- Hello everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors".

I'm Jenny Ciolek and we've got an exciting show headed your way this week.

I was recently able to take my very first black bear here in Michigan.

It was a very special hunt for me.

I was in the western end of the upper peninsula.

Now I have harvested a black bear years ago in Canada, but this was my very first Michigan bear.

Very special hunt.

I was able to capture it all on camera, and we're gonna share that with you on this week's show.

So make sure you stay tuned for that.

And Jimmy's got another interesting story for us this week.

- Well, that's right, Jenny.

We do have another story on this week's show.

We're gonna learn a little bit more about the Hunter's Feeding Michigan program.

It's a great thing here in the state of Michigan.

You can either donate deer towards, or when you buy your hunting and fishing license, you can spend a couple of dollars that way and help fund that program.

It is a great thing here in the state of Michigan.

Make sure you stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger.

It's time for "Michigan Out of Doors".

♪ From the first spring rains to the soft Summer breeze ♪ ♪ Dancing on the pine forest floor ♪ ♪ The autumn colors catch your eyes ♪ ♪ Here come the crystal winter skies ♪ ♪ It's Michigan ♪ Michigan Out-of-Doors - [Jimmy] What a beautiful day in the woods.

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(gentle music) (rock music) (gentle music) - [Jenny] On September 24th, my husband Matt and I headed over the Mighty Mac and across the Up over to Oteneagen County.

We both drew bear tags this year for the third season in the Burgland Bear unit, which began the next day on the 25th.

Our friend Bob Majurin and his buddy Derek had been baiting for Matt and I and a couple of other friends who'd be sharing Bear Camp with us.

Bob says as the seasons progress, it's more challenging to fill a tag.

- Our first season it's, it's easy to kill a bear.

They're, they're pretty, you got 'em coming steady.

But second season, but a little bit still good.

But third season outer, they're getting a little bit more nocturnal.

They're eating the acorns.

The acorns are falling.

It's getting, it's getting a little bit harder, but it's, they're still bears to be gotten, you know, they're still out there.

You can get 'em - [Jenny] On opening day, Bob battled the muddy trail into one of his active baits where he had a ladder stand set up and ready to go.

He says, this time of year some bears will start the hibernation process.

- [Bob] They'll den up early.

A lot of people don't understand that, you know, and they wonder where the bears went and they denned up, you know, and it's fact of life, you know, and it's fine.

You know, it's, you don't wanna kill all the bears either, but it's, it's good.

Pretty much every day we put baits out, you know, we don't put a lot though.

We don't put a lot of bait out, you know, couple gallons that's more than enough and once, once they hit it, they'll, they'll keep coming back.

- [Jenny] Typically, bear hunters who hunt baits will wait until the afternoon to head out.

Bob says there's a good reason for that.

- [Bob] Well, a lot of times they'll be there in the morning.

A lot of times the bears will move in the morning, but when you go in there early, you know you'll scare 'em out and that you don't want that 'cause once you get 'em scared, you know, they may not come back.

So we do it in the afternoon, it's better that way.

- [Jenny] Well, it was working out great for me.

After an hour and a half of no activity, I had a bear that had worked its way into the bait.

Bob and Derek had shown us lots of trail cam photos of the bears they had coming into this area.

And this looked like one of the smaller bears they had seen.

Being the very first day of the season, I decided to sit tight, get some footage and see how the evening unfolded.

I had my GoPro camera clamped onto the stand next to my left knee and the bigger video camera attached to the tree over my right shoulder.

The plan was to use both cameras to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I had a front row seat to an exciting hunt.

This young bear hung around for a while and then after several minutes sat at full alert with its attention focused in the woods where it had come from.

It ran off in a hurry and I figured that meant a bigger bear was making its way in.

After a couple of minutes, another bear showed up, you'll see it enter the screen on the lower right.

This one was another decent Michigan black bear, but was about the same size as the first one.

With plenty of daylight left, I sat back and enjoyed the show and hoped for a bigger bear to show up.

After several minutes this bear also seemed to spook from something off in the same direction as the first one.

I was poised and ready, convinced this time it was a bear coming in.

This next bear that came in seemed a little more cautious and a bit bigger than the first two bears I had seen.

This one seemed stronger as it stood up and took apart the logs on top of the barrel.

I took my time and sized it up and decided I'd pass on this one too.

I was having a great time just watching it all unfold.

(log thuds) (log thuds) (log thuds) (can thuds) This bear had its fill and moved on and that would be it for my first hunt of the season.

After legal shooting time and well after good camera light, I did see another bear come in, but it appeared to be one of those first two smaller ones.

Back at camp Rod Gallaro from the Clarkston area was celebrating a great success.

You got the first bear in Bear Camp.

- Yeah.

- Look at this thing.

Beautiful white V. Nice.

Tell us what happened.

