Michigan hunting numbers down 30% in 30 years, lawmakers push NRC reforms
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NORTHERN MICHIGAN (WPBN/WGTU) — Michigan’s hunting population has dropped by roughly 30 percent over the past three decades, raising concerns about participation, deer numbers and how state wildlife policies are shaped.
30 years down roughly 30%. That’s not a good trend when it comes to hunters here in northern Michigan, and reversing it is a complex issue.
Some believe it could start with more hunter success, and that might start with Michigan’s Natural Resource Commission (NRC).
“My family’s five generations in northern Michigan and we’ve hunted,” State Representative Parker Fairbairn said.
He is among the army of dedicated, long standing Michigan hunters.
“Me and my brother and my dad we hunt all year long for all sorts of different species,” Fairbairn said.
But it’s an army that’s dropping in ranks. Hundreds of thousands of fewer hunters than used to take to the field a couple of decades ago.
“Michigan used to be, you’d travel from Ohio and Kentucky,” Fairbairn said. “They’d come up to the Upper Peninsula and hunt deer, and you do not see that anymore.”
The data from the state matches up with what the folks are seeing at TCH Gear in Interlochen.
Year round, they outfit those dwindling numbers of hunters and anglers and year round, they hear from them the same observations.
“I hear a lot more, ‘gosh, the numbers aren’t there anymore or they’re smaller,’ and that’s the one spot where really the NRC, the state of Michigan, can kind of get involved,” TCH Gear Owner Gary Jurkovich said.
There may be a handful of reasons why Michigan’s hunter numbers are dropping. But many point to a lack of successful opportunities in the field.
“If you’re going to take a little youngster out hunting, right? You’re going to get them off their screen first, that’s the fight. You get them out there, you sit on the field all day, they get cold, they get wet, they don’t see anything. We need to figure out how they’re going to see something,” Jurkovich said.
And some say addressing that frustration may run through the state’s Natural Resource Commission, a seven-member panel appointed by the governor for three-year terms to oversee policies regulating the taking of fish and game.
“Political insiders are going to get these positions,” Fairbairn said. “And that’s not the way it should be, especially with that Natural Resource Commission.”
And more of a representation from Up North. Michigan is a diverse state, but some worry the policies in place don’t take that into effect completely.
While overall, Fairbairn believes the NRC does “a very good job,” it hasn’t stopped him from pushing for improvement and transparency.
He introduced legislation requiring the NRC livestream their monthly meetings.
“We’re in the 21st century,” Fairbairn said. “People need to be able to have the opportunity to view these meetings online.”
They agreed, and he’s introduced bills to create a separate NRC from the Upper Peninsula to better address its unique challenges; regionality for policies that supporters can get behind.
“The state really needs to get broken up in the districts where those decisions can be made either by hometown means where we get together with the NRC and we just come up with different rules or different ideas for different areas because they are going to be different throughout the state,” Jurkovich said.
The logic: have the NRC create more specific regional policies and procedures based on feedback from folks who actually hunt and fish there, and decisions based on one thing and one thing only.
“Well, 100% biology. The special interest and the social science part just needs to be able to have their hands off,” Jurkovich said.
For some, the hope that the end result of shifts in policy may mean more game out there, and more hunters pursuing it.
“I’m hopeful that over the next year and two years, we’re going to see policies that are enacted that’ll really make the deer population much more healthy as well as getting new hunters enjoying the outdoors,” Fairbairn said.
The Natural Resource Commission will be livestreaming its next meeting scheduled for March 11.
Again, reversing the trend is a complex issue that may take many factors to actually address.
