The Wolverine is the mascot for the University of Michigan. Elsewhere in the state it is a mythical creature. The actual animal once lived here, but it no longer does. Sure we have had a few run across the ice from Ontario for a visit, but none have become permanent residents. The last native Michigan wolverine was shot back in 1860. The remains of that animal currently reside in the taxidermy collection of Traverse City dentist Dr. Gary Kaberle, UM class of 72’.
If you want to see what wilderness in the state of Michigan looked like in 1860, take a trip up north and check out the Hartwick Pines State Park. It is a 49 acre remnant of old growth pine that was set aside from logging. The Hartwick family, decedents of a Crawford County lumber baron, donated the land to the state of Michigan. You won’t see any Wolverines running around, but the other wildlife is pretty much the same as it was 150 years ago.
My Grandpa Joe lived up in the thumb and sold firewood on his farm. He had a permit to go on state land and clear out old growth. The wood pile next to his garage was so high I swear I saw Moses on top holding up the Ten Commandments. Joe had been cutting down trees since the 50’s. He told me that by the 80’s things had changed. “There used to be a lot more animals in the woods, there used to be a lot more fish in the rivers, and there used to be a lot fewer people than there are now,”-he said. Joe had a love of fishing. He did not like to eat them, but he sure liked to catch them. Joe had an impressive fish collection hanging on his garage wall. He had an example of just about every species of fish in the state. When I was a young boy I remember seeing a fish that closely resembled a Grayling. I like to think that maybe it was, but I know it could not have been. Because even in Joe’s time, the Michigan Grayling was just a mythical creature.
Before 1935
Just like the wolverine once roamed Michigan forests, grayling inhabited the rivers. Early settlers described catching them by the hundreds. For a brief period after the Civil War they were commercially fished from the Au Sable. Grayling were piled up and covered in the cold ground to keep them fresh. Earthen mounds lined the banks. Railcars with tons of fish packed in ice were shipped south to the cities. People at the Railroad called the town where the fish came from – “Grayling.”
“At the same time, the lumbermen came and cut down centuries-old growth of virgin white pine. The land leading to the rivers was stripped as well, slashed and burned, and the logs floated downstream to the large mills and cities during the spring run-off. The rivers were cleared of logs and debris, places where the Grayling flourished. Shallow riffles were trenched out and deepened, and dams were built so that the flow of the river could be better controlled. Vegetation on the banks of the rivers was cleared as well, and the river slowly filled with sand. The sand filled the deepest pools and covered the Grayling’s spawning beds. By 1885, the Grayling had disappeared from the Au Sable River. And in a period of ten to twenty years, a land unrivaled for it’s fishing and beauty, became a barren wasteland of stumps and empty pools.”
-Fred Westerman (Michigan Fisheries Division Chief 1925-1959)
By 1905 the Grayling disappeared from all rivers in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Their last holdout was in the Upper Peninsula. The Otter River near Houghton had remained pretty much untouched at the beginning of the century. In 1925 the Michigan Department of Fisheries undertook an expedition to the Otter River. They brought back 130 live fish. Repeated attempts were made to reintroduce them to the Lower Peninsula. Even Henry Ford and Thomas Edison donated money to help restock the grayling, but by 1935 all their efforts had failed. The Otter River population also disappeared. People were left to wonder what had become of the grayling.
More Recent Reintroduction Efforts
Between 1987 and 1991 the Michigan Department of Fisheries tried again. In all they hatched 145,000 Arctic grayling donated from Wyoming and Canada. The young grayling were stocked into thirteen Michigan lakes and seven rivers. The grayling that were planted in the rivers were gone within six months. Only in one lake did any of the fish survive to five years. That lake was closed to fishing and the DNR patrolled it to prevent poaching.
Since then much more research has been published on the grayling. It has been pointed out that fluvial (river) fish are imprinted with the water in which they are hatched. They are sensitive to the environment of that particular river and return only to that river to spawn. Therefore raising them in a hatchery does not work.
In 2016 the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians wanted to give reintroduction another try. Some of their historic tribal land includes the Manistee and Pere Marquette rivers. So they teamed up with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Their collaborative effort has been dubbed The Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative.
The project has been growing. Partners now include Consumers Energy, Michigan State University, The University of Michigan, and many other important institutions and groups. Over a million dollars has been poured into research. The State of Alaska has donated Arctic Grayling eggs, and on-site river hatching experiments are under way.
One of Michigan’s Iconic Stream Salmonids
The Arctic Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus) is a member of the salmonid family. That means they are related to trout, salmon, char, and white fish. The species are colorful, some have chevron markings on their sides, and they all sport large fan-like dorsal fins. Grayling are very easy to catch on the artificial fly, and they have a gamy flavor. Some say their skin gives a faint herbal aroma that closely resembles thyme.
The historical range of Grayling in Michigan was north of the Muskegon/Tawas Bay line. The main rivers were: Au Sable, Manistee, Muskegon, Boardman, Pine, and Hersey in the Lower Peninsula – and the Otter River in the Upper Peninsula.
Rewilding Michigan
Rewilding is the deliberate reintroduction of an extirpated species for the purpose of restoring an ecosystem. Extirpated means they are regionally extinct, but they have relatives that live somewhere else. The Grayling still has strong thriving populations in Montana and Alaska.
Rewilding is not a new idea but it has gained steam as an environmental movement. The beaver has been reintroduced to Britain, the River Otter to Pennsylvania, and the Salmon to California. As recently as 2019, reintroduced California Chinook returned to the San Joaquin River to spawn. This is encouraging news.
Rewilding is not about adding something new, it is about restoring what was here before. Sometimes many different factors lead to the disappearance of a species. In the case of the Michigan Grayling some point to loss of habitat, over-fishing, and predation by invasive species. The key to sustaining a healthy new population may be to make the ecosystem more like it was before humans tampered with it.
Back in 1961 retired Michigan Fish Chief Fred A. Westerman wrote that he believed the loss of the White Pine along Michigan Rivers to be the main culprit in the demise of the Grayling. Westerman served as head of the Michigan Fisheries Division from 1925-1959. He knew some of the old timers who fished Grayling back in the 1800’s. Westerman noted that the loss of the Pines seemed to coincide with the loss of the Grayling. “Perhaps the grayling did belong to the pine!” he wrote. Perhaps the answer to rewilding the Grayling – lies in first replanting the trees.
- Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “Michigan Fisheries Centennial Report. Fisheries Div. 1973. PDF