thanks bill heres a copy of the email i sent the regenal manager.
I felt i had to write you and voice some conserns. Ive got a gut feeling you wont respond but i figured id do it anyway. Ive hunted deer in the ross grade area close to Northland for about 30 years. We have a camp there. This has been the worse year for us since the late 70s early 80s when the deer heard was about non existant. This year took the cake though and not because of the low deer heard. It was because of the mass influx of campers mostly from down state. I have to think its because they cant bait there.
Ive hunted a 2 track for years and set my blind up there during bow season in a spot ive hunted for years. Opening day of rifle season i drove my jeep to the blind and there was 3 campers set up on that one single road. It looked like a west virginia trailer trash park on that road. Old beat up campers everywhere not only an eyesore but it about ruined my hunting. these campers were set up within yards of deer blinds that other hunters have used for years. I sat in my blind and could here generators running all day long and my evening hunts were full of entertainment. I could hear music playing and even afternoon beer partys!
I think its its getting out of hand. There is twice the ammount of campers and hunters there that there was even when the air base was open. I just dont understand why the dnr allows people to park these campers in prime hunting areas when there is state campsites within 10 miles of this area. I would think that if the dnr wanted money to research deer that they would insist these campers part in sites that brought the dnr income. Either that or the dnr could open up some designated camp sites on state land close to these hunt areas and collect camping fees. I drive from camp 5 miles to my hunting area and dont understand why these down state hunters cant do the same. We at our camp anyway take deer hunt and deer hunting edicute seriously. One of these hunters had his truck parked right in the road one day by his camp site and made me wait almost a half an hour while he got dressed to move his truck that he probably parked there drunk the previous night. I nicely told him that this was a real inconvience for me and he proceded to tell me tough ++++ pal.
While i have your attention i want to voice another complaint and its one that will probably get me nowhere. Theres no argument that our deer heard is down this year and has been going downhill for the last couple years. I thought this buck management was a great idea and that it would mean more deer to see but its not working that way for some reason. Im still all for it and would like it to stay but i dont agree with the new laws on deer baiting. Our area is much differnt then downstate. We not only dont have the deisese problmes that are in the lower part of the state but our deer have to weather a much tougher winter and i firmly believe that our deer heard benifited from the days that there wernt baiting limits. The people that ive talked to that support these laws and there few and far between, either own private land that has farm crops that they hunt over or are the guys that are two cheap to buy a little bait and get mad because i am not.
Like i said if my past experience is any measure of this state really caring about my opinion i would about bet i wont get a reply to this but a guy can hope that somewhere in the dnr there are still some people that are real outdoorsman and hunteres instead of a bunch of collage educated yuppies that care more about wolves and moose then they do about the real game animal we should all be fighting to manage.
Lloyd Smale
E8088 Jingle bell lane
Munising Michigan
