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Michigan DNR

ORV clubs drive cleanup efforts in partnership with Adopt-a-Forest

By IRIS PAUL Michigan Department of Natural Resources Craig Pinkelman set out with fellow members of the Wicked Jeeps Southeast Michigan ORV Club to enjoy an autumn day riding off-road vehicles in 2017 – but was surprised by what he found hidden on the path less taken. Club members expected to find the forest floor blanketed with colorful leaves as they explored state lands. Instead, they found a sea of black tires, having stumbled upon multiple dumpsites in the St. Helen and Ogemaw area in the northern Lower Peninsula. The ORV enthusiasts took it upon themselves to get ...

DNR to lift baiting ban in UP’s CWD zone

The Upper Peninsula Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Zone — which includes parts of Delta, Dickinson and Menominee counties — will be removed beginning with this year’s hunting seasons, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said. As a result, hunters in this area can resume baiting and feeding practices. The change was approved at a recent meeting of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission in Roscommon, where the commission adopted deer regulations that will be in effect for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 hunting seasons. In a news release Tuesday, DNR deer program ...

Moose survey results: Population in western UP statistically unchanged since 2019

Michigan DNR Press release In survey results reported to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission in Roscommon today, the moose population estimate for the western Upper Peninsula was not statistically different from the last moose survey conducted in 2019. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has been surveying the western U.P.’s core moose population since 1997, typically every other winter. The 2023 survey marks the first survey completed since 2019 due to scheduling conflicts associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. “The 2023 moose survey estimate was 426* ...

Unplugged? Remembering a technology-free world

“This old world so strange, you know she’s changing.” – Steve Gibbons It’s a strange world we live in, especially in the developed world, where things like reliable availability of electricity are expected. If the lights go out, we humans react in various ways. For some of us, we may not have noticed the lights went out, or much of anything else, if we still have cellphone signal and a charged battery in our phones. At the other end of the technology spectrum are those who may seem hapless – able to light a candle but who are then sitting silently asking themselves: “Now ...

Outdoors North: ‘Good riddance’ to winter; seasonal signs spring up

“They say hope it springs eternal in a young man’s breast and every time you turn around they’re puttin’ it to the test.” – Steve Forbert As I looked up the slope, I could see snow on the ground had slowly receded into a narrow and thin, irregular shape of cold, white nothingness. This was the place where wintertime’s footsteps finally stopped and its gasping and withered carcass dropped into a bed of dead leaves and grasses – things it had buried in its wild and youthful days, nearly six months ago. There were other places like this, but this was mine. As I walked ...

Angling towards the river, anticipating fishing season

There’s a traditional ritual I go through about this time each year. In between the first day of spring and the last Saturday in April opening day of trout season, I go through my tackle bag to reorganize and restock depleted items. I am sure this idea sounds as interesting to some ...