MUCC SUPPORTS SATURDAY TURKEY OPENER FOR SOUTHERN MICHIGAN

Michigan United Conservation Clubs members passed a resolution this summer to increase opportunity and flexibility for turkey hunters to use their licenses. On Thursday, the Natural Resources Commission will consider updates to turkey regulations for action. 

 The Natural Resources Commission will consider a proposed order to amend the Spring Turkey regulations. In the private land ZZ unit of southern Michigan, available tags would be reduced from 60,000 to 35,000 to become more in line with demand, which has been closer to 25,000 in the past few years.

Michigan United Conservation Clubs is proposing the following changes to the order consistent with the resolution passed at our Annual Convention this summer:

1. Begin the spring turkey season for Hunt 301 ZZ unit on the Saturday closest to April 20.

2. Have this season go for 16 days to allow 3 weekends of hunting.

What this does is protect the season from starting any sooner of a day of the month than it does now (April 17 would be the earliest a season could start, just as it is now to protect nesting and could open as late as April 23). It also keeps in place the proposed (and greatly reduced) license quota and bag limit of 1 turkey, so no more turkey licenses would be available. It would just allow those license purchasers to use the tags they bought with a little more flexibility.

And again, this is ONLY for ZZ unit of private lands in Southern Michigan.