The best way for wildlife officials to plan for allocating hunting tags in the future is to have accurate harvest statistics from previous seasons. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will require successful hunters beginning in 2022 to report their harvests within 72 hours. In 2021, approximately 7000 hunters, voluntarily used the new options to report their harvest as part of a pilot program.
Historically, Michigan is one of the top states when it comes to the quantity of whitetail deer harvested in the United States. Annually, hunters in the state harvest around 300,000 deer. The state is also rich in hunting heritage. Fred Bear, started Bear Archery in 1933 and is considered one of the pioneers of modern bowhunting.
In order to successfully report your harvest hunters will have two options; either go through the department’s website or through the DNR’s app on your mobile device. You will need your DNR license number (located on your license) and your date of birth. Once you provide that and move on the system will ask for the location of your kill. This has become a sticking point for some hunters concerned about too much information being available. The information that will become public off of the harvest location will only be shared at the county level. The DNR has an excellent site regarding the most common frequently asked questions which can be viewed here.
You can read more about the new harvest reporting program by clicking here. Likewise, you can read more Michigan hunting news by clicking here. Thanks for reading!
