Panel changes Michigan’s deer hunting rules, maintains one ban and creates another
The Michigan Natural Resources Commission has approved a number of changes to the state’s deer hunting regulations, including a ban on hunting bucks during hunting season for youth and hunters with disabilities.
An hours-long public meeting last Thursday also ended with an expansion of hunting opportunities for hornless deer in parts of the Lower Peninsula.
But the seven-member commission appointed by the governor rejected long-debated efforts to relax the baiting ban in the Lower Peninsula and impose statewide restrictions on the use of antler tips.
Commission Chairman Tom Baird said the rule changes are just a start and the commission may return to some recommendations in the future for further discussion. In recent years, Michigan’s deer hunting rules have changed almost annually.
“This is just the beginning of a major initiative for the state DNR,” Baird said of the discussion held Thursday. “The focus today is on the few things we can accomplish through regulations for 2024 and possibly 2025.”
Some hunters were dissatisfied with what they saw as a lack of meaningful changes.
Former state Rep. Triston Cole (R-Mancelona) said the rule changes were rushed and done without a clear understanding of the changes being made. Several observers of the meeting later interviewed by The Detroit News were still trying to understand the full list of changes made to the rules hours and days after the meeting.
Cole said he hoped the commission would relax its baiting ban or at least be inclined to consider the recommendations of the people who storm the tree stands every November. Instead, most of the recommendations presented to the commission have been rejected or significantly scaled back.
“Tens of thousands, if not more, athletes are losing confidence in the process and that is detrimental to sport and conservation,” Cole said.
The Michigan United Conservation Club, which supports a baiting ban, is still reviewing the changes but was encouraged by the commission’s decisions Thursday and its commitment to reconsider some of the recommendations later.
Deer policy is a complicated issue with differing – often heated – views and unclear science about how best to manage populations in Michigan, says Justin Tomei, manager of government affairs at MUCC.
“Because it’s a deep-seated passion among so many people, they can get excited about what the long-term solutions should look like,” Tomei said. “Maybe they all see the same problem but have different ideas about what the best answer is.”
Changes result from the survey
The Michigan Natural Resources Commission was given the authority to regulate hunting in Michigan under Proposal G in 1996, on the condition that its regulations be based on the principles of sound scientific management. However, the commission was frequently targeted by groups who believed the unelected bureaucrats made decisions based on political science.
The recent changes are the result of a wildlife management initiative the Department of Natural Resources launched in recent months to solicit input from various stakeholders and citizens on how to best manage Michigan’s wildlife population.
The Lower Peninsula is struggling to control its populations as hunter numbers decline, private land ownership increases, limiting access to hunting areas, and chronic wasting disease becomes widespread in some areas, the Department of Natural Resources told the commission in a memo last month.
In the Upper Peninsula, other factors – such as changing weather, predators and habitat issues – posed additional challenges that led to a decline in the deer population, DNR officials said.
Chad Stewart, deer, elk and moose management specialist with the Department of Natural Resources’ wildlife division, noted that the changes approved Thursday are not dramatic from a deer management perspective. But he said the model, which incorporates input from stakeholders, individual residents and hunters who are not affiliated with any organization, appears to offer some new perspectives.
“I think we found something from a process perspective that we can potentially adopt in the future,” Stewart said.
The result on Thursday was regulations that significantly expanded hunting opportunities in the Lower Peninsula, while maintaining the status quo or even restricting some hunting opportunities in the Upper Peninsula.
What changes have been made
One of the biggest changes at the state level was a requirement that only antlerless deer could be shot during Liberty and Independence hunts – special hunts reserved for youth hunters and hunters with disabilities. The change would take effect in 2025 and expire in 2029.
The DNR said in a memo to the commission that participation in the Liberty and Independence hunts – which normally draw about 20,000 hunters – could decline if such a restriction were imposed. However, polls have shown that hunters support such a restriction.
For Cole, whose daughters participated in the youth hunt, the change was particularly troubling. He believed it would lead to a decline in participation among a demographic that essentially adheres to the state’s deer hunting tradition.
“Right now we need more hunters and we need to kill more deer,” Cole said.
The commission also voted in January to expand opportunities for antlerless hunters by allowing archery in the city and a new hunting season for antlerless hunters in the southern Lower Peninsula. Hunters in the northern half of the Lower Peninsula will also be able to use any weapon during the muzzleloader hunting season under the revised regulations.
Hunters in the Lower Peninsula can also participate in an early antlerless hunting season in September and a later hunting season in December – permits that were previously reserved only for hunters on private lands.
However, the Commission did not make long-requested changes to the baiting and antler tip restrictions.
The commission came under fire in 2018 when it banned baiting in the Lower Peninsula over concerns that deer could spread chronic wasting disease and other diseases through the bait piles. Many hunters have dismissed those concerns, pointing out that deer are just as likely to transmit the disease when they feed in the same cornfield or under the same apple tree.
One of the recommendations of the wildlife management initiative would have allowed the baiting ban to be lifted in counties where neither chronic wasting disease nor bovine tuberculosis had been detected. But the recommendation did not survive the meeting on Thursday.
Another recommendation would have included antler tip restrictions to protect younger bucks and allow them to grow larger before harvest; another recommended a one-buck limit in the Lower Peninsula.
None of these proposals were considered at Thursday’s meeting.
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