Retired but still working,
KW Godfather Weinrich still leads effort to recover the species

 
By JERRY NUNN

Some people like to describe Jerry Weinrich as a kind of godfather to the Kirtland’s Warbler. And no wonder.

Weinrich has been there every step of the way, and prominently, in one of greatest environmental success stories of all time.

His career as a wildlife biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources began in 1972, the same time the concerted effort to save the Kirtland’s Warbler was getting under way. From the very start, he played a hand in the organized effort – studying the bird, helping with the census, directing habitat management, and conducting research. And when he retired from his 30-year-career, what was one of the first things he planned?

A working vacation. He made a long-anticipated trip to the Bahamas, not to relax, but to see how his Kirtland’s Warblers were fairing in its only wintering grounds.

“We didn’t see many warblers, maybe two or three, but it was a pretty good trip,” said Weinrich, noting a dry season in the bird’s winter home left locals hard pressed to locate the birds. If Weinrich was disappointed by the low number of birds, he didn’t show it, instead talking about recent, impressive advancements made by the Bahamians.

“They are getting more support from their government for protection and management,”
said Weinrich. “They are closer to being able to identify the type of habitat the warblers are looking for there. It’s a shrub community, and they’re identifying the stages the community needs to be to attract the warbler.”

He explains the importance of habitat identification because of the number of different islands the birds use – the Bahamas are a chain of islands, many of them tiny and uninhabited, numbering more than 700.

Weinrich echoes the recurring theme of interagency cooperation heard throughout the Kirtland’s Warbler Recovery Team.

“It is neat, the different departments working together,” said Weinrich. “It’s spirit of cooperation.”

Weinrich names a list of agencies he calls “far from complete,” including the DNR. U.S. Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Military Affairs.

While applauding the teamwork, Weinrich embodies the spirit.

A few months ago, he made the Bahamas trip. Last year Weinrich did a fly-over of likely warbler habitat for the Ontario Provincial government. The Bruce Peninsula is in an area thought by some to have the potential for Kirtland’s nesting habit and one the warbler may next seek for breeding grounds.

“There were reports of at least two singers, but the reports were unclear and unsubstantiated,” said Weinrich. “They are performing intensive ground searches in areas of large expanses of Jack Pine. Whether the birds are searching that far for nesting habitat is unknown.”

The idea of an expanded range is plausible, according to Weinrich. There always exists a sub-population of non-singing, non-breeding males that stand ready to take up territories if more suitable habitat becomes available. Weinrich said this phenomenon was experienced when the birds moved into the 13,000 acres area of the Mac Lake fire.

Originally from Reed City, Weinrich, attended Lake State University, studying biology, before receiving his graduate degree from Iowa State University. He began working for the DNR in 1972, first in Roscommon, then in West Branch where he and his wife, Darlene, still live.

Weinrich can speak to every phase of the Warbler management program, from Warbler habits and behavior, to program funding and public relations. While he was intricately involved with the Warbler, Weinrich’s career involved much more.

Serving as the state wildlife biologist for Roscommon, Ogemaw and Iosco Counties, it was Weinrich’s job to handle all wildlife matters for three counties. Job duties were huge, including nuisance wildlife control and crop damage, supervision and planning of private game impoundments and helping forest management in his home district. The list continues, yet Weinrich found time to perform other duties statewide.

Twice each spring, Weinrich flies the entire length and breadth of the state, first conducting a count of occupied bald eagle nests, then a count of fledglings. His eagle population survey is used by state and federal government, as well as university researchers nationwide. In addition, he has also done extensive research on the Piping Plover, assisted in Osprey studies and recovery, and serves on the Board of Loon Preservation.

His involvement in other large projects, however, never hindered his relationship with the Kirtland’s Warbler. And while much of his work with the Warbler’s recovery was within his normal job description, Weinrich gave an extra effort that has become legendary.

Weinrich’s career with the DNR and the path to recovery for the Kirtland’s Warbler cannot be separated and his life’s work with the warbler shows. Conversation with Weinrich turns quickly to the little bird and understandably so.

He feels habitat management is the biggest factor in the Kirtland’s return, but places emphasis on the importance of cowbird control measures. The ability to now produce the diverse habitat, a mix of clumps of Jack Pines and opening clearings, mechanically, without the use of the infamous controlled burns, will play a large role in the future management of the bird.

Weinrich credits the evolution of the bird in its environment with the Warbler’s perseverance. It has no predators that concentrate on it solely.

“The Warbler evolved hand-in-hand with its habitat in a very specific arrangement,” said Weinrich. “Making lunch of the Warbler would be a tough way to making a living.”

The Warbler can use up to 12 acres a pair, with populations more dense if the habitat is better. Due to the sparse nesting habit, most predation of the Warbler is incidental, Weinrich said.

Noting the gains made to the Warbler survival by control of the parasitic cowbird, Weinrich said domestic house cats and Sharp Shinned Hawks are perhaps the largest predators of the Warbler. He added a whole variety of opportunistic warbler predators that find their meals where ever they can – snakes, ground squirrels and other small mammals, coyotes and large birds such as crows and ravens. Even though the Warbler nests right on the ground, those nests are very hard to find and the bird uses the dense cover of the jack pine for protection.

Weinrich feels funding for the program is solid, in good part due to its success and said the recovery program gets some help from industry. During the 1990’s Detroit Edison contributed to jack pine plantings through a program known as “carbon sequesterization” – reforestation in return for the release of carbon emissions, according to Weinrich.

The jack pine forests the Kirtland’s Warbler calls home grows in a soil-type known as Grayling sands, which is found in the Au Sable River watershed of Michigan’s central Lower Peninsula. Weinrich holds much hope that the recovery will see the population increase to include other similar areas. Fifteen singing males were found in the Upper Peninsula last year and Weinrich points to the Canadian research, in an area he calls very suitable habitat. Involvement by the Bahamian government should also play a supportive role, Weinrich said.

Jerry Weinrich may try to minimize the role he played, but he still chronicles his career by the steps the bird made in its recovery.

And rightly so.

When Weinrich began his career the Kirtland’s Warbler faced extinction, the population count found fewer than 100 breading pairs. During his time of involvement, a time known to have been crucial to the bird’s survival, that number increased to more than 1,000 pairs.

“The Warbler Program has been a very big and gratifying success. To help get a project started and see the results is something I’m very proud to have been a part of,” said Weinrich. “It was a very exciting part of my career.”