Michigan Early Season Youth and Disabled Hunts to Be Antlerless Only in 2025

Some Michigan hunters are upset over a new regulation making some youth and disabled early season hunts for antlerless deer only. (Photo by Tony Campbell)

Michigan has a deer population problem. It’s booming in the Lower Peninsula, creating problems such as vehicle collisions and costly crop damage. But in the Upper Peninsula, predation and loss of habitat have diminished the deer herd to concerning numbers. The Michigan Natural Resources Commission recently passed a number of new deer hunting regulations to combat this two-pronged problem. Some of the new laws have upset hunters.

The new regulations include making the Liberty and Independence hunts, which are open to people with disabilities and youth 16 and under, antlerless-only.

According to Fox 17 Online, the commission also extended urban archery season and expanded it to additional counties in an attempt to balance the buck-to-doe ratio in the southern portion of the state.

The state's late antlerless firearm season in select, southern Lower Peninsula counties will also be extended. The new season, spanning from January 2 to the second Saturday in January, will allow hunters to harvest a maximum of 10 antlerless deer by any legal method with licenses offered at a discount of just $5.

Both this change and the modifications to the Liberty and Independence hunts will take effect in 2025 and sunset in 2027 and 2029, respectively.

These regulatory changes come after the DNR's Deer Management Initiative group presented more than 20 recommendations to the commission last month following months of meetings with hunters, farmers, and conservationists. The commission accepted a few recommendations, but rejected most of them.

The Deer Management Initiative group was created by the commission. It is comprised of hunters, conservationists, resource managers and representatives from special interest groups to recommend solutions for addressing the state’s overpopulation of deer in the Lower Peninsula and under population in the Upper Peninsula.

For example, deer baiting won't be expanded in the Lower Peninsula, and neither will antler-point restrictions (which would require hunters to target more mature bucks).

"We're not totally satisfied," Mike Ketelaar, with the Michigan chapter of the National Deer Association, told radio.wcmu.org. Ketelaar was also part of the Deer Management Initiative group for the Lower Peninsula. "There's still a lot of work to be done, and we're going to engage in that work. But I would say, all in all, I think the results could have been better, but we understand it's a process."

Ketelaar says his group is excited about the changes to doe management but was disappointed by the lack of action on buck management.

Lincoln Rohn, a hunter and the founder of the popular Facebook group "Michigan Deer Hunters Let em go and Let em Grow," also voiced his disapproval of the new regulations. He says many hunters wanted the commission to pass antler-point restrictions and regulations that will improve buck hunting in the state.

"Confidence in the NRC right now, and the [Department of Natural Resources] is basically zero among hunters that are very engaged," he said.

Ron Hopkins, 76, a Vietnam veteran, told mlive.com that he’s very upset over the amendment making the liberty hunt antlerless only. He said he’s purchased a hunting license every year since he was 16 years old, except for the two years he fought in the Vietnam War.

“Haven’t our handicapped and 100% disabled veterans done enough to be able to have an option to shoot an antlered deer in the special hunts that have been made available to us?” Hopkins wrote in a letter read to the state Natural Resources Commission during a meeting in Detroit on Aug. 8.

“The way I look at it is it’s public land. It’s ours, whether you have legs or not. From the other-abled community to the able-bodied community, there should be no discrimination,” said Tom Jones, a disabled veteran who served two tours in Iraq and has helped establish dozens of accessible deer blinds in Michigan.

“Nothing says thank you for your service like taking away choices from what you can hunt,” he said.

The changes to the Liberty and Independence hunts have also upset Ken Buchholtz, who coordinates the Wheelin’ Sportsmen volunteer group, which offers custom trailers, accessible blinds and adaptive equipment for quadriplegics.

“As soon as I found out, I went through the roof,” he said, while pointing out that specialty hunts result in just 2% of the annual deer harvest. “My thought is why don’t you manage the other 98%, and that would probably be a good start.”

Tom Baird, chair of the Natural Resources Commission, told radio.wcmu.org that they’re moving in the right direction, but that the process is just getting started.

"We identified some small errors that needed corrections, so that slowed us down a little bit, but I think the end result was pretty good as a first step in the Deer Management Initiative process, and it's only a first step," he said.