Announcer:
You know what that sound means. It's time for the Michigan DNR's Wild Talk Podcast. Welcome to the Wild Talk Podcast where representatives from the DNR's Wildlife Division chew the fat and shoot the scat about all things habitat, feathers, and fur. With insights, interviews, and your questions answered on the air, you'll get a better picture of what's happening in the world of wildlife here in the great state of Michigan.

Hannah:
Welcome to Wild Talk. I'm Hannah Shower and co-hosting with me is Ryan Wheeler.

Ryan:
Today, we'll be talking about bats with wildlife biologist John DePugh. Later in this episode, we'll be talking about the Pure Michigan Hunt, of course, answering your questions from the mail bag.

Hannah:
First, we are going to give you a rundown of what is happening around the state so stick around.

Announcer:
Are you looking for some last-minute gifts or stocking stuffer for those special hunters in your life? Do you want to see smiles wider than the rack of a monster elk on Christmas morning? Then buy them some entries for the DNR's Pure Michigan Hunt and let visions of a $4,000 hunting prize package and hunting licenses for elk, bear, spring, and fall turkey, and the list deer, and first pick at a managed water fowl hunt area dance in their heads. Forget about the sugar plums and visit MI.gov/pmh or your local hunting license retailer to buy.

Ryan:
First up for around the state is what's happening in the southeast and southwest. Staff and partners have hosted a variety of youth hunts, veterans' hunts, and ladies' hunts to introduce the sport to new user groups throughout the southeastern and southwestern regions. Each of our seven wetland wonders hosted two youth waterfowl hunt events in October and November. The youth were given priority in hunt drawings and additional youth activities were held as well. Often in partnership with local hunt clubs.

Ryan:
Youth hunters were able to get into the field with mentors to harvest ducks and geese and of course, eat a delicious lunch. Some even went home with duck hunting gear like brand new decoys. These premier waterfowl hunting areas also hosted veterans waterfowl hunts the weekend of Veterans Day. Basically what that meant was parties with veterans got priority in the drawing and it was a great way to honor those who served. I know I got a couple Marine buddies who took advantage of that and it was a great time. Youth pheasant hunts were held in partnership with partners like Pheasants Forever chapters at Shiawassee River State Game Area and Dr. Gordon Guyer Augusta Creek State Game Area. More than 50 youth participated. Lots of smiles, great time harvesting bird. 

Ryan:
A ladies' pheasant hunt was hosted by Flat River State Game Area Office, local Pheasants Forever chapter, and was held at the Pine Hill Sportsman Club. Twelve ladies were introduced to the sport of pheasant hunting. Everybody had a great time.

Hannah:
Yeah, it's pretty cool that they were able to do all of those different events to get some of those new folks out and trying some of our state game areas and waterfowl areas. Pretty cool that we can put on those events for folks.

Hannah:
November was and December will be very busy for deer check stations. Staff all around the state are working at these various check stations throughout and there will be tons of surveillance done this fall to identify areas where chronic wasting disease might be present and so if you're a hunter still out doing some deer hunting and want to get the most up-to-date information on where chronic wasting disease has been found in the state. You can visit MI.gov/cwd.

Hannah:
Deer check is a great way for us to connect with hunters and hear how their season went, hear concerns and answer their questions so we really appreciate everyone who takes the time to stop by our check stations. It supplies us with some of that biological data, and also as I mentioned, it helps us hear what's concerning you and what you're seeing out in the field so we really appreciate everyone taking the time to come to the check stations.

Hannah:
Now unfortunately, the upper peninsula recently had its first positive CWD deer. Almost four miles from the Wisconsin border. The existing deer surveillance efforts that were already underway, kind of have been kicked up a notch so like other areas of the state, this means increased time for staff at those deer check stations, collecting and processing the deer head for testing and gathering hunter information as well as more of the face-to-face time so we can answer your questions and gather that biological data.

Hannah:
In other news from the upper peninsula, something cool that's been happening is in the UP, we track snow depths at many different areas across the upper peninsula so each week snow is measured and tracked to gauge its overall impact throughout the winter. The harder the winter, the fewer deer tend to survive so it's something we want to track pretty closely. Staff are now able to use a new technology, which was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the SNODAS System. This gives depths and coverage of snow in a much more efficient way. It allows us to have better monitoring and predicting the impacts of winter on deer that might be in the forecast. It's a pretty cool new tool that our folks are able to take advantage of and utilize.

