The Kirtland's Warbler is one of the world's rare birds, with fewer than one thousand estimated to exist. It nests only in this portion of Michigan and winters in the Bahama Islands. In Oscoda County, the U.S. Forest Service, Michigan Department of Conservation, Michigan Audubon Society, conservation clubs, forest industries, and citizens have cooperated to preserve the warbler by improving its nesting range. James L. Swiderski, a wildlife biologist born November 8, 1950, and died May 5, 1980, was personally involved in and dedicated to the Kirtland's warbler's management and recovery effort. He died while trying to help control the Mack Lake Fire, which had been started by the U.S. Forest Service as a prescribed burn to create nesting habitat for the Kirtland's warbler and then ravaged 25,000 acres of the Huron National Forest.