UP QDM Proposal Results Available: MI

Quality Deer Management is a form of deer management that requires restrictive buck harvests and sustained antlerless harvests. The DNR supports the voluntary implementation of these practices on private land.
Guidelines were developed by the DNR to allow private conservation groups an opportunity to propose an area for mandatory QDM.

"Superior Deer Management proposed that the DNR implement mandatory QDM regulations throughout the entire UP," said DNR Big Game Specialist Rod Clute. "Their particular proposal sought to protect most one-and-one-half year old males from being harvested."

A survey indicating support or rejection for the proposal was sent out to of almost 4,000 landowners and hunters by the DNR's Wildlife Division.
"A minimum 50 percent response rate was needed in order to accept the results of the survey and we definitely exceeded that amount," said DNR Wildlife Research Biologist Brian Frawley. "A total of 3,142 surveys were received, yielding an 81 percent adjusted response rate after undeliverables were deducted."

Sixty-three percent of the surveyed landowners owning land in the UP supported implementing the proposal. Among surveyed hunters that hunted in the UP, about 61 percent supported the proposal.

A similar QDM proposal was submitted for DMU 017 (east end of the UP). Fifty-nine percent of landowners and 58 percent of hunters supported that proposal.

The report of the QDM findings for the UP is available on the DNR website at www.michigan.gov/dnr. In addition, the DNR is currently accepting comments on the guidelines used for proposing mandatory QDM regulations. Those proposed guidelines are also available on the DNR website.

The DNR is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state's natural resources for current and future generations.

Source: MDNR