A Leelanau County hunter is swaying the opinions of members of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission, who last month removed a provision allowing disabled hunters to shoot bucks during their special firearms seasons.
“I made my point and backed off to let them take it from here,” said Steve Brett, who called three commissioners whose telephone numbers were listed along with contact information on the Michigan.gov website. “I don’t think what they are proposing is going to address the issue.”
The NRC, meeting on July 11, changed the statewide youth and disability hunts to anterless only. Much of the discussion prior to the vote dealt with a need to convince hunters to shoot more does to control the state deer population.
While such a change may result in a slightly bigger doe license, it won’t have much impact on herd size. Hunters killed 274,282 deer in 2023, with only 6,164 taken during the liberty and youth firearm hunts, which are held on the same weekend in September. Statistics are only available combining the two hunts.
Statistics for the deer kill during a second handicap-only firearms hunt held in October are available. Two-hundred, seventy- eight bucks and 138 does were shot that weekend — in the entire state.
In Leelanau County, two bucks and no does were taken in the Independence hunt.
Brett lives to hunt deer, and usually does so successfully in Leelanau County. He’s been a hunter and a fisher all his life and continues those pursuits even after being confined to a wheelchair due to successful cancer treatment.
Hunting became a particularly grueling sport for Brett after conquered cancer. Hunting alone, he crawls from his car to a blind. He has little feeling in his legs, increasing the chance for frostbite to set in. And although friends help him find wounded deer, following the tracking progress from a wheelchair is cumbersome.
Those are factors not considered by the NRC before approving the change, two members contacted by the Enterprise for this story readily admit. They fully expect to revisit the handicap hunt issue in the spring along with a number of changes designed mostly to further encourage the taking of antlerless deer by hunters.
The resolution to remove buck harvests from the youth/ liberty hunt held in July and the independence hunt about one month later was approved 4-3. Commissioner John Walters, who made the motion, all but definitively said that he’ll switch his vote on the handicap hunts when the issue comes up again.
“I know there is a commissioner who is in lock step with me and we talk regularly,” Walters said. “My intention is to discuss the disabled hunt along with how it affects veterans.”
Walters, who resides in Indian River, has talked to a “significant number” of people who were upset at the NRC for not only removing bucks from the disabled hunt, but also removing bucks as a targets during a popular firearms youth hunt held in September. The changes won’t go into effect until 2025 because licenses had already been purchased by hunters under the present rules.
Walters said he stands by his vote for the youth hunt. He’s concerned that not enough does are being shot, especially in the Lower Peninsula, pointing to the 4-to-1 ratio of bucks-toanterless deer taken during the youth/liberty hunt.
“What are we teaching our kids? We’re teaching them to shoot just bucks. I was a kid once, but I believe if there is venison served on the table the youth can say, ‘I shot that one, and I’m proud of that.’ As far as I’m concerned, the youth hunt will not be discussed next year. And if it is, I’m going to stay steadfast on my vote,” Walters said.
His thoughts were echoed by Tom Baird, chair of the NRC who voted for the changes and also heard from members of the public.
“There has been quite a bit of communication regarding the youth and disability hunts. Commissioners have learned quite a bit. ,” Baird said.
In particular, he recalled his conversation with Brett about the disability hunts.
“Some of the folks who called were emotional, but it wasn’t misplaced emotion, It wasn’t to the level of internet emotional … we’ve learned something, particularly about mobility in the later months in November, the effect of cold temperatures. There are some road blocks that we should have been aware of but weren’t,” said Baird, a Lansing attorney.
Andrew Frank, vice president of Cedar Rod and Gun Club, is an advocate of getting more people involved in the shooting sports and in the woods hunting. He questioned the move to remove bucks from the handicap hunts, and had mixed feelings about taking bucks out of crosshairs during the youth hunt.
“It’s a tough one. Kids are our future, so I want to do everything we can to have them be interested in hunting. At the same time, I look at our population of deer, and if we don’t start taking does we’ll be overrun. Do I think (removing bucks from the youth hunt) is the answer? No. But it is a way to put shooting does more in front of shooting just bucks,” he said.
Brett, who was forced to retire from his position as a parole officer for the Michigan Department of Corrections, has been pleasantly surprised by the reception he was given by state natural resources commissioners. He also called Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office to explain how he would be affected by the changes — and to apply for a NRC seat. So far he hasn’t received a return call.
“(Commissioners) were very receptive to receiving calls and comments, which is a plus,” Brett said. “It seems to me if they are going to take this type of measure to increase the doe versus buck ratio, the people taking the biggest hit are people with handicaps … it’s not like, Well,, we just got six inches of snow but honey I’m going out to get a deer. That just doesn’t happen.”
