State passes new deer hunting regulations

The Natural Resources Commission on Thursday adopted new deer hunting regulations for the 2024 season.

Lower Peninsula hunters can expect more deer hunting opportunities, including a slightly longer season and greater access to antlerless deer hunting on public lands early and late in the season.

Early season hunts for young and disabled hunters from 2025 will take place exclusively without antlers.

The goal of targeted deer hunting is to better control the deer population in southern Michigan.

The commission also rejected several regulations proposed by a group it asked to make recommendations to address Michigan’s deer problem, including too many deer in the Lower Peninsula and too few in the Upper Peninsula.

(Of the rules adopted by the commission, only a few were based on the group’s recommendations.)

For example, the practice of deer calling will not be expanded in the Lower Peninsula, nor will antler restrictions (which would require hunters to only hunt older males) be introduced.

“We’re not completely satisfied,” said Mike Ketelaar of the Michigan chapter of the National Deer Association. Ketelaar was also part of the Lower Peninsula Deer Management Initiative group. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, and we’re going to get to it. But I would say that overall, I think the results could be better, but we understand that it’s a process.”

Ketelaar says his group is excited about changes to doe management, but disappointed with the lack of deer management efforts.

Lincoln Rohn, a hunter and founder of the popular Facebook group “Michigan Deer Hunters Let em go and Let em Grow,” was also disappointed.

He says many hunters wanted the commission to pass legislation that would improve deer hunting conditions in the state, particularly antler tip restrictions.

“Right now, trust in the NRC and (Department of Natural Resources) is virtually zero among very committed hunters,” he said.

Part of that frustration, he says, stemmed from the tone of the NRC meeting. Commissioners seemed disoriented at times as they voted on a list of rules that had more than 20 amendments.

Rohn fears the lack of regulation could cause more Michigan hunters to abandon the sport or start hunting in neighboring states.

Tom Baird, chairman of the Natural Resources Commission, says this is the beginning of a longer process.

“We identified a few minor bugs that needed fixing, which slowed us down a bit, but I think the end result was pretty good for the first step in the Deer Management Initiative process, and this is just the first step,” he said.

He says the priority is to pass legislation by fall 2024. But there are also important non-regulatory solutions, he says, such as more work on habitat restoration in the Upper Peninsula and more funding for programs like Sportsmen Against Hunger in the Lower Peninsula.

The seven-member commission voted 5-1 to approve the package of rules, with one commissioner absent. Commissioner John Walters, who cast the dissenting vote, declined to comment.

Leelanau County hunter Jim Sweeney said that while the legislation won’t solve the state’s deer problems, the new regulations are at least a start. But it’s unlikely the new regulations will significantly reduce the problems faced by any of the peninsulas.