Group Proposes New Deer Antler Restriction

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Published: 10 June 2013

The Michigan DNR will conduct informational meetings this month regarding new deer antler point restriction (APR) proposals.

A group known as the Lower Peninsula Deer Management Initiative (LPDMI) has submitted two different APR proposals to be considered for implementation starting with the 2014 deer season. Antlerless deer regulations within the proposed areas would continue to be determined annually by the DNR.

One of those impacts southern Michigan. It calls for implementing a four-point APR for all of Hunting and Trapping Zone 3 in southern Michigan.

The APR would not apply to individuals hunting with an apprentice hunting license or mentored youth hunting license or youth hunters during a designated youth season. This proposal seeks to require that all other antlered deer harvested in the area have at least four antler points on one side.

The next southern Michigan meeting will be June 13 at Decatur Middle School cafeteria, 405 N. Phelps St., Decatur, MI 49045. Doors will open at 6:30 pm, the meeting will run from 7 to 8 p.m., and the building must be cleared by 8:30 p.m.

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Au Sable River's North Branch Gets a Facelift

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Published: 06 June 2013

Workers arrange woody debris in the North Branch of the Au Sable River. (Michigan DNR photo)Fisheries managers have been adding woody cover, often whole trees, to trout streams for close to a century. During the 1930s, the federal Civilian Conservation Corps spent countless hours building what have come to be known as “lunker structures” in some of the state’s most notable trout streams.

Over the course of the last two decades, the Michigan DNR and fisheries conservation groups have reinvigorated the campaign to increase woody cover in streams, led by efforts along the Au Sable River that use helicopters to drop whole trees into the various branches of one of America’s most famous trout streams.

But the placement of woody debris in streams can provide benefits in addition to giving trout a place to hide. Properly placed, woody cover can improve the function of streams, including helping to manage and move sediment that covers up gravel – valuable spawning and aquatic insect habitat in the stream.

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