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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The DNR's Fisheries Division uses a variety of net types to sample Michigan's aquatic communities. Just the crew that covers the northern portion of the Lake Huron basin uses more than 15 different kinds of nets throughout the year, each with a specific purpose.
In this area alone - which covers all or a portion of the following counties: Alcona, Alpena, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Chippewa, Crawford, Emmet, Iosco, Mackinac, Montmorency, Oscoda, Ogemaw, Otsego, Presque Isle and Roscommon - more than 150 nets are maintained. These nets consist of everything from a long-handled dip net used during stream shocking to a large trap net to set in an inland lake - their configurations and purposes are varied and broad.
Many of the nets used by Fisheries Division are produced in-house at a workshop located at the DNR Customer Service Center located in Roscommon. This shop was configured primarily for the purpose of building the wide variety of netting gear that is essential to carrying out fisheries work.
Nearly all the net building work occurs during the winter months, both construction and net repair and assembly.
Net design and construction is an ancient art and while ropes and netting are now made out of modern materials such as nylon and polypropylene, the basic techniques have changed very little. In fact all of Fisheries Division's nets are still assembled by hand, sometimes with the help of an industrial sewing machine.
Take an inland trap net for example, 700 feet of rope is cut and spliced together to form a frame on to which floats, weights and then nylon mesh is attached. Nylon twine is used to tie it all together using a net making knot. That means that over the course of two weeks more than 4,000 knots are sewn by hand to assemble one trap net!
For the last several years the Northern Lake Huron Management Unit has been making minor improvements to its nets that make them lighter and easier to use without reducing their ability to capture fish. These improvements, when coupled with high quality fabrication skills and proper maintenance, produce nets that can last 30 years or more.
