About 16,700 acres of public wildlife land

Straddling the line between Gratiot and Saginaw counties is a surprisingly broad block of public land. The DNR’s current statewide list gives the Gratiot-Saginaw State Game Area as 16,684 acres. Its 2016 master plan calls the property large compared with other southern Michigan game areas, but it does not rank it against every public hunting ground in the Lower Peninsula.

The acreage needs a date attached to it. The same 2016 plan used 16,966 acres, and an older official map shows another total. Boundaries and inventories can change, so use the current statewide list for acreage and the DNR map for access.

The ground did not always look this forested. DNR says acquisition began in November 1939, when much of the area was open farmland and recently cut woodland on sandy or poorly drained soils. Plant succession filled in many openings, while managers used timber work and built more than 700 acres of impoundments, ditches, and potholes for waterfowl habitat. Today the plan describes lowland woods, upland hardwoods, oak and aspen, grassland, shrub cover, marsh, and managed wetlands.

That mix supports deer, turkey, grouse, woodcock, wood duck, pheasant, rabbit, and other wildlife. The DNR lists hunting, trapping, bird watching, and wildlife viewing among the area’s uses. Before you go, check the current map for boundaries and parking, then check the current seasons and regulations for whatever you plan to do.

If you only know this part of mid-Michigan as crop rows and wind turbines, the game area is the other face of it: a large public landscape where old fields, woods, and managed water now meet.