- You keep in about seven o'clock, 7:15, he jumped right onto bait pile and that's when I shot him.

I was using a 6.5 Grendel.

It seems lead as a creed more, but it's a, a smaller shell.

So it's a smaller hole, it don't give much blood.

- Okay.

- None.

- So what do we- - Wasn't for the dog, we would've never found it.

- We had to call in Waylon.

- Had to call in for the dog.

- [Jenny] All right.

Well cool.

And he didn't even go that far, eh?

- A hundred yards.

- Okay, cool.

Waylon, the bear and deer tracking dog who saved the day belongs to our buddy Derrick Gozack.

Derek has been working with Waylon for a little over two years now and he's one of those dogs who has the natural instinct to find downed game.

Derek and Waylon have helped many deer hunters and now bear hunters find their animals when they run out of tracking options.

Meanwhile, Bob was frying up some UP walleye and lake trout to go along with the feast his wife Lynn had laid out for a bunch of local friends.

Bob is retired now and hunts and fishes every chance he gets, which happens to be quite a bit.

We were grateful to enjoy the fruits of his fishing success he shared with us.

After we all had our fill of good food and great stories, it was time to hit the hay and set our sights on the next day.

All right, we are here at Bear Camp on day two.

So last night was the opening day of the third bear season.

Here in the western end of the UP we have the Burgland unit tags.

And last night was pretty exciting for me in my stand.

I saw, gosh, I think it was around 5:30, kind of a small bear came into the bait and ate for a few minutes and then got really nervous and took off.

So I was like, game on.

Here we go.

Another small bear came in a little bit bigger than that one and ate for a few minutes and then that one took off running.

And that really got my heart pounding.

Got my heart pounding so much so that my apple watch actually notified me that my heart rate was extremely high after a period of inactivity.

I've never seen that on my watch, so that was pretty crazy.

I know exactly why it was happening 'cause I could see a big black blob moving through the trees and coming in and the bear that came in was a decent Michigan bear.

But I was just hoping for something a little bit bigger.

Bob and Derek said they did have some bigger bears coming in, a lot heavier ones coming into the bait.

So I decided to sit back and relax and get some good footage of her.

So that's exactly what I did.

The second day in the stand did not disappoint.

After a few hours of nothing at all, a bear that looked to be one of the same bears from the night before came in for a while and kept me entertained.

Seeing these amazing animals up close and personal is something that never gets old.

Well, here we are, it's day three of my bear season.

We had another exciting night last night.

Only saw one bear and I think it was just the way she was shaped, it felt to me like it was a female bear, just with that shorter body and kind of the rounder rear end.

But I believe it was the exact same bear came in again last night just all by herself and stayed for a while and gave me a nice entertaining show.

Something to watch for a while.

Still didn't feel like pulling the trigger on that bear.

I wanted, I do want a Michigan bear, but I want it to be maybe just a little bit bigger than that.

We've got a few more nights left, so I'm hoping I see something a little bit bigger out there tonight.

And actually heading out closer to noon today I am gonna attempt to sit in that small archer stand that I've been hunting for, it's gonna be about eight and a half hours by the time it's all said and done.

And Bob gets out there to pick me up after dark.

So it'll be a long sit, but hopefully it won't be if I can get something to come in a little earlier.

They said there was a nice bigger bear that came into that bait at the stand I was hunting around one o'clock, so I thought I might as well get out there a little bit earlier.

That's what we're here for.

So I'm in for a long sit or hopefully I get to see something before dark that's a little bigger than that bear I've been seeing.

Well this little guy wasn't very big, but super cool to see.

It was a fisher, a member of the weasel family who's also related to mink and otters.

Fishers are carnivores and prey on small mammals like squirrels, rabbits, and birds.

A male fisher can weigh up to eight pounds.

Until tonight, I'd never seen one in the wild.

A special treat for sure.

His quick erratic movements made it tough to get much footage of him as I was trying to stay as still as possible on the bear hunting front.

A little after 7:00 PM the fisher left and a bigger bear was making its way in.

It was as still as could be with not a breath of wind.

And I could hear the bear walking towards me.

You'll see the bear entering the screen on the lower right.

My heart rate was about to go crazy once again.

(upbeat music) (gun bangs) (leaves rustling) (Jenny gasps) I just shot my very first Michigan black bear.

Holy moly.

So exciting.

Oh that was a bigger bear.

At first I thought it was gonna be the exact same one I'd seen the last two nights.

It's like 7:15.

Oh, that one came in so cautious.

All I could do is get the camera rolling.

I couldn't move the camera, I couldn't pick my gun up off my lap or anything.

Oh, that's a bigger bear.

He was really cautious and just kind of worked his way in around the bait and I wasn't gonna give him a chance.

For a second there he looked like he might take off to the left of the bait.

Ah.

I gotta wait till dark now.