Hannah:
Ryan, what do you have going on in the northern lower peninsula that you can update us on?

Ryan:
Coming up shortly is the, in the northern lower peninsula is the late or what we call the December elk hunt. It's crazy to think the firearm deer season is over and we're already getting ready for nine days of elk hunting. Ten counties in the northern tip of the mitt, opens December season for elk hunt.

Ryan:
We're going to work closely with the 100 state hunters to help hunters have a good experience and hopefully have high harvest success rates. Staff are also putting together everything needed for a late antler list deer hunt I southern Alpena County. This will include some hap enrollments to gain more access to private lands in the area too, which will give more use to that unfilled antler list license come January 2019. You'll see more soon on this late antler list season in the near future.

Hannah:
Yeah, so if you're in the Alpena County area, do keep an eye out for more information on that late antler list season. Now Ryan, I know you're the invasive species biologist, is there any sort of invasive species work going on around the state that you'd like to give us a little update on?

Ryan:
This Michigan Invasive Species Program is unique in that it's like this cooperate effort so we're working together with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Environmental Quality, and a whole slew of partners across the state that are organized into what we call cooperative invasive species management areas or CISMAs for short. 

Ryan:
These CISMAs are a great local resource for information if you're planning your next habitat project or just concerned about invasives in general. You can find a map of CISMAs and contact information in the show notes.

Ryan:
For example, one of the ways we're working together is there are only three known infestations of Japanese stilt grass in the state. One is in Van Berrien County, and another one in Lenawee County, and then the last one is in Washtenaw County and so wildlife staff and staff from all of those different agencies and partners are working with the local CISMAs to increase awareness and to control them as much as possible to prevent them from spreading.

Ryan:
Another exciting thing that just wrapped up in the northern lower and UP is the forest health staff just wrapped up oak wilt suppression efforts in Dickinson and Menominee Counties in the UP, and then Wexford and Grand Traverse and Alpena Counties in the northern lower. This project stopped the spread of this disease that can kill oak trees frankly and they're kind of a really valuable mass-producing tree for a lot of the wildlife. Great efforts there.

Ryan:
We've always got tons of stuff going on with invasive species. We hear a lot of from the public on these issues. We know they're really important to a lot of folks so we'll try and talk about a lot of these things in the mail bag segment.

Hannah:
Yeah, so we'll have more on invasive species and some other fun topics in our mail bag. Before we wrap up around the state, I just wanted to remind any teachers out there for kindergarten through 12th grade students, to submit your students' artwork to the Michigan Turkey Cooperator Patch Design Contest. This is a design contest for our annual turkey patch and if you have some artistic students who would be interested in contributing to some artwork to the contest, those entries must be received no later than December 31st, so that's coming up here.

Hannah:
First, second, and third place winners will receive cash awards so $100 for first place, $50 for second, and $25 for third place. The winning design will be basically the basis for the next year's Wild Turkey Management Cooperator Patch. Do consider that again, if you've got some artists out there who might be interested in contributing, you can visit MINWTF.org for the patch program contest and entry form so all those details are on that website. We'll also include a link in our show notes so you can find that easily if you're interested and have some kindergarten through 12th grade students.

Hannah:
Well, that's all from around the state. Be sure to stick around because next up is our interview with Jon DePugh.

Announcer:
The time is now. Get those last miles out of that base license that's already in your wallet with some December hunting. Just because firearm deer season is over, it's not all over. Your $11 base license is your ticket to keep on hunting. Small game hunting, waterfowl hunting, and trapping with an added fur harvester license. Next year, buy your base license early and squeeze every bit of hunting you can out of it. Visit Michigan.gov/hunting for more information.

Hannah:
Welcome back to Wild Talk. Ryan and I are now joined by John DePugh and he's going to be talking with us a little bit about what he does for the DNR and we'll also get into a little bit more about bats here in a minute. Welcome, John. We're glad you could join us.

