CLICK BELOW TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH JOE SAGE, DNR WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST
The 2023 firearms deer season gets under way Wednesday morning, with warm conditions expected as temperatures will be in the 50’s across the Upper Peninsula both Wednesday and Thursday. That likely will lead to a slow start for hunters, says DNR wildlife biologist Joe Sage in Escanaba.
“Usually, the warmer weather makes for not as good luck on those first couple of days,” Sage told RRN News. “So, things might be a little slow, but we’ve got a cooldown coming later in the week, so activity should pick up a little bit then.”
Sage says the deer herd in the region appears to be healthy.
“Some of the deer we’ve seen come in during the archery season have been really good weights, and a lot of body fat on them,” Sage said. “So, from a health perspective, we’re expecting a lot of nice, heavy deer this year.”
Now, for years, Michigan did not require people to register a deer when they harvested it. That changed last year, rubbing many hunters the wrong way. But Sage says that mandatory registration was done for an important reason.
“The data that’s been coming in from registartion has been realy phenominal,” Sage said, “We’re getting a higher quality data than we’ve ever had, and that’s really the reason why we did mandatory registratuon, so that we could get better data to better manage the herd.”
State Representative Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River) tried to get rid of the requirement in the last legislative session, noting that many people don’t have Internet access at their camps to be able to meet the requirement so quickly.
“The best we were able to do, and it is a good thing, is we were able to at least get it off of the criminal list and take it down from a misdemeanor down to a civil infraction,” Prestin told RRN News. “That means it’s not going to be weaponized against anybody. I never agreed with the heavy-handed tactics that they first came out with, being a misdemeanor with an egregious fine. So, it’s been moved down to a civil infraction.”
Sage says that anyone with problems complying with the mandatory registration should just give the local DNR office a call. He says the goal is not to make people pay fines, but to get information about the deer herd that can be used to decide how the herd should be managed in the future.
So, what are the prospects for this hunting season in the Upper Peninsula?
“Some of our areas that naturally have lower deer numbers, from what we’re hearing from hunters, is that it might be lower than usual,” Sage said. “That might be an extension of last year’s rough winter. But, everywhere else, the numbers are looking really good.”
The DNR’s prospectus on the Upper Peninsula hunting season is posted below:
The winter of 2022-2023 was again severe, with several impactful snowfalls late in the winter, raising fears about a significant mortality event across much of the Upper Peninsula. While there was some adult and fawn mortality reported in select areas, major die-offs from the hard winter were again avoided.
Deer numbers remain low in many locations, especially along the Lake Superior shoreline and in the western counties and even some locations in the eastern U.P., which will again temper expectations of overall harvest in the U.P. The southern portions of the U.P., including parts of Menominee, Delta and even Dickinson counties, seem to have consistent deer numbers, and another good year is anticipated for those areas. But, to be clear, 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.
Where oaks are present, acorn production looks good for this year, and bowhunters may find added success in emphasizing these areas early in the season.
The big news in the Upper Peninsula this year is that the Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Zone, surrounding the lone detection of a deer with CWD, was lifted. After testing nearly 2,100 deer since 2018, we identified no other CWD-positive animals. This led the DNR to recommend, and the Michigan Natural Resources Commission to approve, the removal of this zone. Of course, hunters who still want to get their deer head tested can do so. The best way to understand your testing options is to visit Michigan.gov/CWD to see what options are available in the area you are hunting. Hunters in the previously defined CWD Surveillance Zone can resume baiting, which had been prohibited since the establishment of the zone.
Also returning will be the “hunter’s choice” deer regulations. This allows any legal buck (one with one antler 3 inches or longer) to be harvested on a single deer license, but hunters purchasing a deer combo license must hunt under an antler point restriction, using the regular tag to take a buck with at least three points on one side and the restricted tag to take a buck with at least four points on one side. The entire area of the former CWD Surveillance Zone will have these regulations, consistent with the surrounding units, which should simplify the regulations.
To learn more about which deer you can harvest in the area you hunt using each deer tag, see information about U.P. antler point restrictions in the 2023 Michigan Hunting Regulations Summary.
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