DNR photo Firearm deer season starts Tuesday and the DNR reports this season’s harvest may be slightly higher than last year.

MARQUETTE — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said there is some optimism the deer harvest may be up slightly this year. The agency recently issued its report on the upcoming deer season. The firearm deer season begins Tuesday in Michigan

“The fear throughout the winter was that the long winter with plentiful snow would have an impact on the U.P. deer herd. Based on days with total snow on the ground exceeding 12 inches, it was determined that the winter of 2021 was severe. Fortunately, the fears seemed to exceed reality, and the deer seemed to fare well. While deer numbers remain low in many locations, overall harvest in the U.P. was up a little bit last year, and there is optimism that another minor increase will happen again this year, with the deer currently being observed this summer. To not sugar-coat anything, there will be places in the U.P. where deer densities remain low, and hunting efforts in some of these locations will prove extremely challenging,” the report stated.

The report also noted mast production, especially acorns, seems down this year compared to last year. While last year showed good productions from oaks, this year’s drought, coupled with the recency of last year’s heavier crop, seems to be limiting production.

‘Some hunters expressed concern last year about recently expanded antlerless harvest opportunities throughout much of the southern U.P. and the potential impact on harvest. While we only have one year of data available, it appears that while antlerless harvest did increase in many units, it never increased more than one antlerless deer per square mile in any unit, with most units only increasing their antlerless harvest by about one antlerless deer for every 3 to 4 square miles. There was quite a bit of variability in how this regulation affected management units, but it doesn’t appear to have a limiting population-level effect that some had feared, given the early returns,” the report stated.

The biggest change this season is mandatory deer harvest reporting. In 2022, for the first time, hunters taking a deer in Michigan will have one additional step to complete beyond tagging their deer before they have finalized their harvest. Successful hunters will now be required to report their harvest online through Michigan’s new harvest reporting system or recently developed mobile app.

Hunters will have up to 72 hours to report their harvest.

“When this system was tested in 2021, most hunters were able to complete the harvest report in under five minutes. On average, reporting a buck harvest took about 30 seconds longer than reporting a doe harvest because of some additional questions about antler points. Hunters who harvested and reported multiple deer through the system seemed to work through the report faster the second time, which tells us that the report process is easily understood after someone goes through it once<" the DNR report stated. For years, Michigan has estimated its deer harvest through a postseason harvest survey sent to a random subset of Michigan hunters. This survey and estimate are conducted using standard statistical protocols and allow the state to not only estimate harvest numbers by state, county, season, etc., but also to include confidence limits with each estimate. Very few states have been able to produce this type of estimate. "This technique served us well in the past, but we are experiencing challenges with this system. For example, hunters do not respond to the harvest reports the same way they have in the past. In 2000, 74% of hunters receiving a survey returned it. In 2021, the response rate was 33%. These lower response rates create more uncertainty with our primary estimate. We feel it's important to have confident harvest estimates to make the best, most informed management decisions for one of our most prized natural resources. We will continue to incorporate our deer hunter harvest survey, as we feel it still does a great job at estimating our harvest. However, the scale of the survey will be reduced since we no longer have to estimate our harvest beginning at zero deer for the year," the DNR report stated. In addition to the changes for harvest reporting, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the successful hunter patch in Michigan. This patch has served as a collectible for many hunters throughout the years, and is one of the traditions associated with the culture of deer hunting in Michigan. This year they will be available online. For $8, which includes shipping, hunters can order their patch online and not have to worry about traveling around the state and finding open locations where patches are distributed.