Knimrod
04-04-2006, 12:08 AM
Hunters, merchants aim for better bucks in the years ahead
March 26, 2006
The Bay City Times
Pity the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
The state agency responsible for managing woods and wildlife is caught squarely in the crosshairs of some upset deer hunters.
And hotel operators, store owners, restaurateurs - anyone who counts on the nearly three months of deer seasons that draw hunters and their money.
The deer hunting Up North just ain't what it used to be.
These hunters and the tourism businesses that depend upon them for their livelihood want the DNR to stop driving down the deer herd.
They have flocked by the hundreds to each of a series of meetings the agency held this past winter across the state to discuss strategy for managing the deer herd.
That public willingness to get involved is a very good thing.
Some interesting ideas have been carried out of the deer camps and into public meeting rooms because of this very public discussion.
These hunters' concerns and the solutions they offer paint a very clear picture of hunters who are conservationists.
Sure, they'd love to bag a deer each year.
But most understand what a healthy deer herd means.
It means keeping the state's wild herd small enough so that deer aren't ravaged by disease such as bovine tuberculosis, and so they have enough to eat.
Translation: Smaller herds mean bigger and better bucks.
But that's still a very tough sell for many hunters who flock north by the hundreds of thousands every Nov. 15 to get their opening-day deer.
Lately, many have been disappointed with smaller numbers of deer killed during the first few days of firearms season.
Yet the harvest of deer throughout the special youth, bow, firearms and muzzle-loader seasons has remained fairly constant, at around a half-million shot each year.
That's with a state target population of 1.3 million deer.
Compare that to the mid-1990s overpopulation of 2.2 million deer. It was almost like shooting rats in a barrel back then.
Swing the other way, and look at the state's amazingly small deer herd on the 1970s: roughly 500,000 in all of Michigan.
The hunting lately isn't the best it's ever been, but it sure isn't the worst.
There's been a lot of talk of the DNR's proposal to lower the deer population a little more in the state. A look at the management plans, though, shows most reductions are proposed for the southern half of Michigan.
Up North, the goal in most areas is to keep the herd fairly stable for the next five years.
For these modest plans, the DNR is taking way too much heat from hunters.
It's good to see, though, hunters also publicly talking about how they can improve the herd and their hunt: passing on does, bagging only big bucks, maybe adjusting the seasons and refining their own woodsmanship.
Most of them care about the woods, the deer and the success of the next guy.
With the DNR lending them a willing ear, that can only bode well for better bucks - both the woodland and wallet varieties - for the fall hunts ahead.
Link to article (http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1143371709297510.xml?bctimes?NEED&coll=4&thispage=2)
March 26, 2006
The Bay City Times
Pity the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
The state agency responsible for managing woods and wildlife is caught squarely in the crosshairs of some upset deer hunters.
And hotel operators, store owners, restaurateurs - anyone who counts on the nearly three months of deer seasons that draw hunters and their money.
The deer hunting Up North just ain't what it used to be.
These hunters and the tourism businesses that depend upon them for their livelihood want the DNR to stop driving down the deer herd.
They have flocked by the hundreds to each of a series of meetings the agency held this past winter across the state to discuss strategy for managing the deer herd.
That public willingness to get involved is a very good thing.
Some interesting ideas have been carried out of the deer camps and into public meeting rooms because of this very public discussion.
These hunters' concerns and the solutions they offer paint a very clear picture of hunters who are conservationists.
Sure, they'd love to bag a deer each year.
But most understand what a healthy deer herd means.
It means keeping the state's wild herd small enough so that deer aren't ravaged by disease such as bovine tuberculosis, and so they have enough to eat.
Translation: Smaller herds mean bigger and better bucks.
But that's still a very tough sell for many hunters who flock north by the hundreds of thousands every Nov. 15 to get their opening-day deer.
Lately, many have been disappointed with smaller numbers of deer killed during the first few days of firearms season.
Yet the harvest of deer throughout the special youth, bow, firearms and muzzle-loader seasons has remained fairly constant, at around a half-million shot each year.
That's with a state target population of 1.3 million deer.
Compare that to the mid-1990s overpopulation of 2.2 million deer. It was almost like shooting rats in a barrel back then.
Swing the other way, and look at the state's amazingly small deer herd on the 1970s: roughly 500,000 in all of Michigan.
The hunting lately isn't the best it's ever been, but it sure isn't the worst.
There's been a lot of talk of the DNR's proposal to lower the deer population a little more in the state. A look at the management plans, though, shows most reductions are proposed for the southern half of Michigan.
Up North, the goal in most areas is to keep the herd fairly stable for the next five years.
For these modest plans, the DNR is taking way too much heat from hunters.
It's good to see, though, hunters also publicly talking about how they can improve the herd and their hunt: passing on does, bagging only big bucks, maybe adjusting the seasons and refining their own woodsmanship.
Most of them care about the woods, the deer and the success of the next guy.
With the DNR lending them a willing ear, that can only bode well for better bucks - both the woodland and wallet varieties - for the fall hunts ahead.
Link to article (http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1143371709297510.xml?bctimes?NEED&coll=4&thispage=2)