Category: Hunting

Whitetails Unlimited Commits $30,000 To Tree Stand Safety

Whitetails Unlimited has committed $30,000 towards it’s Tree Stand Safety Initiative where a Hunter Safety Systems Ultralite Flex harness and Muddy Safe-Line will be awarded via a free drawing at each WTU event this year. In addition to the safe-line and harness giveaways, WTU field staff also takes 5-10 minutes during each event to inform attendees of the importance of tree stand safety. Hunting from elevated stands of all types creates an inherently dangerous situation because of something that pulls on us every day – gravity. While tripping over a root or rock and hitting the ground can cause injury, most of these injuries are relatively minor. However, a fall from a much greater height – like a tree stand – can result in a much more serious or life-changing injury, or even death.

The numbers are surprising: one out of three hunters who use an elevated stand will be injured. Those are not good odds. Any time you are above ground, you are in danger and need to protect yourself. Hunters need to use a Full Body Fall Arrest Harness System (FBFAHS) that meets stringent industry standards. Single-strap belts and chest harnesses have proven to be unsafe; and in fact, single strap belts can themselves cause serious injuries or death.

But just wearing a harness is not enough. The second component in the safety system is a lifeline or safety line that attaches securely to the tree, and then connects to the hunter’s FBFAHS. This is not just a hunk of random rope, but an integral part of the safety system. It will support the hunter’s weight without breaking, and the inclusion of a Prusik knot allows a hunter to be connected during ascent and descent, as well as when sitting in the stand. The Prusik knot slides easily going up and down, but if there is a sudden fall, the knot tightens immediately, helping to prevent serious injury. Read more

Hunting

Licenses still available for Michigan fall turkey hunting season

Going afield to hunt for small game or scout for deer season? Pick up a fall turkey license to have a shot at harvesting a wild bird for Thanksgiving.

Remaining fall turkey licenses are on sale now for everyone.

Purchase a license online or over the counter wherever DNR licenses are sold. Download the new Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app to buy licenses, look up regulations, get notifications from DNR, and much more.

Turkey hunting ?

Turkey season bag limits, regulations and hours at Michigan.gov/Turkey.
Hunting

NWTF Signs Expanded Forest Conservation Agreement With USDA/NRCS

(From left to right: Mark Hatfield, NWTF National Director of Conservation Services; Becky Humphries, NWTF co-CEO; Terry Cosby, NRCS Chief; Kurt Dyroff, NWTF co-CEO)

NWTF Inks Expanded Forest Conservation Agreement with USDA/NRCS

EDGEFIELD, S.C. — Building on 20 years of partnerships and collaborative conservation, the NWTF and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service are bolstering their joint agreement for the National Forestry Initiative (NFI). The new five-year agreement will provide $7 million in funding for conservation and additional forestry professionals to reach even more private landowners.

“Our work with forestland owners plays an important role in improving wildlife habitat and supporting climate-smart conservation practices,” said Terry Cosby, Chief of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. “In partnering with the National Wild Turkey Federation, NRCS looks forward to expanding our impacts and supporting even more forestland owners, especially in underserved communities.”

Over the last four years since the inception of the original agreement in 2018, the partnership has implemented conservation practices on more than 333,000 acres. Now, thanks to a new and enhanced agreement between the NRCS and the NWTF, the NFI is becoming an even more robust platform for promoting forest health and habitat conservation on private lands across the country.

Under the new fire-year agreement – which NWTF has dubbed NFI 2.0 – NRCS will contribute $5.3 million over the life of the agreement to implement volunteer conservation practices on private lands. This will enable the NWTF to bring much-needed forestry capacity and technical expertise across the country to work with private landowners, including landowners within historically underserved communities. Read more

Hunting

Safari Club International Foundation Commits $75k For Outdoors Tomorrow Foundation’s Wildlife Conservation Education

GoOTF

DALLAS –Outdoors Tomorrow Foundation, the leading provider of outdoor skill, safety and conservation curriculum to schools nationwide, will receive $75,000 from Safari Club International Foundation to support OTF’s Wildlife Conservation Unit in its Outdoor Adventures program in middle and high schools nationwide.