John:
Thanks for having me, glad to be here.

Hannah:
We appreciate it. Really quick, could you let our listeners know what your role is here with the Wildlife Division and how long you've worked with us?

John:
Sure. I'm a wildlife biologist responsible for the five western counties in upper peninsula Michigan. I'm also the state bat program coordinator so I work on bats and all our wildlife.

Hannah:
Very cool, so how long have you worked with the DNR?

John:
I've been with the DNR a little over four years now. All of my time has been out of the [inaudible 00:11:30] office.

Hannah:
What initially got you interested in bats?

John:
Well, most of my career has been working with mesocarnivores but when I started with the main department of inland fisheries and wildlife as the state fur bearer biologist, I was also responsible for small mammals in the state and under that lies bat species. There was a number of issues associated with bats. Of course, white nose syndrome, wing power, and all the kind of other matters associated with bats. That's kind of when I started my career working on bats as in Maine and a really interesting suite of species. I've enjoyed it quite a bit and very fortunate that when I came to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, I was able to build on the half dozen years I worked on bats in Maine and continue to work on bats here in Michigan so I'm very fortunate because I really like working on bats up there. They're just amazing critters.

Hannah:
Yeah, they are pretty cool.

Ryan:
I can remember as a kid, you know, we had all kinds of bats in Gratiot County where I grew up and every once in a while they'd get in the house and you had to figure out a way to get them out of there. What's going on with bats nowadays? Why do they need our attention?

John:
Probably unlike your youth, you probably have an experience bats in your attic or house or flying around these days. Certainly the bat population has decreased significantly not only in Michigan but in North America. The biggest cause of the population decline is a disease called white nose syndrome and that disease impacts cave and mine hibernating bats. Certainly the most common bat species in North America is a little brown bat and that bat species populations have been decimated by the disease. We certainly are not seeing as many bats on the landscape in the evenings or in people's attics or in people's houses.

John:
Some other pressures on tree bats are wind power facilities can have significant impacts on those populations of bats that migrate and roost in trees, both summer and winter.

Ryan:
What's the status of bats now?

John:
Here in Michigan, we survey our bats every year, a subsample of our wintering bats and we are down 83% of the bat population has declined compared to the pre-white nose so the pre-disease surveillance numbers. Yeah, it's really significant. Nationwide where the disease has impacted bat populations, it's somewhere in the, higher than that actually, somewhere in the 85 to 95% depending on where you are, what region of the North America. The disease has spread as far south as Florida into the Canadian provinces so it's a big issue.

Ryan:
Sounds like you got a tough job. What are some of the things that we're doing here in the DNR to help bats in Michigan?

John:
Well, several things. One that seems fairly simple is we are gating important hibernacula. I guess it's important to note that the disease is caused by a fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans. This fungus irritates, and can destroy the skin tissue and organs but it causes the bats to come out of torpid more frequently so non-diseased bats during hibernation period will come out every let's say 20 to 25 days. Bats that are diseased are coming out every seven to 10 days because their sleep patterns are disrupted or their torpid patterns, I should say.

John:
There's only so many fat reserves so they run out of fat reserves because they're coming out of the torpid and burning energy. That's an issue so we've been getting this sites that are important to have healthy, well, formerly healthy bat populations that are still certain important wintering habitat for bats to keep people out because humans going in causes the disturbance to the bats and extra disturbance is really not helpful for bats fighting the white nose syndrome disease.

John:
That's one thing we've done for the past few years. Another thing that we do is we do continue to do annual surveys. We typically don't go to the same sites every year because we don't want to be a disturbance factor to those bats on an annual basis. Also, when we go in, we go I fairly quickly, quietly, and try to reduce our disturbances as much as possible. Surveying these sites gives us a handle on what's happening with the population. Of course, the [inaudible 00:16:34] we're monitoring the decline. We're taking samples on the prevalence or the persistence of the disease, so the fungal spores in some of these sites.

John:
Then we also are identifying sites that have lower mortality rates, so higher survival. We've kind of through these surveys over the past several years have found some sites that the bats are doing better than other sites. That's part of the reason to continue surveillance is identifying these sites that four-year post-infection of the presence of white nose syndrome disease, the bat mortality is lower.

