CLAYTON, Mich. — What began as an idea for an 80-acre wetland project has grown into hundreds of acres of new public land, restored wildlife habitat, and an innovative effort to improve water quality before it reaches Lake Erie.
Ducks Unlimited (DU), the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), donors, landowners, conservation partners, and community leaders gathered Aug. 22 at Seneca State Game Area in Lenawee County to celebrate the people and partnerships that turned that idea into reality.
The 2026 Michigan Major Donor Dedication recognized DU supporters whose contributions helped make Seneca possible, while giving attendees a firsthand look at a project that has grown substantially in scope since work began nearly eight years ago.
"This dedication is special," said Brian Glenzinski, DU Director of Conservation Programs. "We are establishing a new State Game Area, which is really significant, I think, in this day and age, that we're able to accomplish a feat like that."
Glenzinski said Seneca's location in southern Michigan adds to its significance, providing public recreational opportunities in a populated part of the state while delivering benefits that extend far beyond the property's boundaries.
"This speaks to a whole bunch of people about just what conservation does, what this land does for water quality, what it does for the Great Lakes," he said.
From an 80-acre idea to a new State Game Area
Seneca's origins date back roughly eight years, when Michigan officials began looking for new approaches to improving water quality within the Western Lake Erie Basin.
Michigan DNR Deputy Director Shannon Lott recalled the formation of an interagency "sprint team" charged with developing a project focused on the Lake Erie watershed.
"It took a long time. Here we are eight years later, but what a cool thing that came out of this," Lott said. "We started to have conversations with our big partners, like DU, that could actually make it happen, because we knew we weren't going to be able to do it on our own."
DU was brought into the process early to help identify potential project locations. The organization's longstanding partnership with the Michigan DNR eventually expanded to include land acquisition, engineering, design, construction management, fundraising, and habitat restoration.
DU Michigan biologist Corey VanStratt said the original concept was considerably smaller.
"It was initially supposed to start as a small, 80-acre proof-of-concept idea," VanStratt said. "This grew ultimately to something much, much larger."
At the time of the dedication, Seneca State Game Area encompassed approximately 450 acres assembled from seven parcels previously owned by four landowners. Additional acquisitions could bring the footprint to approximately 528 acres and interface 4 county drains.
The broader vision is to demonstrate how restoring wetlands within an agricultural watershed can improve habitat and water quality while maintaining productive farming on the surrounding landscape.
DU's planning documents describe Seneca as a Western Lake Erie Basin pilot project designed to intercept nutrient-laden agricultural runoff before it moves downstream. The overall project is expected to represent a nearly $10 million in conservation investment from Federal, State, and private sources.
Putting water back on the landscape
During a motor coach tour following the dedication, Michigan DNR wetland habitat specialist Randy Knapik showed attendees a landscape still undergoing transformation.
Seneca sits at the downstream end of an approximately 800-acre historic wetland basin that was drained over generations to support agriculture.
Today, the partners are working to restore portions of that basin to wetlands while preserving drainage needed by neighboring farms.
"We wanted to be able to restore wetlands, restore those hydric soils on land that is public land, while letting the adjacent landowners and the neighbors continue to farm and use the land as they wanted to," Knapik said.
The project was designed around the existing county drainage network. On public lands, drainage tiles have been broken and wetland basins excavated so water can once again spread across soils that historically supported wetlands.
When completed, approximately 400 acres of wetland soils will have hydrology restored, with about 70 acres receiving additional excavation and enhancement.
More importantly for the larger watershed, the project can interact with water draining from a much larger area.
"As designed, this project can touch water from 2,600 acres upstream," Knapik said. "We can touch that with our wetland restoration project, try to slow water down, and hold those nutrients before they go downstream."
Approximately 75% of that upstream drainage area is farmland.
"It's a really good example of restoring a wetland here so that we can continue farming elsewhere," Knapik said.
Early results show promise for Lake Erie
Improving water quality was one of the primary reasons Seneca was created.
More than 90% of the historic wetlands in the Western Lake Erie Basin have been lost, VanStratt told attendees. Those wetlands once performed important ecological functions, including capturing water and nutrients before they reached rivers and Lake Erie.
"This loss of wetlands has had staggering consequences," VanStratt said, pointing to degraded water quality, harmful algal blooms, drinking-water concerns, and impacts to the Lake Erie fishery.
At Seneca, researchers now have an opportunity to measure what happens when some of those functions are restored.
Water-quality sensors and sampling stations are monitoring water as it enters and leaves the restoration. Michigan State University is also studying water moving through agricultural drainage tiles to better understand nutrients and sediment traveling from farm fields toward the wetland system.
The first results are encouraging.
"With the monitoring that we've had this past spring, there was water on the landscape, which was great to see. There were some ducks and some geese out there as well," Knapik said. "But more importantly, some of the monitoring data showed that there was less water leaving our restoration site than was coming through the county drain network. So, the wetland was acting like that sponge that we all know."
Monitoring also showed approximately a 20% reduction in nitrate and a 40% reduction in phosphorus between water entering and leaving the site.
And those results came almost immediately.
"That was all when it was just the soil doing the work out there," Knapik said. "There wasn't even anything growing yet at that point in time. The project was a success already."
Water leaving the project ultimately enters the South Branch of the River Raisin and continues toward Lake Erie, making Seneca a real-world test of whether strategically restored wetlands can help address water-quality challenges across agricultural watersheds.
DU hopes the project can eventually serve as a proof of concept for similar work elsewhere in Michigan.
Finding common ground with agriculture
The engineering may be complicated, but another challenge was equally important: building trust with the people who live and farm around Seneca.
Knapik said DNR staff initially found it difficult to start conversations with some landowners.