As part of its mission to protect the freedom to hunt and promote wildlife conservation worldwide, SCI Foundation has committed $25,000 in support per year for each of the coming three years.

“Safari Club International Foundation plays a vital role in protecting the future of hunting and wildlife through conservation and education,” said Outdoors Tomorrow Foundation Chairman Kyle Shidler. “At OTF, we’re educating the next generation of men and women who love the outdoors and want to see it protected. SCIF’s forward-looking generosity will significantly help us educate students across the country as to the importance of wildlife conservation.” Read more

Fishing, Hunting

Delta Waterfowl Promotes Miller to Communications Director

Bill Miller to head communications team at The Duck Hunters Organization

BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA — Delta Waterfowl has promoted a veteran outdoor communicator, experienced team manager and lifelong waterfowl hunter to the role of communications director.

Bill Miller, continuing a nearly 40-year career in communicating the outdoor experience, has been a longtime contributor and Duck Dog columnist for Delta Waterfowl magazine and the staff writer for the Duck Hunters Organization since 2019. His previous positions included executive editor at Revo Brand Group on their “50 Campfires” multi-media property and vice president of media development and production at North American Media Group where he oversaw editorial, art and production teams for 12 magazine titles and their TV/video production department.

“Bill has equal passions for hunting, conservation, and communication,” said Joel Brice, Delta’s chief conservation officer. “With all of his amazing experience in the outdoors and the business of communications, he told me the one thing he felt he lacked before coming to Delta was a truly worthy cause to work toward. He says he has found it with us, and his outstanding, enthusiastic, take-on-any-task work ethic here proves it.” Read more

Hunting

National Hunting and Fishing Day’s 50th Anniversary a Good Time to Take Stock

Anniversaries are always a good time to take stock. Saturday, September 24, marks the 50th anniversary of National Hunting and Fishing Day. Were it not for two important conservation laws, there might not be much to celebrate in the out-of-doors today.

The Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson) became law in 1937, requiring firearms and ammunition manufacturers’ excise taxes on select goods to fund conservation. Congress added archery gear to the mix 50 years ago. The Sport Fish Restoration Act (Dingell-Johnson) did the same for fishing tackle, coming along in 1950. The two laws combined have done more for conservation and fishing and hunting than one can fully comprehend.

Right out of the chute in 1937, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources put Pittman-Robertson funds on the ground in what is today’s Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area in the Great Salt Lake. That piece of public land provides an enormous amount of waterfowl habitat—and public hunting opportunity. The bar had been set high from the start, and a cascade of successes followed through the years. Earlier this year, Pittman-Robertson funds paid for the acquisition of the 84-sqaure-mile L-Bar Ranch in northern New Mexico adding to and quadrupling the size of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish’s Marquez Wildlife Management Area—public land where rocky mountain elk, mule deer, and Merriam’s wild turkey abound. Read more

Fishing, Hunting

Oh, My Hunt!

By Glen Wunderlich

Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)

Having had a great experience at the Rifle River Recreation Area in Ogemaw County earlier this year, I made sure to reserve a primitive campsite – in fact, the same one used in May – but this time for Michigan’s small game opener plus a bit of fishing.  It is a special time of year, because the final two weeks of stream trout fishing is combined with the beginning of hunting season.  Another trout breakfast will suit me fine,

Eating Like a King

but how would one locate good habitat for bushytails?

Planning a hunting trip to a new area has never been as exciting as it is today thanks to Mi-HUNT.  This eye-opening site is beyond my wildest imagination with its educational offerings that display approximate boundaries of public and private-land hunting.  Unlike my county maps I’ve carried with me for decades, Mi-HUNT has up-to-date information on not only roads, trails, recreational facilities, etc., but cover types.

