Rural Michigan

The season starts Friday. You asked, we answered: Why isn’t year-round hunting? Why are deer so numerous even with so many hunters? What about a commercial hunt?

Bridge’s latest Lunch Break reader event featured a lively discussion about deer hunting and managing deer populations in our state.

Tuesday’s results could come at the margins, a few thousand votes here and there in Detroit, the suburbs, rural Michigan and Ottawa County.

The industry has faced drastic price drops since a 2021 peak.

Decades after the bust, prospectors again descend on Michigan’s northwoods for minerals to make electric batteries. Communities are desperate for jobs. But at what cost?

Growth and change has come fast to the Upper Peninsula’s biggest city, along with a new rallying cry: ‘Don’t Traverse City my Marquette.”

Several wildfires occurred over the weekend including a 100-acre fire in Baraga County in the Upper Peninsula due to dry conditions.

Michigan’s deer populations have soared to 2 million, so the state is tweaking regulations to encourage hunters to shoot more females.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $2 million to Michigan farmers who cultivate specialty crops.

Michigan’s cherry growers impacted by a mild winter, early spring and heavy rainfall prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare 11 counties natural or contiguous disaster areas.

At a Sasquatch conference in northern Michigan, experts preach tolerance, a willingness to engage with skeptics and keep an open mind — all lessons that could help in the leadup to Nov. 5 as easily as in the woods.

Universities have aggressively expanded medical schools with the hope that could curb a looming doctor shortage. Instead, the shortage worsened as newly licensed doctors left Michigan.

More than 1 in 4 Michiganders live in an area with a shortage of health providers. Primary care is among the worst hit.

The culture wars have led to compromise in northern Michigan, with a library moving books and county commissioners rescinding a threat to fire library board members.

The state is experiencing the worst outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease among white-tailed deer since 2012. The viral disease is transmitted from midges and is often fatal.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is asking people to be careful as dry weather and high winds bring a higher chance of fire. The department has restricted burning in much of the region.

Farmers could be a key voting bloc in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, where Mike Rogers and Elissa Slotkin are competing to replace a longtime agricultural ally.

Bridge Michigan’s Kelly House and Janelle James will moderate a discussion about deer populations, regulations and changes in hunting seasons.

Michiganders should prepare for some disappointment as they’re booking camping sites for next season. Over a dozen of the state’s campgrounds and day-use areas will be closed for some or all of the 2025 season.

A court ruling gave Michigan regulators authority to ramp up controls on factory-farm waste that pollutes waterways. Legislators have proposed exemptions for waste produced by ‘biodigesters,’ which capture methane for electricity and transportation fuels.