Stats for the State of Michigan Certified Signature Sanctuaries: 3

Wuskowhan Players Club
Wuskowhan Players Club in West Olive, Michigan, is an 18-hole golf course located on 255 acres of sandy soils, with 80 acres of wetlands and 2800 linear feet of streams.  The course weaves through hardwood forests before emerging into the marsh areas along the Pigeon River, which feeds into Lake Michigan.  The property is located in the Northern Great Lakes natural region of the United States.  “Wuskowhan” means wanderer and is the name given by Native Americans to the passenger pigeon.  In the 19th century this land along the banks of the Pigeon River was used for hunting the now extinct passenger pigeon.  Wuskowhan Players Club became the first Certified Audubon Signature Cooperative Sanctuary in Michigan on November 4, 1998.  For further information about Wuskowhan Players Club, visit www.wuskowhan.com.
 

Crane's Pond Phase I
On June 27, 2007, Crane’s Pond-Phase I became the first Audubon International Silver Signature Sanctuary in the state of Michigan.  It is also the first Certified Silver Signature residential community in the world.  Set in the oak forest of southwest Michigan east of Kalamazoo, Crane’s Pond is a layout designed for clusters of single-family dwellings that will operate under guidelines similar to a condominium development.  The entire 230-acre parcel of land was planned for 140-acres or 70% of open space for all phases.  Phase I includes 36-unit lots set on 70-acres of land with approximately 50-acres preserved in open space.  The dominant feature on site is the 54-acre glacial lake called Crane’s Pond located in center of site.  Because Crane’s Pond empties into Mill Creek and then into Augusta Creek and finally into the Kalamazoo River, protecting Crane’s Pond is important to the entire community.  For home lots, the goal for building envelopes is to place structures within existing landscape as much as possible thereby helping to prevent fragmentation of the lake corridor.  In addition, there is a minimum 50-foot setback for buildings around Crane’s Pond.  Stormwater from the home lots is directed into a French drain or dry well at the side or back of each lot.  A series of basins helps reduce the amount of water managed at each location.  If there is overflow, the water will filter through at least 50 feet of upland buffer before reaching Crane’s Pond.  There are no curbs on the roadways and roadside swales empty into catch basins and French drains to facilitate percolation into the ground.

Crane’s Pond is a development that was approved by Ross Township as an “Open Space Preservation Development” and that complies with all requirements of the Ross Township Zoning Ordinance for such development.  To learn more about Crane’s Pond, visit their website at www.cranespond.com

Forest Dunes Golf Club
Forest Dunes Golf Club is a Tom Weiskopf designed 18-hole golf course located within a residential community near Roscommon, Crawford County, Michigan.  The 1200-acre property is a mix of hardwood and jack pine forest with open sand areas, meadows, and four man-made lakes.  The golf course with practice facility occupies 165 of those 1200 acres and has only 70 acres of maintained turf, with the non-turf areas remaining native habitat and wildlife corridors.   Soils, which were deposited as the Wisconsin Age glaciers receded, have very low retention qualities.  Four lakes were excavated on site.--.with the largest, Lake Ausable, 12 feet deep and covering 30 surface acres -- and lined with 30-mil plastic and covered with two feet of sand.  From the beginning of the project, seeds and plant cuttings were taken from undeveloped areas and propagated for use in final landscaping of the golf course.  Over 40,000 plants were grown and used from on-site seed.  One mile to the southeast of Forest Dunes runs the Ausable River, a blue ribbon trout stream.  The property is surrounded by 400,000 acres of federal and state land, much of which is part of a reforestation project.  Crawford County is one of the few counties in Michigan where the Kirtland Warbler can be found.  This is the country’s rarest warbler and one of the first birds to be federally listed under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.  Forest Dunes property is surrounded by Kirtland Warbler Management Habitat.  Possession of domestic cats is not allowed on the property, because they are warbler predators.  Forest Dunes was certified on October 9, 2003, as the first Gold Audubon Signature Sanctuary in Michigan.  To learn more about Forest Dunes Golf Club, go to www.forestdunesgolf.com