Hamilton Reef
07-17-2006, 03:58 PM
Discounted anterless tags may be history
http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/statewide/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/115265581975670.xml&coll=1
Saturday, July 15, 2006 By Bob Gwizdz Lansing Bureau
With a couple of exceptions, Michigan deer hunters will likely pay full freight for antlerless permits this season.
Department of Natural Resources director Becky Humphries said she expects to price antlerless tags at $15, the same as buck tags.
State law sets the price of a deer license at $15, but the legislation allows the DNR director some leeway for setting antlerless deer-tag prices for management purposes. Antlerless tags have traditionally been discounted as part of an effort to promote more antlerless deer harvest.
But Humphries said that antlerless deer hunting has become accepted well enough that the time is ripe to charge hunters the same fee for deer of either sex, as many hunters have requested.
Last year, antlerless tags cost $10. The price of antlerless tags has been raised five times since 1996, when they cost $3.50.
There would be two exceptions to the $15 price, Humphries said: Hunters in the state's tuberculosis action zone would continue to pay $10 for antlerless tags and youngsters participating in the early season youth hunt will be eligible for $10 tags if they buy them before Aug. 16.
Humphries will announce her decision at the Aug. 10 Natural Resources Commission meeting in Manistique.
Meanwhile, the NRC set final regulations for the upcoming deer season, which begins with the youth hunt Sept. 23-24. (Archery season begins Oct. 1.)
As expected, the NRC approved significant cuts in the number of antlerless tags for the upcoming season, but not until the DNR further scaled back its recommendation in one county and the NRC itself slashed them in another.
The DNR will make 587,600 antlerless permits available this fall -- 56,400 for public land and 531,200 for private land.
Last year, the DNR offered 666,800 antlerless tags -- 68,900 for public land and 597,900 for private land. The 12 percent cut marks the third year in a row that antlerless tag quotas have been reduced.
"It reflects the reduction in the deer population," explained DNR deer specialist Rod Clute. "Our goal was to reduce the deer population, we've had some success, and the reduction in antlerless license obviously reflects that."
The bulk of the cuts is in the northwest Lower Peninsula, where there are no public-land permits available and five counties have no permits whatsoever.
But there are reductions in other areas, too, including some counties in the northeast Lower Peninsula TB area.
Prior to the NRC vote, the DNR cut the quota for public-land permits in Osceola County in half from its original recommendation (3,000) to 1,500. Similarly, the DNR cut its recommendation of 6,000 for tags in Ogemaw County by a total of 1,500, to 500 public-land and 4,000 private-land tags. But that wasn't enough for the NRC, which further slashed the quotas to 300 for public land and 700 for private land.
The DNR said it would try to hold some sort of lottery for the private-land tags -- as it does for public-land tags -- because so few are available.
"It's always concerned me as a blue-collar Democrat that people have an equal opportunity to get those permits," commissioner Bob Garner said.
Meanwhile, a controversial proposal to limit hunters to one buck in the Upper Peninsula failed on a 3-3 vote.
http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/statewide/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/115265581975670.xml&coll=1
Saturday, July 15, 2006 By Bob Gwizdz Lansing Bureau
With a couple of exceptions, Michigan deer hunters will likely pay full freight for antlerless permits this season.
Department of Natural Resources director Becky Humphries said she expects to price antlerless tags at $15, the same as buck tags.
State law sets the price of a deer license at $15, but the legislation allows the DNR director some leeway for setting antlerless deer-tag prices for management purposes. Antlerless tags have traditionally been discounted as part of an effort to promote more antlerless deer harvest.
But Humphries said that antlerless deer hunting has become accepted well enough that the time is ripe to charge hunters the same fee for deer of either sex, as many hunters have requested.
Last year, antlerless tags cost $10. The price of antlerless tags has been raised five times since 1996, when they cost $3.50.
There would be two exceptions to the $15 price, Humphries said: Hunters in the state's tuberculosis action zone would continue to pay $10 for antlerless tags and youngsters participating in the early season youth hunt will be eligible for $10 tags if they buy them before Aug. 16.
Humphries will announce her decision at the Aug. 10 Natural Resources Commission meeting in Manistique.
Meanwhile, the NRC set final regulations for the upcoming deer season, which begins with the youth hunt Sept. 23-24. (Archery season begins Oct. 1.)
As expected, the NRC approved significant cuts in the number of antlerless tags for the upcoming season, but not until the DNR further scaled back its recommendation in one county and the NRC itself slashed them in another.
The DNR will make 587,600 antlerless permits available this fall -- 56,400 for public land and 531,200 for private land.
Last year, the DNR offered 666,800 antlerless tags -- 68,900 for public land and 597,900 for private land. The 12 percent cut marks the third year in a row that antlerless tag quotas have been reduced.
"It reflects the reduction in the deer population," explained DNR deer specialist Rod Clute. "Our goal was to reduce the deer population, we've had some success, and the reduction in antlerless license obviously reflects that."
The bulk of the cuts is in the northwest Lower Peninsula, where there are no public-land permits available and five counties have no permits whatsoever.
But there are reductions in other areas, too, including some counties in the northeast Lower Peninsula TB area.
Prior to the NRC vote, the DNR cut the quota for public-land permits in Osceola County in half from its original recommendation (3,000) to 1,500. Similarly, the DNR cut its recommendation of 6,000 for tags in Ogemaw County by a total of 1,500, to 500 public-land and 4,000 private-land tags. But that wasn't enough for the NRC, which further slashed the quotas to 300 for public land and 700 for private land.
The DNR said it would try to hold some sort of lottery for the private-land tags -- as it does for public-land tags -- because so few are available.
"It's always concerned me as a blue-collar Democrat that people have an equal opportunity to get those permits," commissioner Bob Garner said.
Meanwhile, a controversial proposal to limit hunters to one buck in the Upper Peninsula failed on a 3-3 vote.