About Us

Stoney Creek Outdoors (SCO) is owned and operated by Chad Thelen.  Chad has developed SCO from many years of observing and listening to what sportsmen desire from their outdoor experience.  Please read below and search our properties for information on real estate.  Then check out our habitat page for information on wildlife habitat.

The primary goal of SCO is to consult with hunters and landowners to help them develop a plan to create and maintain great wildlife habitat for hunting and viewing.  There are many, many programs available thru the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help pay for some or ALL of your wildlife habitat needs!  We have been in business for 10 years now and have many satisfied customers.

In February of 2009, Chad received his Michigan real estate license and is now a realtor with the Preview Properties team.  Chad specializes in productive farmland and whitetail properties throughout Michigan and his knowledge of Quality Deer Management and Quality Habitat Management will help you find that dream hunting property.

Growing up on his family farm in rural Clinton County, Chad began taking a strong interest in wildlife habitat and wildlife management.  Specifically, Quality Deer Management and Quality Habitat Management.  Back in the early 1980's, Chad's father, began installing conservation practices on their farm ground which bordered the Stoney Creek.  This property contains woods, swamps, drainages, swails, fields and streams.  With a varied topography, certain conservation practices needed to be applied in order to keep the soil from eroding and contaminating the local streams and rivers.  Helping his father install these practices in the 80's has led to Chad being very involved with government funded programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) today.  As owner of Stoney Creek Habitat Specialists, Chad has planted hundreds of acres of prairie grass and food plots from southern Ohio to the Mackinaw Bridge in northern Michigan.  Please check out the Wildlife Habitat page for more info.

Starting in 2004, Chad became involved with the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA).  Developing great habitat usually leads to an abundance of wildlife using that habitat and Chad wanted to learn how to manage the wildlife numbers in the best interest of all wildlife.  Joining the QDMA was the best way to achieve that knowledge and continues to be the go to source for information today.  Currently, Chad is the president of the Clinton/Ionia branch of the QDMA in mid Michigan.  The focus of his involvement with the QDMA is forming Quality Deer Management cooperatives (Co-ops).  Co-ops are groups of adjoining landowners and hunters who come together with a common goal of having better deer and better deer hunting.  Through the past several years, Chad has helped develop over 10 co-ops within the Clinton and Ionia county area encompassing approximatley 30,000 acres.  To say that these co-ops have had an impact on the quality of deer hunting and heard health would be an extreme understatement!