I live & own property on St…

I live & own property on St. Joseph Island - area 45. There is a proposal to extend 2 days to the gun hunting season which I am in agreement with. I am not exactly sure what is meant by the early bow only season extension & new late muzzle-loading guns season. Does this mean you can continue to hunt with a bow the week before rifle season but only if you use the hunter orange requirements? Will you be able to continue to hunt for deer the week after the rifle season but only using a muzzle-loader?

The population of deer on St. Joseph Island right now is excellent in my opinion. My camp had taken 4 bucks this season. A near-by camp had taken 9 bucks & another camp had taken 3 bucks. Between the 3 camps there were 17 bucks harvested not including what other bucks were harvested from other hunters. All these bucks were harvested in a 3 km radius. My property & surrounding area has a surplus abundance of does. I would like to propose a new tag allocation system for area 45 as in the near future there will not be enough bucks to properly service the rut (deer breading season). My proposal is to change the existing tag allocation in area 45 so that only an antlered deer tag will be for a deer that supports 4 or more points on one side of their antlers. Example - if there is an antlered deer with 4 points or more points on one side & 4 or less points on the other side then this antlered deer would be considered a legal antlered deer. This will give the chance for young bucks to grow older & be able participate in the rut in years to come. In order to harvest an antlered deer with less that 4 points on either side you would have to be lucky enough to draw for this tag just like the draw for the doe tag. I would suggest the same percentage given out for doe tags be allocated for antlered deer with less than 4 points on either side. Therefore the 3 tags that could be awarded for area 45 are as follows - antlerless deer, antlered deer with less than 4 points on either side and antlered deer with 4 or more points on one side. In Michigan & many other States have adopted this type of draw system & it is working for them. Again the deer population on St. Joseph Island in my opinion is excellent & I believe that if this new system was introduced it help control the deer population & keep it in check.