Photo Gallery Friday: Seney National Wildlife Refuge
Photo Gallery Friday is a regular feature on Travel the Mitten that will help showcase photos from places where a few pictures just aren’t enough to show off everything.
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a great place to view wildlife in a natural setting, and few places are as accessible and visitor-friendly as Seney National Wildlife Refuge near Germfask. This 95,000 acre refuge can be found on M-77 north of US-2 and south of M-28 in Schoolcraft County. Seney’s location makes it a great add-on when heading north to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, west to Escanaba or the Porcupine Mountains, or east to Sault Ste. Marie or St. Ignace. A visitor center welcomes travelers, and has a variety of interactive exhibits and a wealth of information about the refuge. One of the most popular ways to see wildlife at Seney is by driving the seven-mile, one-way Marshland Wildlife Drive. This road passes many pools and provides great chances for viewing geese, swans, loons, cranes, beaver, turtles, frogs, eagles, osprey and more.
The wildlife refuge is built on the remains of the Great Manistique Swamp, a wetland that was heavily forested in the late 1800s then nearly destroyed by attempts at converting it into farmland. The Civilian Conservation Corps was instrumental in rebuilding the area in the 1930s, and much of their work survives and is still in use to this day. Seney was also instrumental in helping restore the population of Canada geese in North America from threatened species to thriving population. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees the refuge, and also serves as the administrator of the Whitefish Point Unit, Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and Huron Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Head over to the USFW page for more information and hours, and be sure to like the refuge on Facebook – they are incredibly active on there and frequently post recent animal sightings, information on native plants, and more.
Seney National Wildlife Refuge is located at 1674 Refuge Entrance Rd. in Seney, just off of M-77 south of M-28 and north of US-2.