It is the feature of cover types that really separates Mi-HUNT from conventional printed maps.  With color-coded features one can locate the following habitat:  Aspen, Oak, Upland Deciduous, Upland Conifer, Grass, Shrubs, Crops, Wetlands, Bogs, Lowland Conifers, Lowland Deciduous, Rock, Sand and Soil.  That about covers it for Michigan habitat types, but it gets much more interesting – especially for the squirrel hunter in me that requires mature nut trees.

Once oaks are located on the map, actual dates when trees were planted in specific areas can be determined with a click on the “identify” icon.  It shows nine levels of growth from low-density saplings to high-density logs along with the year of origin and the total acres involved.  (Private property is excluded from this feature.)  Can you believe that I’ve located high-density-log oaks planted in the year 1889?  Many are dated to the early 1900s, as well, and it all spells bushytails to me.

Oaks, Vintage Mossberg .22 Rimfire and Sub-Sonic Lapua Ammo: a recipe for success.

Once habitat is located on the map, the issue of actually getting to the site can be determined by the extensive mapping of various trail types including hiking, horseback, motorcycle, and ATV and UTV approved.

For those that may require help navigating the site, several YouTube videos are available for reference:  quickstart for desktop and laptops, quickstart for mobile users, and showcasing the identify tool – all accessible from the Mi-HUNT site.  These videos were updated in 2014 and demonstrate the versatility of accessing detailed information.

Additional features including aerial imagery show roads, lakes, rivers and hybrid imagery.  If you are familiar with Google Earth, some aerial photos can hide certain terrain, if the particular photo was taken when leaves were on the trees.  However, “leaf off” views are available with another click that shows imagery acquired in 1998 with color-infrared film.

Long ago, when the yellow pages of the phonebook were relatively new, its slogan was “Let your fingers do the walking” and never before has the sage advice become more appropriate than today.  I can only wonder what Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark would think of such technology, as they followed the stars and mapped their journey across the country.

Fishing, Hunting, Wildlife

Parliamentary Outdoor Caucus Calls on U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to Rescind Waterfowl Import Ban

OTTAWA – Today, Parliamentary Outdoor Caucus Co-Chairs Bob Zimmer, Member of Parliament for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies, and Ken McDonald, Member of Parliament for Avalon, sent a letter to the Honorable Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, expressing concerns with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s decision to ban the importation of hunter-harvested wild game birds from Canada into the United States and requesting that this ban be rescinded.

Read more

Hunting

Michigan’s Deer Forecast 2022 Season

Chad Stewart, deer, elk and moose management specialist

Upper Peninsula

The fear throughout the winter was that the long winter with plentiful snow would have an impact on the U.P. deer herd. Based on days with total snow on the ground exceeding 12 inches, it was determined that the winter of 2021 was severe. Fortunately, the fears seemed to exceed reality, and the deer seemed to fare well. While deer numbers remain low in many locations, overall harvest in the U.P. was up a little bit last year, and there is optimism that another minor increase will happen again this year, with the deer currently being observed this summer. To not sugar-coat anything, there will be places in the U.P. where deer densities remain low, and hunting efforts in some of these locations will prove extremely challenging.

Mast production, especially acorns, seems down this year compared to last year. While last year showed good productions from oaks, this year’s drought, coupled with the recency of last year’s heavier crop, seems to be limiting production.

Some hunters expressed concern last year about recently expanded antlerless harvest opportunities throughout much of the southern U.P. and the potential impact on harvest. While we only have one year of data available, it appears that while antlerless harvest did increase in many units, it never increased more than one antlerless deer per square mile in any unit, with most units only increasing their antlerless harvest by about one antlerless deer for every 3 to 4 square miles. There was quite a bit of variability in how this regulation affected management units, but it doesn’t appear to have a limiting population-level effect that some had feared, given the early returns. The same regulation structure is in place for 2022. As a reminder, for Deer Management Units 351 and 352, hunters will need an access permit as well as an antlerless license to participate in firearm antlerless deer hunting in either of those units. Hunters pursuing antlerless deer in the extreme southern part of the U.P. can simply purchase antlerless licenses and go hunting. As always, it’s best to consult our Hunting Digest for more information.

