Hunting group aims to allow hunters to shoot one buck per year
MARQUETTE — A Facebook group that’s aiming to change the number of bucks Michigan hunters can harvest each year is starting to gain some traction.
Kyle Yoder created the group, ‘One Buck Tag For Michigan’. Yoder is a lifelong hunter who hunts in both Northern Michigan and Upper Michigan.
He says that Michigan’s two buck tag system is hurting Michigan’s deer population. The group would like to see Michigan hunters be able to shoot just one buck per year, instead of two.
“The purpose of one buck tag is two is in hope of having hunters be more selective,” said Yoder. “Some hunters are very willing to take a smaller buck that they wouldn’t otherwise shoot simply because they have that second tag in their pocket. I think having that single tag would really make people think twice.”
The DNR has no control over the two–buck tag system. Changes in the law would have to come at the legislative level.
“I don’t see us looking at legislation trying to adjust it,” said State Sen. Tom Casperson (R–Escanaba). I think if their needs to be adjustments, I think it’s better suited for the NRC (Natural Resources Commission) to deal with it. I think that these types of issues really have to be regulated by the NRC probably will have to be looked at region by region within the state, not just one blanketed approach to the whole thing.”
Despite what Casperson said, Yoder added that he would like to see the law changed sometime in the next few years.