Air quality across the state is being affected by wildfire smoke. Before heading outdoors, get information on current conditions and alerts at Michigan.gov/MiAir.
Get all your fishing information here, including rules and regulations, license info, the weekly fishing report and much more. Use the link above to visit the fishing home page, or go directly to your area of interest below:
Get all your hunting information here, including hunting season dates, rules and regulations, and much more. Use the button above to visit the hunting home page, or go directly to your area of interest below:
Information on DNR shooting and archery ranges, rules and regulations, resources to get started and more. Use the button above to visit the target shooing and archery home page, or go directly to one of the pages below:
Find snowmobile trail permit info, maps, rules and regulations and more. USE THE BUTTON ABOVE TO VISIT THE SNOWMOBILE HOMEPAGE or go directly to you area of interest below:
Want to find tasty morel mushrooms in the forest? Click the box above for tips and tricks to fill your basket.
Find cross-country ski, ice fishing , snowmobiling info and much more.
Find facility info, overnight info, an event calendar and much more.
Find a great trail experience near you - whether you want to hike, bike, snowmobile or ride an ORV. From long, paved linear trails to rugged forest terrain, Michigan offers trail opportunities for all abilities and interests.
Visitor Centers across the state provide education programs, field trips, archery, fishing, trails and much more. Click the box above to see all our locations, or click the individual location below.
We administer grants that enable our local partners to promote the lifestyles we all enjoy by providing recreational opportunities, enhancing wildlife habitat and ensuring public safety. Visit the grants home page by clicking on the button above, or view a specific area of interest below:
Recreational Safety and Hunter Education
Learn about Michigan's diverse range of fish, plants, trees, reptiles, amphibians, insects and mammals. Click the box above to see all species, or click the species group below.
DNR educators across the state provide fun, educational activities, programs and workshops year-round for adults, families and kids. Click the box above to see all our offerings, or click the program below.
DNR educators provide classroom lessons, field trip opportunities, professional development and experiential programs to teachers around the state. Click the box above to see all our offerings, or click the program below.
DNR forest resources professionals maintain healthy forests, manage wildfire, maintain responsible harvesting certifications and improve wildlife habitat. Click the box above to learn more about Michigan's state forests.
All DNR-related boards, committees, and advisory groups
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Wolves have been part of the Great Lakes fauna since the melting of the last glacier and as such are native to the land area known as Michigan. Research indicates that pioneer documents and museum specimens show wolves were once present in all counties of Michigan. Throughout the history of Native Americans living in present-day Michigan, wolves figured prominently in their culture and beliefs. For example, the wolf is a sacred clan animal among the Anishinaabek (Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi) people.
European werewolf mythology, fairy tales and religious beliefs, along with views that wolves were incompatible with human civilization, resulted in the unregulated killing of wolves in Michigan and the rest of the U.S. This led to the near extermination of wolves in the contiguous U.S. Congress passed a wolf bounty in 1817 in the Northwest Territories, which included what is now Michigan. A wolf bounty was passed by the first Michigan Legislature in 1838. The bounty continued until the period between 1922 and 1935, when a state trapper system was in effect. The bounty was reinstated in 1935 and repealed in 1960, only after wolves were nearly eliminated from the state. In 1965, the Michigan Legislature granted wolves full legal protection.
Sporadic breeding and occasional immigration of wolves from more secure populations in Ontario and Minnesota likely maintained the small number of wolves in the U.P. In March 1974,four wolves from Minnesota were released in Marquette County but all died as a result of direct human activities. In the late1980s, wolves likely from Minnesota and Wisconsin began to re-colonize the western and central portions of the U.P. Michigan's wolf population grew fairly steadily until 2011 when it stabilized.
Wolves were first added to the federal endangered species list in 1974after being extirpated from the Lower Peninsula by the 1930s and nearly disappearing from the Upper Peninsula by 1960.
In 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service down listed gray wolves to a threatened species. In the subsequent years, federal protections for wolves were lifted (removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species) and reinstated on several occasions, through political action and court rulings.
On Oct. 29, 2020, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced it was removing gray wolves from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in the lower 48 states. The action took effect on Jan. 4, 2021. Then, in February 2022, a federal court ruling put wolves in Michigan back on endangered species list, where they remain today.
Because Wolves are currently protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, they can only be killed if they are a direct and immediate threat to human life. If an animal is killed, the incident must be reported to the DNR.
