Why It Matters: State fish and wildlife management agencies are charged with collecting data and using what has been collected to carry out science-based management decisions in the best interest of the resource. Because hunting is the preferred management tool for white-tailed deer, this can mean expanded hunting opportunities in areas with larger deer populations: which is music to the ears of southern Michigan hunters that still have room left in the freezer.
Highlights:
- With large doe populations in southern Michigan, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has authorized an extended late antlerless firearm season for select counties.
- The new season, which will run from Jan. 2-12, 2025, has a bag limit of 10 deer, at the discounted rate of $5 per license, and remaining unused tags from earlier seasons may be used.
- The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) supports management decisions by state agencies to expand hunting opportunities as a means to conserving populations long pursued by sportsmen and women.
Hunting is the preferred method of managing white-tailed deer populations, as it is the most effective in achieving its goal of maintaining populations within biological and social carrying capacities and serves as a financially efficient by generating critical funding for state fish and wildlife agencies like the Michigan DNR through the American System of Conservation Funding. When agencies recognize that deer populations have grown beyond management goals, it is likely necessary to expand opportunities for the single-most effective tool in their arsenal: hunters.
For hunters in southern Michigan that either strike out during the regular firearm season, still have space in their freezer, wish to provide food for the less fortunate through game meat donation programs, or simply want to do their part in upholding ecosystemic balance, a new extended antlerless firearm season for a heavily discounted rate is now an option. Although these licenses won’t go on sale until December, hunters afield during the recently-opened firearm season should remember that patience is a virtue – and that there is more time than ever to fill the freezer.
Hunters play an important role in the ecosystems that they co-inhabit, and it is critical for sportsmen and women in the field to remember that there is more to our time-honored traditions than hanging a trophy buck above the fireplace. Harvesting a doe or two goes a long way for the health of your local deer herd, and the jerky tastes just as good!