John:
There's still mortality, don't get me wrong, but the bat mortality is significantly lower than at some other sites.

Hannah:
Do we know why that is? Like what the difference is in those sites from other sites? That have higher mortality rates?

John:
Yeah, to some degree we do know that it has a lot to do with temperature. Our sites that are warmer, which are sites that bats like, so bats are looking for temperatures to hibernate in the 38 to 50-degree Fahrenheit with 85-95% relative humidity or higher. Those are ideal growing conditions for this fungus. We have found through our surveys and collecting temperature data and different climatic and environmental data within these hibernacula, that sites that are colder have lower mortality. One of the hypotheses is that the fungus is the growth of the fungus is suppressed at these lower temperatures.

Hannah:
That's really interesting.

John:
Yeah. It's kind of one of those things that we've looked at it for a couple years through our surveys and these sites that are colder have consistently have lower mortality. It's of interest that we're going to try to attempt to decrease the temperature a few degrees colder on some of our warmer sites, at least a warmer site. We'll start with a pilot that we know from years of surveying had a pre-white nose high populations and it's one of our hotter sites or warmer sites. In bat terms, in the winter, we would consider our hotter site. We're going to try to cool it down a few degrees to bring it into that threshold that our sites that have higher survival, bring it down to those temperature thresholds.

John:
That's kind of exciting news. We're not the only state but we're one of the states that's leading in this type of work. We're pretty excited to develop the method so it's not as you can imagine, very easy to try to cool down.

Hannah:
No, I was going to ask how you plan to do that.

John:
Well, we're going to try to pull warmer air out and suck cold air in and hopefully with the partnership with Michigan Tech University's mining and geology and engineering school, we're going to hopefully have a professor and some students that work on mine ventilation, help us come up with something that's feasible, right?

Hannah:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

John:
This site and a lot of most of our sites are remote. There's not electricity there. We got to be able to come up with something that's efficient as far as energy is concerned and cost-effective but I think there's a lot of folks that are up to the challenge. Bat Conservation International is willing to help out and like I said, university so hopefully we'll be able to implement this in the coming, well, we'll implement it after this hibernation period. We'll be doing some design and development this winter and then hopefully get some funds through grant writing to be able to implement it on the ground in the summer before the bats come back next winter.

Hannah:
Okay. Besides the project, like the gates and this project to try and reduce temperature, are there other research projects or things that have been in the works?

John:
Yes. We worked on a number of projects here. Most of our sites, 99% of our sites are mines. We have the opportunity to work on field trials to combat white nose syndrome, the disease white nose syndrome. We have over the years, worked with a number of different universities, taking different strategies to try to increase survival. One of the projects that we've worked on with University of California Santa Cruz and Virginia Tech is to use chlorine dioxide so we go in and treat the site with dissolved chlorine dioxide, it's a gas. It's used in cleaning food production facilities or chicken coups that have some disease outbreak so we know that it can go in and kill spores and such.

John:
We go in there in the summer time when the bats aren't there. We've done this on a few sites. First of all, all of these field trials that we're testing here in Michigan have all been tested fairly vigorously in the lab but you got to take it to the field to see how it really is going to work out.

John:
We go in there and we kill all the Pseudogymnoascus destructans spores and the idea is there's been a body of literature to show that the fungal load, so the persistence of the spores that causes disease within a hibernaculum has a relationship with mortality so the bats come in there and there was already a lot of spores. There's a lot of the fungus in the site, mortality rates are higher.

John:
The idea is, if you clean the site with this chlorine dioxide, the bats at this point are still coming in with the fungus that causes the disease but they only have to contend with a small amount of spores that they have on them and not an environment full of spores. We've had a site that we treated a couple summers ago, and the results are pretty promising. We had last winter, high survival on the bats that came in so this was two years post-treatment. We go in there in the fall and we band the bats. Then we get out and leave them be and then we come back in the late winter, early spring and we had survival in the 90th percentile, that was really, really encouraging so we're excited about that.

John:
We'll continue working with that university on that project. We'll continue to go to sites that we treated and we're proposing finding some [inaudible 00:23:25] treat a few more sites.

