Luke Fredricks grew up in rural Michigan, along the border of Ohio and Indiana. After high school, he moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to further his education. After earning a BS degree at Northern Michigan University, he returned to my roots, working on vegetable farms across Michigan, Idaho and Alaska. This time spent cultivating the land sparked a fascination with the delicate balance between plants and their environment. It was during this period that he also began working as an arborist and as a part-time wildland firefighter. While drawn to the firefighting world, he craved a deeper understanding of fire’s role in shaping ecosystems. This led him away from full-suppression fire, and to a fire management program in Fairbanks, Alaska. There, Fredricks led a fire/fuels module and learned to use wildfire as a tool for vegetation management.
Fredricks will be working with RGS & AWS Western UP Michigan Conservation Coordinator Seth Finkel, as well as wildlife and forestry staff from the Ottawa National Forest specialists to identify areas of the National Forest needing early forest successional growth through commercial and non-commercial timber harvests. They are also identifying and marking areas of mature tag/speckled alder to mechanically shear to encourage regeneration, as well as creating and maintaining wildlife openings by mechanical means. Additionally, they have been tasked to perform migratory bird surveys and other wildlife surveys throughout the summer season.
