By Christine Homan
LANSING, Mich. — Hunting may soon have new guidance if the state Department of Natural Resources and Environment approves its draft deer management plan.
The plan to manage 1.8 million deer goes to the agency director, Rebecca Humphries, on April 8.
Final approval would come on May 6; the agency would begin implementing parts of the plan immediately.
“It’s strategic in nature, so it helps identify the direction we want to go and set some boundaries for deer management in the future,” said John Niewoonder, a wildlife biologist for the agency.
Hunting plays a large role economically, culturally and recreationally, said Patrick Brown, a Northern Michigan University biology professor. Deer hunting is estimated to have about a $1.6 billion impact on the Michigan economy.
The draft plan outlines six major goals, including maintaining the deer population at appropriate levels, promoting hunting to maintain the population and for recreation and maintaining habitat. The other goals are to control clashes between deer and people, reduce the threat and impact of disease on deer and educate the public about deer management.
“This is sort of the guiding document for the next 10 years, so when they’re putting out a regulation they’re going look at the plan to see if that regulation is implementing the goals and the ideas that are laid out in the plan,” said Amy Spray, a resource policy specialist for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs.
The state has held eight meetings to get public input. According to Niewoonder, attendees were concerned with more specific aspects of deer management such as hunting regulations that the plan isn’t meant to address.
“This plan sets the path for deer management in the future and will lead to more operational regulations in the future that are not in the plan, so some people are frustrated by that,” Niewoonder said.
Parts of the plan will be revised to reflect what people wanted, although there will be no major changes, according to Niewoonder.
Spray said her organization is pleased overall with the plan and the process of creating it. She said her one concern is how proposed regional advisory teams and citizen advisory councils would interact.
“I would like to see those processes work together rather than have two separate paths,” Spray said. “They need to be working together, sharing information, having those conversations together.”
The last comprehensive statewide plan was about 20 years ago and the need to update it has increase, she said.
“It was a different time and a different world in terms of the deer management issues we’re facing so that’s why it was time to do this process and do it right.”