Local agricultural leaders helped change that.
Relationships with Kim and Blaine Baker of Bakerlads Farms and other farmers opened doors and helped project partners explain what they were trying to accomplish.
Once landowners understood that the goal was not to eliminate agriculture, but to restore wetlands in strategic places while allowing farming to continue around them, attitudes began to change.
"We've been able to come to common ground on that," Knapik said during the tour. "Generally, the feeling's been pretty positive because we've been able to work with different landowners in the area."
Some public fields at Seneca remain in agricultural production through agreements with local farmers. Corn, soybean, and hay can provides food and cover for wildlife and additional opportunities for recreation. Other former agricultural fields will eventually transition to grassland and wetlands.
The project has even prompted research into the human dimensions of conservation.
Michigan State University researchers studied the attitudes and motivations of landowners in surrounding townships. Knapik said the purpose was not necessarily to determine how to persuade people to participate in conservation, but to help conservation professionals better understand how farmers view and use their land.
The goal is to help agency and DU staff "talk the same language" and identify genuine areas of common ground.
An unlikely partner in wetland restoration
That changing relationship is perhaps best illustrated by one of Seneca's key partners: the county Drain Commissioner.
Historically, wetland conservation organizations and drainage districts have not always found themselves on the same side of a project.
"When you think of drain commissioning, you immediately think of the elimination of wetland habitat, and for a long time, that's exactly what has occurred," said Ed Scheffler, Lenawee County Drain Commissioner.
But Scheffler said the role of drain commissioners has evolved.
"In the last several decades, there has been a shift toward most drain commissioners' offices to work toward policies and procedures that take into account the environmental impacts of our operations," he said.
That is particularly important in the Western Lake Erie Basin.
The Seneca design had to accomplish two seemingly competing goals: restore wetlands on public property while ensuring upstream landowners could continue receiving adequate agricultural drainage.
Through engineering, modeling, and a legal agreement governing the county drains, the partners found a way to accomplish both.
Scheffler believes the result could become a model for others.
"I plan to showcase this project as an example for other county drain offices throughout the state, which may bring more interest in them implementing similar projects," he said.
For Scheffler, there is another benefit.
"In addition to the habitat improvements and potential water-quality improvements, the icing on the cake is really that this property will now be open to public recreation," he said. "That's a real benefit for Lenawee County."
Wildlife is already responding
The landscape that visitors saw on Aug. 22 remains very much a work in progress.
Some areas are still agricultural fields. Others have recently been excavated. Additional native grasses, wildflowers, and wetland vegetation will be established over the next several years.
But wildlife is already responding.
During the tour, Knapik pointed out areas that had been bare, dark organic soil earlier in the year but were already covered with vegetation. Birds, pollinators, dragonflies, deer, turkeys, and pheasants are using the property.
Natural pheasant reproduction is occurring in the area, while moist-soil plants such as smartweed and foxtail are establishing in restored areas that are expected to provide shallow-water habitat and food for migrating waterfowl.
More restoration is coming.
Additional wetland basins are scheduled for excavation, more native vegetation will be planted, and newly acquired parcels will become part of the larger habitat complex.
"Come back in a year or two and it should look even cooler and even better," Knapik told tour participants.
Donors provide the spark
None of that work would happen without funding, and the Aug. 22 event was specifically intended to recognize the private supporters who help make projects such as Seneca possible.
VanStratt said Seneca illustrates the importance of combining public conservation funding with private philanthropy.
"We cannot go after these public funding sources without the leverage provided by private funding," he said. "That is funding provided by major donors and all the grassroots fundraising efforts. Your efforts made all this possible."
Glenzinski described DU's conservation operation as a machine involving science, partnerships, policy, fundraising, and people working together to ultimately produce habitat on the ground.
For that machine to start, he said, someone has to turn the key.
"The machine all starts with the major donors," Glenzinski said. "It allows us to dream big."
Public-private partnerships then turn those ideas into something tangible.
"You guys are the keys in the ignition of the machine," Glenzinski told donors. "But then the partnership is what puts it on the ground, what brings it to reality."
DU Director of Development Charlie DeVries put numbers behind that support. Donors recognized on the Seneca dedication plaque represented $177,000 in commitments and upgrades during the previous fiscal year and $268,000 in cash support for the Great Lakes Initiative in Michigan.
DeVries said long-term donor commitments give conservation staff something especially valuable: the ability to plan.
"They can budget, they can plan, they can staff, they can execute," DeVries said. "They can execute what you're going to see today."
The dedication also recognized the legacy those supporters are creating.
"This is for you," DeVries told the donors gathered around the dedication plaque. "It's in honor of you and your families and the legacy that you built within Ducks Unlimited."
More to come
The dedication marked a milestone for Seneca, but not the completion of the project.
Land acquisition remains underway. Additional restoration work is planned. Native vegetation is still becoming established, and researchers will continue monitoring how the wetlands affect water and nutrients moving through the watershed.
Even the boundaries of the State Game Area are still evolving as additional parcels are acquired.
That unfinished quality is part of what makes Seneca important.
It is simultaneously a public wildlife area, a wetland restoration project, a water-quality experiment, an agricultural partnership, and a research site.
And it is already providing something that was difficult to imagine when the project began as an 80-acre concept years ago: a new place for people to experience the outdoors in southern Michigan.
"This project is so special, and we should be ecstatic about celebrating it and the major donors who supported it, because it truly delivers on all components of this mission," VanStratt said. "It restores habitat for waterfowl and wildlife, and importantly, it benefits people in multiple ways."
For the donors and partners gathered Aug. 22, the dedication provided an opportunity to celebrate what they helped create.
For Seneca State Game Area, it was another step toward becoming something even bigger.
