The math paints a not so rosy picture for conservation in Michigan. Fewer people are hunting and fishing.
“We’ve all been beneficiaries of having really strong, robust, active and engaged hunting and fishing communities in Michigan,” Dan Eichinger, Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) director, told the Associated Press. “As the number of people who participate in those sports decline, we’ve got a real difficult question that we’re going to have to contend with, not just in our state but across the county.”
According to the report, Michigan was home to 1.2 million hunters into the 1990s but less than 675,000 people had licenses in 2018. Additionally, the DNR receives more than 90 percent of its budget from hunting and fishing licenses so that shortfall will have impacts on conservation work, wildlife management and the state’s economy.
(Photo source: Michigan Department of Natural Resources)