Michael Luzier
Michael Luzier of Frederick, Md. is the partial owner of a 180-acre farm in Townsend, Del. Approximately 100 acres is farmed while the
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Marginal farmland transitioned between wet and dry with the potential to maintain shallow water wetland plants. |
rest of the property remains in its natural state of tidal wetlands. However, some of the property lies in a transitional state between wetland and land suitable for farming. This marginal farmland seemed ideal for Mr. Luzier to enroll in the Delaware Landowner Incentive Program (LIP). After contacting the program coordinator, Shelley Tovell-DiBona, a site assessment determined several shallow water wetlands would be suited for the property.This was a beneficial way to attract more wildlife while preventing tidal salt waters from reaching crop fields. With wildlife in mind, Mr. Luzier plans and times land management practices such as, postponing mowing, putting up wood duck boxes, and planting food plots to coincide with wildlife activities.
Less than a year after wetland construction, the shallow-water depressions were holding water and supporting diverse populations of wetland vegetation and active wildlife. While walking the property at Mr. Luzier’s, a variety of wildlife was seen including a white-tailed deer fawn, a great blue heron utilizing the wetland, flying goldfinches, and several species of butterflies. Earlier in the summer a juvenile bald eagle was also spotted and wood ducks were observed using the newly posted boxes for nesting.
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Restored shallow water wetlands provide habitat for a variety of wetland plants and wildlife. |
Mr. Luzier is an active hunter, but he "didn’t just do this for hunting, I enjoy seeing (wildlife)." Happy with the results he has seen so far, Mr. Luzier enjoys watching various species of waterfowl and shore birds utilize his recently constructed wetland.
Mr. Luzier would like to share something with other landowners considering enrolling in the LIP: landowners that lease property to hunters could charge more because more available habitat will increase the likelihood of wildlife present.
Habitat monitoring on this property found the following species-at-risk:
Bald Eagle
Black-bellied Plover
Black Vulture
Cope's Gray Treefrog
Eastern Kingbird
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Glossy Ibis
Grasshopper Sparrow
Greater Yellowlegs
Northern Bobwhite
Swamp Sparrow |
