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Showcasing the DNR

Showcasing the DNR

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Topics range from fishing and hunting to history and outdoor recreation. This is a weekly feature story sent on Thursday.

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Such a night

Great nights out in nature are never really a rare thing, but the combination of the company of the author's visiting brother, a roadside diner, fishing success and some incredible animal encounters made this a truly exceptional night.
Such a night
A common snapping turtle digs at a gravel nest along a roadside

Another severe winter hampers UP deer herd

This past winter, with its heavy snowfall, marks the third severe winter in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the past five years and could significantly impact the peninsula’s white-tailed deer population. The DNR uses cutting-edge technology called the Snow Data Assimilation System, or SNODAS, to monitor snow depth as part of the agency’s extensive deer management.
Another severe winter hampers UP deer herd
map graphic showing winter snow depth in the Upper Peninsula during the winter of 2025-26

How students from a one-room schoolhouse turned fishing lures into reel-world learning

“How can we design and create fishing lures that will attract the fish we’re fishing for and sell well in our area?” By focusing on that question, elementary school students from Crawford School in Kalkaska County – one of Michigan’s last operating one-room schoolhouses – turned the region’s fishing culture into a project-based learning experiment that seamlessly blended science, art and economics with local tradition and inquiry-based education.
How students from a one-room schoolhouse turned fishing lures into reel-world learning
two students working at perch rig station

Lake Huron walleye: The new centerpiece of Michigan's Great Lakes fishery

Walleye is now the most harvested species in the Michigan waters of the Great Lakes, followed by yellow perch. These findings are part of the 2025 Statewide Angler Survey Program (also known as “creel survey”) estimates recently announced. This trend has been developing due to shifts in the food web of Lake Huron (and to a lesser extent, Lake Michigan) with the invasion of dreissenid mussels, which are members of the family of small, freshwater, aquatic, bivalve mollusks.
Lake Huron walleye: The new centerpiece of Michigan's Great Lakes fishery
child holding walleye on fishing pole in boat with smiling adult behind her and bridge in background

Looking back on a snowy, significant snowmobile season

The 2025-26 snowmobile season proved to be one of the best in recent years, because of consistent snowfall, riders out enjoying the trails around the state and an ongoing, successful Michigan Department of Natural Resources statewide safety campaign – Ride Right – that is steadily helping shift snowmobilers’ mindsets when it comes to safely navigating Michigan’s more than 6,300 miles of snowmobile trails.
Looking back on a snowy, significant snowmobile season
A snowmobiler enjoys a downhill ride on a sunny winter afternoon

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