Northern Lower Peninsula

2021 was quite a year for deer hunters in the northern Lower Peninsula. Despite about a 10% dip in hunter efforts from 2020, the buck harvest increased by about 16%. Hunting should remain in good shape heading into the 2022 season. Winter mortality hasn’t really impacted the herd in the northern Lower for quite some time, and that trend seemed to continue during the winter of 2021. Deer came out of winter in great condition due to the mild weather, and that great condition has led to plentiful reports of does being seen with twin fawns in many areas.

Production of soft mast like native apples is doing well this summer. Hard mast production is looking good in several spots, though it’s worth noting that there are places still experiencing spongy moths, which have a negative impact on acorn production. If hunters come across any oaks producing acorns in early season, it’s sure to be an area with high deer traffic that can pay off with a successful hunting encounter.

A common theme echoed from reports out of this region is the skewed buck-to-doe ratio many are seeing. Improving this ratio through additional antlerless harvest can improve the number of bucks hunters see each fall, the timing and intensity of the rut, and even the age structure of bucks as efforts are transferred to antlerless deer. It can also help alleviate conflicts associated with high numbers of deer. If you are hunting in an area with a lot of does this year, consider taking an extra antlerless deer to help manage your deer herd.  If you don’t have an immediate outlet for the venison, you can always share your harvest through Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger.  This program allows you to donate your deer to a participating processor, with the resulting venison being delivered to a local food pantry at no cost to the hunter.

Southern Lower Peninsula

Glen Wunderlich’s Archery Deer in Shiawassee County 2021

“Steady, As She Goes” by the Raconteurs is the song title that best describes the year-to-year trends in the southern Lower Peninsula. Abundant deer throughout much of the region, with little yearly variation, is what typically defines the deer population in lower Michigan. For yet another year, the winter of 2021 didn’t seem to negatively impact deer in this region. In fact, the southern Lower Peninsula deer herd rarely experiences any overwinter mortality due to the abundance of summer food and the relatively mild winters. The summer of 2022 saw drought-like conditions throughout much of June and July. Despite this weather, crops seem to have withstood the conditions and are in great shape, which means there will continue to be plentiful food for deer throughout the fall. One concern in the region, especially during summers with drought, is the potential experience of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), which is far more likely to show up in an impactful way under dry conditions. At the time of writing this report, no cases have been identified, though we are entering the peak time when reports are most likely to come in.

Deer numbers can vary depending on where you are in the region, but in many locations, numbers are plentiful and with time in the field, most hunters should have opportunities to be successful this year.

Joe Reynolds’ 2021 Archery Buck, Shiawassee County

Antler growth seems to be fairly average across the region compared to previous years, so while there are some great bucks to be had, if one doesn’t present itself while you are hunting, consider harvesting a doe this year and passing on younger bucks to try and help manage the herd. Your choices will pay off in the future.

The DNR is continuing to prioritize surveillance for chronic wasting disease in the southern Lower Peninsula. If you harvest a deer in a county where we are conducting surveillance, please consider dropping off your deer’s head at one of the collection stations in the link embedded in the message you receive when you report your harvest.

Hunting

Michigan: Outdoor Skills Academy Waterfowl Hunting Clinic

Saturday, Sept. 24 at 10 a.m.

Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center
Mitchell State Park, Cadillac

Joe Duncan of Daggs Custom Calls, state champion caller and part of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Outdoor Skills Academy pro-staff, will lead this “A to Z” class on how to hunt waterfowl. It will cover everything you need to know to get started, including how to find a location, scouting, calling and gear.

The class will run four to five hours. We will start the day in the classroom and then move to the hiking trails around the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center. The trails meet Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility guidelines and are easy to walk. Once outside, we will demonstrate setting up your hunting site and decoys, calling and more. All students will leave with firsthand experience that will increase their chances for success this upcoming waterfowl season.

Cost is $30, which includes lunch. Participation is limited to 30.

More details/register ?

Hunting
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