his career at Michigan DNR, he remembers there were conifer plantings that the NWTF funded.

“I remember growing up in Michigan, I never saw a turkey,” Petrucha said. “I was born in 1962, and all the way through high school, I never saw turkeys anywhere. Now I have to chase them out from underneath my bird feeder sometimes because they’re eating all the seeds!”

It seems fitting that he was the one to bring the Kirtland’s warbler and the wild turkey together. It has been his goal for a few years to involve everybody that has anything to do with the outdoors in the local area at the festival.

“Hunting and fishing are such a big part of northern Michigan that I figured we needed to have representatives there to show people that this festival isn’t just about one bird,” Petrucha said. “It’s an educational celebration of the Kirtland’s warbler, it’s habitat and the communities located in the Jack pine ecosystem, which encompass hunting species.”

While he was planning this year’s festival, he invited hunting and fishing organizations to attend and table at the festival. NWTF volunteers were the only organization that responded.

Michigan State Chapter President Jon Gray received the email from Petrucha and immediately knew the NWTF would attend the festival. Since Gray was elected president a year and a half ago, one of his goals has been to try and increase the NWTF’s visibility.

“We wanted to take advantage of any opportunity to set up a table and talk to people about what the NWTF does and who we are,” Gray said. “So, this was a great opportunity to connect with people outside of the turkey hunting crowd.”

The NWTF has partnered on numerous habitat projects in Michigan that have benefitted both wild turkeys and Kirtland’s warbler, including pine-barren restoration through the MDNR’s Wildlife Habitat Grant Program.

Gray had a handout summary that listed all of the state’s accomplishments from 2024. He also brought dried turkey legs, a beard, a tail fan and some wing feathers from harvested birds for visitors to look at. They also had supplies for people to make their very own turkey call.

“Whether they were 4 or 84 years old, they were making these turkey calls out of coffee stirrer straws, some turkey feathers and beads,” Gray said. “It was a really good and informal way to talk to them. If they had questions while they were making their calls, then we were able to talk to them about turkeys while they were there.”