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This guide features 121 of the best places in Michigan to view wildlife. Certainly there are many more waiting to be explored, but these are great places to start. Some sites in this guide are barrier-free others are rugged and undeveloped. No matter where you are in the state, there are sites in this guide only minutes away.

This book is not intended to be a guide to state hunting and fishing areas, but these activities are permitted on many of the sites included here. Hunting and fishing symbols appear on the write-up for each site where these activities are permitted.

For easy reference, this guide divides the state into three viewing regions, the Upper Peninsula, the Northern Lower Peninsula, and the Southern Lower Peninsula. There is a separate section of the book for each region. Region maps at the beginning of each section show the viewing sites, cities and towns, and major roads in the region.

The following information is provided for each site in this guide:

Site Description: brief description of what the site looks like and some of the physical features you will find there (e.g. dunes, rolling forest, wetland, etc.).

Wildlife Viewing: lists the featured wildlife to be viewed at the site. When appropriate, this section tells the best season and time of day to see the featured wildlife and also may contain interesting facts about wildlife that may be seen at the site.

Directions: includes a map and written description of how to get to the site from the nearest town or major road.

Ownership: lists the name of the agency or organization that owns or manages the site, and gives a telephone number to call for more information.

Size: gives the approximate area of each site, usually in acres. (An acre is about the size of a football field.)

Closest Town: gives the name of the town or village closest to the site.

Facilities Symbols: represent some of the facilities and recreational opportunities available at the site. Contact the site owner/manager for details.

In addition to wildlife viewing sites, this guide also contains:

Ecological concepts - interspersed throughout the pages of this guide you will find several one-page descriptions of ecological concepts such as food webs, habitat, and biodiversity. These are quick, interesting explanations of some of the complex interactions that exist among wildlife and the environment.

Wildlife identification pages - five pages of this guide are devoted to wildlife identification Most wildlife watchers prefer to bring along separate field guides to the birds or other annuals they wish to see, but these pages show basic identification techniques for some of Michigan's more popular wildlife.

Other wildlife viewing sites - Michigan is blessed with a bounty of excellent places to view wildlife, and there was not enough room in this book to include them all. However, at the end of each section of this guide, there is a list of other wildlife viewing sites that occur in that region.