Hannah:
Well, that's very cool.

John:
Yeah, that is cool and you know, I think the one thing that your listeners and everyone needs to keep in mind is that there's not going to be one silver bullet. I mean each kind of hibernaculus is going to have a different scenario that can take treatment of fogging with the chlorine dioxide, that worked great but there are some really, really big sites that it might be difficult because there's air flow through them. Big rooms where they mined out and that might not be as effective.

John:
The other thing we're doing is working with Western Michigan University on a project testing chitosan. Chitosan is a compound derived from shellfish. It's been shown to help mammal tissue heal. Then in the lab, it's shown to suppress the growth of the fungus.

Hannah:
Kind of like anti-biotic ointment?

John:
Chitosan has been used in ointments to help heal human tissue, yeah, so that experiment is kind of on-going so we went, last year I had a fairly intense study with a number of sites in our minds and treated half the bats and did not treat or treat it with a sham at the bats. We will go back in the spring and then we're going to go back in the fall and see what kind of returns we get.

John:
We fell fortunate because it reminds that and somewhat responsible here in Michigan, we're playing a leadership role and trying to participate in developing some treatment for white nose syndrome. That's fairly exciting.

Hannah:
Yeah, definitely.

Ryan:
John, great information on bats here. Is there any hope that I'll end up with a bat in my house further in the future? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for bats in Michigan?

John:
I hope so and that's a good point to bring up because it can be kind of gloom and doom but the reason we're excited about doing some of this work that we have been doing and partnering with research institutions is that some of these treatments that we've been working on are lights at the end of the tunnel. Like I mentioned initial success in some of these treatments that we're trying. I think some of the stuff that we're going to attempt with decreasing the temperature has got a lot of hope and that's kind of like a potential long-term, relatively low maintenance solution anyway to increase survival of bats.

John:
Then I think the other thing that there's a hope through this whole white nose process. I think the general public has through our outreach and our partners outreach messages on how important bats are. They're extremely important to the ecosystem. They're extremely important for agricultural pest control services. They're important for you know, pest control services that can impact timber. They're extremely important for potential consuming insects that carry diseases. They play a real important role in our ecosystem and I think the hope to me is that the attitudes used to be, right? 

John:
There's a bat in your house, Ryan and your mom probably told you to take a tennis racket and run after it and whack it, which we hope we're changing hearts and minds in some degree that you know, that bat needs to be removed. If there was interaction with humans, it needs to be captured and tested for rabies but if it didn't, there's ways to let that bat out of your house. It's not trying to get you. To let it go on and live and I think that message, the importance of bats and how cool they are is getting to the general public and that's hopeful for me.

Ryan:
That's great. I'm looking forward to having a lot of bats back down in Gratiot County where I grew up, that's great.

Hannah:
Well, thank you so much for joining us today, John. We really appreciate you sharing a little bit more about what the DNR has been up to, trying to help Michigan's bats, kind of work through this white nose syndrome and the impacts it's been having on our population so we really appreciate you sharing your expertise with us.

John:
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for your time. I'm glad to share with you anytime.

Hannah:
All right, well stick around everybody. We'll be back with more Wild Talk in just a minute.

Announcer:
Who says you can't buy yourself a gift this Christmas? How about a personalized elk license plate in your stocking this year? A new elk license plate is just the right gift to celebrate 100 years of elk in Michigan. Show your support for the outdoors while helping the Non-game Fish and Wildlife Fund with your purchase. Get your plate at the Secretary of State or visit Michigan.gov/elk for more information.

Hannah:
Welcome back to Wild Talk. Now it is time to answer your questions in our mail bag. Jeff called recently and was wondering how to get a permit for a roadkill deer that he found and it's actually quite simple to get a roadkill salvage permit. You can visit MI.gov/roadkillpermit, all one word, and fill out a couple questions on your intended use of the animal, which parts you're salvaging and then the permit will be emailed to you if you have an email address or mailed to you later on. This permit will allow you to salvage that deer. There's some other species as well that you can salvage, the full list is available at that permitting page and if you are the unfortunate person that hit the deer with your vehicle, you can also ask the officer for a permit at that time as well but you can do it online any time of day.

