DNR

A second elk has been poached in northern Michigan.

The state’s Department of Natural Resources says a bull elk was shot earlier this week in Montmorency County, north of Atlanta.

Another elk was shot last weekend in the Pigeon River State Forest in Otsego County.

DNR Lieutenant Jim Gorno says he believes a hunter may have mistook the most recent elk for a deer.

Gaylord authorities say a bull elk was poached near Vanderbilt.

Two men confessed to shooting and killing a two-year-old bald eagle near Manistee on Saturday, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

A ban on deer baiting could spread to the Upper Peninsula for the 2019 hunting season.

Last year, the first deer tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease in the U.P. and that prompted the recommendation by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The deer was found in southern Dickenson County.

Chad Stewart, deer and elk specialist for the DNR, says the ban would not be across the entire U.P.

“We’re proposing just a small area focused around that index case that we identified last year,” he says.

The daily lake trout limit for anglers on Grand Traverse Bay is reduced from two fish to one - effective immediately.

The Michigan Natural Resources Commission announced the change Friday.

They say it was necessary because last year’s recreational harvest limit for lake trout in Grand Traverse Bay was exceeded by nearly 16,000 pounds.

“We would encourage anglers to keep the first lake trout they catch and then shift to targeting other species,” says Heather Hettinger, a local DNR fisheries biologist.

People will not be able to catch as many lake trout in Grand Traverse Bay this year. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says recreational fishers harvested an extra 15,800 pounds from the bay in 2018. As a result, the harvest limit has to be reduced by around 30,000 pounds this fishing season.

Harvest limits are determined by treaty tribes, the federal government and the state. 

The state of Michigan is buying part of a controversial sand mine near Ludington. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources will buy 100 acres of sand dunes, wetlands and forests for $17 million from Sargent Sand, a sand mining company.

"This purchase will permanently protect a beautiful tract of critical sand dunes, conserving a unique landform and its plants and animals for public enjoyment," DNR Director Keith Creagh says in a press release.

Michigan’s deer hunting season has been pretty successful so far.

"Our harvest appears certainly up in the Upper Peninsula, and there are parts in the northern Lower and certainly southwest that appear up as well," says Chad Stewart, deer management specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The investigation into a deer hunter’s death is wrapping up. Justin Beutel was shot and killed near Torch Lake by another hunter on opening day. 

Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials say they still can't offer many details about the incident, but evidence points toward a hunting accident. They believe the other hunter mistook Beutel for a deer. Lietenant Jim Gorno, a DNR conservation officer, says Beutel was a relative of the property owner.

A deer hunter has been killed in northern Michigan. Justin Beutel of Sanford was shot Thursday afternoon. He was killed while hunting near Torch Lake in Antrim County.

State biologists are asking the public for help combating a fatal disease that threatens deer. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is holding public hearings about chronic wasting disease (CWD) in April and May.

“CWD is one of the biggest threats – that we have long-term – to the sustainability of our deer herd,” says Chad Stewart, deer management specialist at the DNR.