A check station worker weighs a deer at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources customer service center in Marquette. (Photo courtesy of the DNR)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third and final installment of an in-depth look at the recently concluded firearm deer season and discussions and debates that have followed it regarding the Michigan deer herd.

Rates of participation for deer hunting generally increased among generations until peaking among people born during 1944-1960 (baby boomers) but has declined among more recent generations.

The decline in hunter numbers has been widespread across the state. Since 2000, the greatest rates of decline have been in metro Detroit and in portions of the U.P.

The declines in Detroit are particularly troubling because the highest densities of license buyers reside in this area.

The total youth population in Michigan has declined 0.7% per year during the last six years, while the number of youth hunters has declined 7.1% per year. If this annual rate of decline continues, we could expect the number of youth hunters will be cut in half in less than 10 years.

While some limited increases in hunting license sales have occurred, including during the coronavirus pandemic, the overall trend of hunting license purchases is downward.

Things the DNR doesn’t currently control:

The DNR manages resources on behalf of all the residents of the state of Michigan but can only do so within its authority. There are legal limits to what the department can do.

Just as we can’t magically turn a dial and reduce deer numbers in southern Michigan right now, we can’t magically turn a dial and increase deer in the U.P.

We cannot control the weather, the amount of snowfall given areas will receive throughout the course of a given winter, nor the relative severity of winter.

Additional things beyond DNR control:

Gray wolves remain a protected species given federal court rulings in lawsuits that have kept wolves on the List of Endangered and Threatened Species. This status prohibits a wolf hunt, no matter its provisions.

The Michigan DNR supports removing wolves from the endangered species list, citing among its reasons the recovery of wolves in the state after meeting, exceeding and maintaining population levels far beyond original recovery goals.

A 2019 letter from the DNR to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service clearly states the department’s position supporting delisting.

Even if wolves were delisted, the DNR does not have the authority to authorize a harvest season. This authority lies with the Natural Resources Commission or through legislative action.

The number of deer hunters has steadily declined overall since the mid-1990s.

The amount of hunter time and effort spent afield, hunter support for DNR initiatives, hunter activism and hunter efforts to recruit, retain and reactivate the sport’s dwindling participation at all levels.

Actions taken by the DNR to address low deer numbers in the U.P.:

The DNR has taken numerous actions, often in concert with partnering groups, agencies or individuals, to improve deer habitat and low deer numbers.

Deer habitat management is ongoing, including efforts to identify and map over 50 deer wintering complexes and manage food and winter deer shelters on state-managed lands, according to regional state forest plans.

Biologists have been working to conserve winter shelter for deer, while also enhancing available food resources by planting oak trees and seeding forest openings.

Funding is available for deer habitat management. To have the greatest impact, deer habitat management needs to occur on multiple ownerships, not just state forest lands, with 80% of deer wintering complex habitat located on private or federal lands.

The U.P. Habitat Workgroup has worked for several years to improve habitat for deer in areas where they spend the critical winter months in need of shelter and food.

A deer is shown during winter in the Upper Peninsula.The charge of the group states: “Deer winter habitat is a critical component of a healthy sustainable deer herd in the Upper Peninsula. In most cases, deer yard complexes span across multiple land ownerships. More than 80% of the existing complexes occur on private and federal land. For this reason, accurate mapping of complex boundaries, the development of cooperative management strategies that span ownerships and communications to the landowners involved are key.”

The workgroup membership is composed of DNR wildlife and forestry employees, federal forest managers, members of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission, and wildlife and forestry interests.

The workgroup effort has focused on identifying important deer wintering complexes, their boundaries and land ownership makeups. It has also involved cooperative conservation and timber harvest strategies that optimize benefits for wildlife and timber production on private lands within complex boundaries.

Through grants and other funding, the workgroup has affected deer improvement on thousands of acres of deer habitat across the U.P., with hundreds of private landowners contacted.

The Deer Habitat Improvement Partnership Initiative, now in its 15th year, is supported by the state’s Deer Range Improvement Program, which is funded by a portion of deer hunting license revenue.

More than 114 initiative projects in nearly all U.P. counties have improved thousands of acres of deer habitat. In 2023, the program crossed the $1 million threshold in hunter license dollars invested on U.P. deer habitat enhancements.

The DNR’s Wildlife Habitat grant program provides funding to enhance and improve the quality and quantity of game species habitat in support of specific goals from the DNR Wildlife Division’s strategic plan, guiding principles and strategies.

