Welcome to the Kirtland's Warbler GeoTrail (KWGT). This trail will take you in a loop in central Northern Michigan through the Jack Pine ecosystem, breeding home of the Kirtland's Warbler. This tour takes you to a total of 25 caches with an amazing trackable geocoin as a reward. The KWGT Passport can be downloaded here: https://f81c572e-1d95-4026-befc-8c60f69cbcd9.filesusr.com/ugd/31e003_41b2f3aa918442e8b08c880e746e6946.pdf
Interest in documenting the Kirtland's Warbler recovery story has grown over the years. It is recognized that institutional memory is fading as members move to other jobs, retire, or pass away. Files and other written records become scattered, obsolete, and more difficult to access. In 2010, a proposal was made to archive documents pertaining to Kirtland's Warbler recovery, which was funded by the Legacy Resource Management Program of the Department of Defense. Almost 1400 items related to the Kirtland's Warbler were digitized, and 30 people with knowledge and experience with Kirtland's recovery were interviewed. Currently, there is no public access to the electronic archive (it is being worked on), but hard copies are stored and available at the Kirtland Community College Library. The archive is continually updated by a volunteer extraordinaire as new materials become available.
The Cache
The cache is located (with permission of the college president) near the entrance of the new Kirtland Community College campus, where the physical Kirtland’s Warbler archives are located. Kirtland Community College is also where the Kirtland’s Warbler Conservation Team meets twice a year.