Firearm deer hunting season kicks off across Michigan

Thousands of Michiganders are taking to the woods this week as regular firearm deer hunting season began Monday.

Lasting until Nov. 30, it's one of several deer hunting seasons established by the state's Department of Natural Resources. Still yet to occur this year are a second archery season, happening from Dec. 1-Jan. 1, muzzleloading season from Dec. 3-12, and late antlerless firearm season, occurring from Dec. 13-Jan. 1.

Greater Lansing will again have two deer check stations for chronic wasting disease — the DNR's Lansing Customer Service Center and Rose Lake Field Office. Both will only be open from Nov. 15-18.

Chad Fedewa, a wildlife biologist for the DNR, said the department continues to focus CWD testing efforts on places where data show the fatal neurological disease to be most prevalent, including Montcalm County, northeast Kent County and northern Ionia County.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been no reported cases of CWD infection in people.

"Over the next several years, we're going to kind of progressively move across the state and get a baseline sample for chronic wasting disease," Fedewa said.

Deer hunting has been in decline across Michigan and the U.S. in recent decades, said Dustin Isenhoff, a research specialist for the DNR.

The declines are most often attributed to a lack of time and resources, Isenhoff said.

"It's more ... how people are allocating their time, priority on time, shifting culture, more things to do (for leisure)," Isenhoff said. In addition, he said more people have moved to cities and suburbs, in some cases losing the ability to hunt on a family property or a farm.

Hunting is the primary tool for managing deer populations, Fedewa said. As hunters decrease, he said, deer density goes up, resulting in complications for nearby people.

"Typically, what we saw are increased car-deer accidents, we see increased agricultural damage," Fedewa said. "Farmers see increased damage ... to trees and shrubs. And from a disease transmission standpoint, when you have more deer congregating in areas, it increases the spread of certain diseases as well."

Last year, however, as many hobbies lost participants due to the pandemic constraints, deer hunting — with ample space to social distance — saw a slight bump, Fedewa said.

Among the newcomers were Laura Pylman and her son Tanner.

On Monday, Tanner shot his first buck and second-ever deer in the woods of their Laingsburg property. That night, he had the biggest buck of any kid at a buck pole contest held at Twilliger's Tavern.

"That was really cool," Laura Pylman said. "That really gave him a big boost of confidence."

Pylman said she grew up in a household where hunting was an activity mostly done by men. But when Tanner, 11, wanted to learn, he needed a supervisor, so she took hunting safety courses with him.

She said she's been surprised at how much she's enjoyed hunting with her son.

"It's amazing how much the hunting makes him want to learn more about 'What do deer do? What's their life cycle like?'" she said.

A list of CWD check stations and information about testing is available at Michigan.gov/CWD.

Contact reporter Jared Weber at 517-582-3937 or jtweber@lsj.com.