Things hunters and the DNR can work on together

Despite the things we cannot control, the DNR and hunters can work on several things together and separately to try to improve the U.P. deer herd and hunter success.

We can support continued initiatives like the U.P. Habitat Workgroup, helping to improve deer wintering habitat on private lands not administered by the DNR.

The DNR and hunters can continue to talk together about issues, problems and solutions to deer management concerns. To help facilitate this type of discussion, hunters could attend and participate in Upper Peninsula Citizens’ Advisory Council monthly meetings where agenda topics are set by the eastern and western U.P. councils’ members.

The councils develop resolutions on various actions, which are provided to the DNR for implementation consideration.

Hunters and the DNR can also continue a dialogue through various forums like the “Ask the DNR” live television broadcasts where DNR staffers answer questions from the public.

Any questions not addressed on the air are responded to in the days following the broadcasts if the caller leaves a phone number or email address. View previous broadcasts.

Hunters can also offer comments at Michigan Natural Resources Commission meetings, as well as comment when various state and federal agencies seek public opinion on a variety of issues, like wolf delisting and deer management.

Hunters could work within and among sportsmen’s groups to find consensus on deer management concerns. The DNR can continue to attend the meetings of these groups and offer support for their efforts.

Hunters could advocate for eliminating supplemental feeding of deer. Though legal, feeding deer spreads diseases, causes social strife, kills deer through corn and toxic reactions to high carbohydrates and likely increases deer mortality by drawing deer away from deer wintering complexes and into poor winter habitat.

Hunters and the DNR can think of new ways to work together to confront old problems that are producing limiting effects on the U.P. deer herd.

Hunters and the DNR can continue to respect the others’ viewpoints and work to find additional ways to work together cooperatively.

A new Deer Management Initiative will be starting up early next year.

We need to reevaluate our current management paradigm and develop a set

of recommendations in both peninsulas to shift how management occurs, including short-term, actionable items and long-term approaches that take time.

These efforts must be collaborative and use best available science.

The DNR will develop U.P.- and L.P.-specific workgroups representing a diverse set of opinions and values. The groups won’t be formed until January 2024, but will include traditional groups we have historically worked with and unaffiliated hunters and non-hunters who can provide unique perspectives.

The goal of the initiative is to position our deer management to meet future challenges. The workgroups will help develop a broad survey about deer trends to be distributed to hunters and non-hunters. The workgroup participants will attend a multi-day, facilitated meeting to look at data, identify problems and develop recommendations for DNR and NRC action.

Things hunters can do

Report deer harvest to the DNR to help ensure the most accurate harvest reports possible. The more data we are able to collect on deer harvest, the more accurate the results will be when calculating harvest and trends.

Keep abreast of activities of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission (Michigan.gov/NRC). Copies of presentations, contact and background information on commissioners and the commission is available at the webpage. A schedule of upcoming meetings and agendas is also there.

Read significant DNR publications like the Michigan Wolf Management Plan, which is a valuable guide to learning what the DNR will, can and cannot do to manage wolves in Michigan. Find additional DNR wildlife publications online: Michigan.gov/WildlifePublications.

A white-tailed buck is shown in autumn.Hunters can help police misinformation on social media platforms by posting positive and factual information and refuting false claims.

Work to introduce new hunters to the sport, including friends, family members and others who have not experienced the outdoors. Support efforts to encourage hunting by youth, veterans and others. Take somebody hunting. Seek out mentorship opportunities sporting groups provide that offer “learn to hunt” types of programs.

Volunteer to work on habitat improvement projects or help others by lending expertise to hunting groups and others seeking grants.

Talk to others about the benefits of hunting and outdoor activity, including promoting hunting to those interested in organic food and homesteading lifestyles.

Hunting groups could find more opportunities to work together for the overall good of deer hunting, habitat improvement and other important concerns.

Make purchases supporting Pittman-Robertson funding for wildlife conservation, habitat restoration, habitat improvement, research and education.

Meeting the challenges to improving deer hunting in some parts of Michigan will take a concerted effort over time to achieve. These challenges are affected by multiple factors.

While hunters may perceive that there are too few deer in some regions of the state, others, like southern Michigan, are confronting too many deer on the landscape creating other complex problems affected also by multiple factors.

Wherever we might call home, we should all ask ourselves what we can contribute positively to the problems we are all working to address, inside and outside the DNR.

We are all in this together.

Find out more about deer in Michigan.

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