Stewardship through hunting, a love story of engagement and deer management 

TBD

Deer overbrowsing is stripping habitat value from Washtenaw County’s parks and conservation lands, undoing years of stewardship work. In response, Washtenaw County Parks partnered with the DNR’s Becoming an Outdoors Woman program to build a mentoring pipeline that turns interested women, at any experience level, into confident hunters. The program combines training, community building, and a full season of guided hunts, resulting in harvest numbers significant enough to give overbrowsed habitats room to recover. Hear about the partnerships, planning, and logistics behind this program, along with what it takes to recruit new hunters in ways that strengthen both healthy natural areas and the state’s recreation economy.