Winter weather may have limited the Upper Peninsula’s deer harvest this year.
Toll workers at the Mackinac Bridge use a tally clicker to count deer each time a driver brings one across the bridge.
Those totals help the Michigan Department of Natural Resources estimate the harvest from the U-P.
This year it was down 20 percent.
Chad Stewart… the DNR’s deer management specialist… says the agency uses the unscientific count to determine trends.
“I think a lot of historical value in it that people look forward to hearing what that number is every year. And that fact that it now has a little bit of... I guess you could say weight behind it in terms of its ability to predict is kind of cool too.”
He says winter storms that blocked off hunting areas could have kept people from hunting in the U.P.
The deer firearm season ended November 30th… but muzzleloading and antlerless firearm season continue this month.