DNR doubles UP deer habitat grant funding
Nearly $200K going to fund 14 projects
Trending
Conservation groups, K-12 students and landowners across the Upper Peninsula will improve hundreds of acres of white-tailed deer habitat after receiving grants generated from deer hunting license revenue, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Projects in Dickinson and Iron counties are among 14 that will be funded in the region through the DNR's Deer Habitat Improvement Partnership Initiative.
The nearly $200,000 in grants in 2026 is double the per-year amount of funding from past years, the agency said in a news release.
Among the grants approved by the DNR is $24,960 for a Sustainable Resources Institute project in the Forest Park and North Dickinson County school forests. Students will assist with tree plantings, among other activities.
The Deer Range Improvement Program was created in 1971. Through DRIP, $1.50 from every deer hunting license goes toward improving deer habitat.
This year, $199,711 in habitat improvement projects were awarded in nine counties: Alger, Baraga, Chippewa, Delta, Dickinson, Gogebic, Iron, Mackinac and Marquette.
Now in its 18th year, the U.P. initiative has awarded nearly $1.5 million across 176 grants, with partners contributing more than $1 million in matching funds or in-kind contributions.
"The initiative has created a collaborative approach to improving deer habitat on private lands across the Upper Peninsula," said Bill Scullon, grant program coordinator and field operations manager for the DNR. "As we know, deer know no boundaries. Creating suitable habitat across both public and private lands is crucial to helping deer survive the often-challenging U.P. winters."
Grant-funded work includes mass plantings of trees, plants and grasses favored by deer, turning abandoned logging roads into hunter walking trails, along with the projects involving public school students.
The school forest work will establish long-lived conifer species within recently thinned northern hardwood stands to improve winter thermal cover and long-term forest diversity for deer and other wildlife, the DNR explained.
Plantings will occur within the Forest Park School Forest in Iron County and the North Dickinson School Forest in Dickinson County. Projects will be implemented under a coordinated effort led by Sustainable Resources Institute Inc.
VanOss Forestry Services will provide forestry guidance, planting site identification, preparation of planting maps and educational support during planting events. School district students and staff will participate through biology and environmental science classes, assisting with tree-planting as part of hands-on outdoor education.
The estimated plantings are 5,000 white pine seedlings and 5,000 northern white cedar seedlings in each school forest, covering about 175 acres in the Forest Park forest and 40 to 45 acres in the North Dickinson forest near the Iron-Floodwood deer wintering complex.
Also, a $6,236 grant will go to U.P. Whitetails of Dickinson County for chestnut trees on private lands in the county. The purpose is to provide a hard mast food resource throughout the county.
The project will use funds to plant Dunstan chestnut trees on private property and update protection of previously planted trees and shrubs from prior grant projects. UPW will use the grant to plant 100 more chestnuts to continue the growth of the program.
Ten landowners with 20-plus acres in Dickinson County will be drawn to receive 10 chestnuts each. This will be a continuation of the tree planting program UPW has run for four years. The chestnut trees to be planted will be saplings of 3 feet in height, the DNR said.
———
Jim Anderson can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85226, or janderson@ironmountaindailynews.com.