Ryan:
Neil wrote in, "Can I use phragmites in the duck blind on my boat?" The answer is you probably shouldn't. It's technically unlawful to possess because it's listed as a restricted species but beyond that, phragmites and a lot of other invasives have these big seed heads that put seeds all in your gear and your boat and they create a big risk for spreading the invasive species. I'd definitely avoid using phragmites in your duck blind and be sure to clean, drain, and dry to prevent the risk of spreading invasive species.

Ryan:
If folks want more information on prohibiting and restricted species, they can check out Michigan.gov/invasives. We can add a link in the show notes as well.

Hannah:
That's really great information to keep in mind. I got an email from Stephanie. She said, "My fiance and I are considering getting into trapping. We are curious to know where we would be able to trap after we got our licenses to do so? Would we be allowed to trap on public hunting land or hap lands?"

Hannah:
Thank you, Stephanie, that's an excellent question. Michigan's state wildlife and game areas are open hunting and trapping. There are some areas that do require a special permit to trap there and a list of those areas are found on page 16 of the Fur Harvester Digest. Hunting is the only activity allowed on hap lands so properties enrolled in this hunter access program would not be open to trapping. Some state parks and recreation areas are also open to trapping but we really advise contacting that individual park or recreation area headquarters for their current trapping regulations for those specific areas and if they have any restrictions in place prior to going out and trapping.

Hannah:
You can also visit MI.gov/trapping and click on "Find a place to trap" for additional information and tools for locating public hunting and trapping lands. If you are just getting started with trapping, you might be interested in taking the Trapper Education Course. It's similar to hunter education and it offers introductory information on trapping, set types, best management practices and so forth. Be sure to check that out if you're interested.

Hannah:
All right, Ryan, what else do you have for us?

Ryan:
I got an email here from Rebecca. She's from Marquette and she's wondering, she said, "Can you tell me if the Asian longhorn beetle has been detected in this region? Please let me know if there's anything more I can do."

Ryan:
Fortunately, Asian longhorn beetle is not in Michigan. The nearest infestation that we're aware of is in Cincinnati, Ohio. For those of you not aware, Asian longhorn beetle is something that we're looking for and we really appreciate and rely on the reports that you provide and especially pictures or a live specimen if you can capture it.

Ryan:
We have a really nice one-stop shop for reporting all kinds of invasive species with pictures. It's called the Midwest Invasive Species Information Network. That website is at Misin.msu.edu. We'll put a link below in the show notes there and also, for those wanting to learn how to identify or to report a possible sighting, that network the Misin, as it's called has tutorials for each species and it'll show you a lot of really good information on what to look for and possible look-a-likes and things like that. Great question.

Hannah:
Well, I've got one more here. Mike asked us where What in the Wild game can be purchased and for those of you who might not be aware is the DNR does have a game called What in the Wild. It's a fun game for families, classrooms, and players basically compete to create wildlife habitat. It's a really cool deck of cards, you can play a bunch of different games with that one deck of cards. Kind of ties in with our Go Wild for Michigan's Wildlife K-5 curriculum. If you're interested in checking out a little bit more about the game, you can visit MI.gov/DNReducation and click on "Wildlife Classroom Curricula". If you're just interested in purchasing a copy, you can find those, they're available online at TheGameCrafter.com, so TheGameCrafter, all one word, .com is where they're available for sale.

Ryan:
Great, just in time for Christmas, eh?

Hannah:
Yeah. For sure. Make a great gift for any wildlife fanatics that you happen to have in your family.

Ryan:
I've got a question here from Sue. She writes, "I think I have a hemlock tree in my backyard, and it doesn't look very good and I'm wondering if it could be the hemlock pest that I've heard about in the news recently." It sounds like the pest Sue is talking about could be hemlock woolley adelgid. It's a fairly recent discovery on the west side of the state in Ottawa, Kent, Allegan, and Muskegon Counties. Hemlock woolley adelgid, we call it HWA for short, it's an aphid-like insect that feeds on the sap of hemlock trees. When they do this time of year, they cover themselves with this wooly wax substance on the outside of their bodies so hence the name, woolley.

