LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Michigan elk hunters may see considerably longer harvest home windows underneath draft proposals from the Division of Pure Assets for the 2026–27 season.
The plan would lengthen each hunt intervals within the northern Decrease Peninsula, dwelling to Michigan’s elk herd, by greater than doubling whole hunt days.
What would change:
Hunt Interval 1: A steady 30-day season operating from the second Saturday in September by way of the second Sunday in October. Presently, Interval 1 is cut up into three four-day hunts throughout August and September—12 whole searching days.
Hunt Interval 2: A 15-day season from Dec. 1 by way of Dec. 15. Presently, Interval 2 runs Dec. 13 by way of Dec. 21—9 whole searching days.
Mixed, the 2 intervals would supply 45 whole days of harvest time, up from 21. The proposals wouldn’t have an effect on the 2025 elk searching season and should be authorised by the Michigan Pure Assets Fee.
Courtesy: Michigan DNR
Along with making Hunt Interval 1 longer and steady, the change would shift the season later when the climate is mostly colder and thought of higher for elk searching.
“Shifting the period later in the year should give hunters more favorable weather conditions,” Scott Eggeman, a Gaylord-based area operations supervisor for the DNR Wildlife Division, mentioned in a press release. “And a monthlong, continuous hunting period would provide hunters with more opportunities, allow flexibility to choose when they want to hunt and help them safely and effectively target an appropriate elk by reducing the pressure on them to make a kill quickly.”
The proposed change to Hunt Interval 2 additionally strikes it farther from the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays. Underneath the proposal, Interval 2 would finish Dec. 15 as a substitute of Dec. 21.
Hunters would have 72 hours to register their elk with the DNR—up from the present 24 hours.
The draft proposals don’t embrace adjustments to elk administration unit boundaries or the annual elk drawing.
The DNR hosted an open home final Thursday in Gaylord to stipulate the proposals and take public suggestions. Feedback will be emailed to [email protected] by Jan. 23, 2026.
Closing proposed elk rules and license quotas for 2026–27 will probably be offered to the Michigan Pure Assets Fee in March 2026. Closing rules are anticipated to be adopted on the April 2026 NRC assembly. When out there, the March agenda will probably be posted on the NRC webpage.
