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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula Posted February 18, 2004   Updated (with photo) March 9, 2004 Press Release © 2004 Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen's Club. Photo © 2004 Mike Dudenas.

Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen seek deer feed donations

CALUMET-- The Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen's Club will host a baked chicken and spaghetti dinner meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, at the Calumet VFW Post, U.S. 41 North and Larch Street. The $7 per plate proceeds go to the deer-feeding program. Hunters, fishers, outdoor and conservation enthusiasts, whitetail lovers and the public are invited.

With the recent lifting of the supplemental deer-feeding ban by the Michigan Natural Resources Commission (NRC), the Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen's Club will resume deer feeding at the Club's traditional deer yards in the Keweenaw.

Mike Dudenas, one of the Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen's Club deer feeders in Eagle River, wondered why the deer were acting so spooky on Saturday morning, March 6, 2004. Then he spotted two coyotes about 150 yards from shore at the edge of the Lake Superior ice pack. The deer walked by as he was trying to photograph the coyotes. (Photo © 2004 Mike Dudenas)

The Club is now appealing to Copper Country residents and businesses to chip in what they can to help fund and support the deer-feeding effort. The feeding program uses a recommended high-protein natural dairy pellet designed to help deer survive the winter under these adverse conditions. The club complies with all Michigan DNR (Department of Natural Resources) deer-feeding regulations and cautions all supplemental feeders to obtain proper feeding permits available through the DNR website and offices.

The Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen joined U.P. Whitetails of the Keweenaw, Lake-Linden Hubbell Sportsmen's Club, Tri-County Whitetails Unlimited, U.P. Sportsmen's Alliance and other outdoor groups and conservation enthusiasts in an extensive lobbying effort to reinstate supplemental feeding.

Jim Junttila, Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen's Club president and outdoor writer, noted that by rescinding the feeding ban, the NRC did what's right for the deer, right now.

"I'm impressed," Junttila said. "The decision buys the hunters, sportsmen, DNR, recreational feeders, conservationists and all stakeholders time to study the situation further and develop alternative feeding strategies without threatening the herd in the process. The current Keweenaw herd does not exceed the carrying capacity of the land, but there are ways to disperse them away from traditional near-town feeding areas. It's a 'genetic pied piper' theory that the deer will go where the food is."

For months, area sportsmen's clubs have been encouraging sportsmen and women to sound off to their elected officials and the NRC against the supplemental feeding ban.

"Thankfully our calls, emailing and letter-writing campaign paid off; and with successful intervention from our legislators, the ban was reversed," said Mike Dudenas, Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen's Club vice- president.

State Representative Rich Brown (D-Bessemer) addressed the NRC on Feb. 5 in favor of lifting the ban.

"Winter weather conditions in the U.P. are significantly more hostile than those anywhere else in Michigan," Brown said. "Counties that border Lake Superior receive much more snowfall. The yearly average snowfall in Keweenaw County exceeds 250 inches," he continued. "When combined with the high Winter Severity Index, the supplemental feeding ban had the potential to decimate the white-tailed deer population."

State Senator Mike Prusi (D-Ishpeming) said he believed the NRC revisions "establish a fair compromise that protects our most vulnerable deer herds throughout the U.P. while maintaining safeguards against the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and Bovine TB." 

The NRC approved a moratorium through May 15, 2004, on the ban, allowing permitted feeding in all U.P. counties bordering Lake Superior: Ontonagon, Houghton, Keweenaw, Baraga, Marquette, Alger, Luce and Chippewa counties.

"Supplemental feeding is particularly critical to the Keweenaw herd surviving the winter," stated MDNR wildlife biologist Rob Aho, Baraga. "Deep snows and a prolonged Winter Severity Index contribute to a higher mortality rate."

If you cannot attend the Feb. 19 dinner but would like to help feed the deer, send donations to Calumet-Keweenaw Sportsmen's Club, P.O. Box 283, Calumet, MI 49913. The venison you save may be your own.

Editor's Note: Read the NRC's Interim Order on Supplemental Deer Feeding in the Upper Peninsula.