Ryan:
Right now, this is a great time of year to check your hemlock trees and you can really see them. They stand out on the branch. Kind of makes the branch look a little bit like a salted pretzel against the bark if you can imagine that image there. Sue, and other interested folks can visit Michigan.gov/HWA to learn how to ID both hemlock woolley adelgid as well as hemlock trees. If you don't know how to ID a hemlock tree, there's a guide on there that'll help you out.

Hannah:
Gotcha, so salted pretzels but they probably don't taste nearly the same.

Ryan:
Right.

Hannah:
Okay, so don't go eating your hemlock trees if it looks like a salted pretzel.

Ryan:
That's good advice. Okay, as we close this segment, remember if you have questions about wildlife or hunting, you can call 517-284-WILD or email DNR-wildlife@Michigan.gov.

Announcer:
Did you know hunters contribute $2.3 billion to Michigan's economy and pay for wildlife conservation and management work throughout the state? We want to take a moment this holiday season to say thank you to everyone who purchases Michigan hunting, trapping, and fishing licenses. We appreciate your support for wildlife conservation and management in Michigan. Happy holidays, and we hope you all have a wonderful time outdoors with family and friends. We'll see you in the new year.

Hannah:
Well, as we bring this episode of Wild Talk to a close, we want to remind everybody that the Pure Michigan Hunt application period is ending soon so the Pure Michigan Hunt is a multi-species hunting opportunity. You can apply as many times as you'd like and three winners are chosen at random and they'll be awarded a bear license, a spring and fall turkey license, and anterless deer license. Also, if you are a Michigan resident, you will be awarded one of those coveted elk licenses. In addition, the winner may have first pick at a hunting location at one of our managed waterfowl areas during the reserved hunt period.

Ryan:
Besides unlimited access licenses, three winners are going to receive a prize package from Michigan companies and organizations. These prize packages, it's going to vary from year to year based on what donations are received. Donations typically include things like shotguns, rifles, blinds, and even guided hunting trips. Applications are $5 and they can be purchased anywhere hunting and fishing licenses are sold. You can apply as many times as you wish to be entered in the drawing.

Ryan:
Maybe you're looking for a unique gift for a hunter you know, if so, you could either use their driver's license or sport card number to buy them a Pure Michigan Hunt application, or you can purchase with your driver's license or sport card and if you're selected as the winner, then you can transfer your prizes and licenses to the person of your choosing.

Hannah:
Yeah, it's a pretty awesome opportunity so even if you want to surprise those folks on your Christmas list so you don't necessarily want to ask them what their driver's license or sport card number is, like Ryan mentioned, you can apply with your information and then if you win, you can transfer any of those licenses and prizes to whomever you choose.

Hannah:
Don't worry, applying for the Pure Michigan Hunt does not affect your eligibility to apply for or purchase other hunting licenses, so that's one question we get from folks who are concerned if they're drawn for that coveted elk tag, are they going to be out of the drawing in the future? This is separate from the elk drawing for example so you're still eligible to put in for your elk tag as you normally would. It doesn't cause you to forfeit any of your preference points or weighted advantage for any of the other limited hunts we have. In particular, elk and bear.

Hannah:
Applications are available March 1st until December 31st so the end of the 2018 application period is coming to a close here at the end of December so be sure to get your Pure Michigan Hunt applications in and if you're applying during the 2018 season right now, if you're chosen as a winner, those will be announced in January and those licenses will be good during the 2019 hunting seasons.

Hannah:
As I mentioned before, three winners will be chosen at random. Be sure to apply before the end of December for your change at this hunt of a lifetime and these make great gifts for birthdays or stocking stuffers for the holidays so be sure to think of any hunters that might be on your list this year.

Hannah:
You can learn more about Pure Michigan Hunt and how to apply at MI.gov/pmh, so thanks for joining us at this month's Wild Talk podcast. Be sure to check out our show notes for this episode on our website if you're looking for more information on any of the topics we discussed today.

Announcer:
This has been the Wild Talk podcast. Your monthly podcast airing the first of each month and offering insights into the world of wildlife across the state of Michigan. You can reach the Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 or DNR-Wildlife@Michigan.gov.