Bob's gotta come in and pick up Matt who's hunting, I don't even know on the same property, but he's gonna have to pick him up first.

And then I'll probably be sitting here for a while in the dark and then we'll go check out, see if we can find some blood.

I think I see some with the binocs but I can't wait to get down there.

It's gonna be a long wait, but I can't wait to put my hands on this bear.

He can track a bear.

- Yeah, this is only our second year with him, but he likes it so he does really good.

- Yeah, he, he found one last night with no blood, right?

- Yeah, we should find this bear here shortly.

I don't think it'll be very far.

- [Jenny] Matt grabbed the camera for me and got footage while Waylon, Derek and I tracked my bear.

While I was busy following the blood trail, Waylon followed his nose and ran right to my bear.

(leaves rustling) Hey, you know what?

This is my first Michigan bear.

- [Derek] Oh, he's got a nice tail on him.

- (chuckles) All right, how far did he go?

Can you tell on your tracker?

Good job, buddy.

- Yeah, good job.

- That was a fat one.

- That's what I mean.

That's a big bear.

- Hey Matt, come around here.

I think I can just pick the head up.

- [Derek] Yeah, pick him out.

It's your bear.

- Ah.

- Come on.

- This is a senior moment.

Gotta put on the readers in order to mark my tag.

Oh, God, love it.

Do we know male or female?

Do I have to mark that on the tag?

- No, just the date.

- Okay.

- I believe.

- Isn't that cool?

Michigan Black Bear.

Look at these paws.

So cool.

Isn't that cool?

- Mm-hmm.

- Nice.

Oh well I can't thank you guys enough for all your help and.

This is my first ever Michigan black bear and I can't be more excited.

Waylon got some good blood work in with us and good tracking I should say.

And I'm a little giddy and a little kinda delirious right now.

But I am excited.

This is a beautiful bear.

(upbeat music) I was on cloud nine to say the least.

Matt, Derek and Bob's son Bob Jr loaded my bear into the side by side and wrestled their way out of the woods on the muddy two track.

Let's just say there was a lot of winching, a little yelling, and a whole lot of muddy boots by the time we made it back to camp.

This mature bore gave the guys a run for their money and ended up tipping the scales at just over 280 pounds.

A very special thanks to Bob Majurin, Derek Gozack, Bob Junior, and my husband Matt for helping make a dream come true here in "Michigan's Out of Doors".

(birds chirping) - In our next story, we are gonna learn a little bit more about Hunters Feeding Michigan.

It is a great program here in the state of Michigan where you can either donate a deer or you can donate a few dollars when you buy your hunting and fishing license to help those that are in need.

(upbeat music) This time of year, the deer processors around our state start what is usually a pretty crazy couple of months.

Today we are meeting up with the DNR to learn more about their Hunter's Feeding Michigan program and just how that all works.

- My name's Joe Presgrove.

I'm the program specialist for Hunter's Feeding Michigan.

Here to talk about a little bit the history of the program, kind of where we're headed.

The program started in 2007, so legislation was passed in 2005.

By 2007, the department had to have a program in place that allowed wild game donations.

- Okay.

- We are currently contracted with the Food Bank Council of Michigan.

Previously we were contracted with Michigan Sportsman Against Hunger.

We changed our name last year to Hunters Feeding Michigan.

Kind of a tagline along Feeding America.

They work closely with the Feeding America Network.

So the program's pretty straightforward.

Hunters can donate deer.

They simply go to michigan.gov/huntersfeedingMich.

They can locate a processor on there.

We just recommend calling the processor ahead of time, make sure they're willing to take that donation.

Sometimes they get a little busy during, especially during a firearm season.

- Okay.

- They drop it off.

As long as it's legally tagged, field dressed, harvest reported, they're all set.

We take it from there.

So that's, it's all provided by hunters and anglers when they buy a hunting and fishing license.

There's that question that they wanna buy or donate towards a Hunters Feeding Michigan program.

- Okay.

- And that covers the cost of the processing.

- Okay.

And so how many deer roughly are being donated each year?

- We average rate around three to 4,000 deer.

- Wow.

- Throughout the year.

So we base off of fiscal year.

- Okay.

- We're on track to hit about 120 to 130,000 pounds of ground venison processed this year.

It's a new record for us.

It's pretty exciting to see hunters participate and continue to drop off the year 'cause it goes a long ways.

I mean, one deer is 160 servings.

- [Jimmy] Wow.

And it doesn't cost the hunter anything to bring the deer in then?

- No it doesn't.

Nope.

- Okay.

- They simply drop it off.

So the individuals that chose to donate when buying a hunting, fishing license, they pay for that processing.

- Okay.

- So for every $2 that's donated, about three to four servings are provided.

- Nice.

- So we encourage you to donate when you buy a honey fishing license at the stores or online.

We really appreciate, it goes a long ways.

- Awesome.

Not all processors take donated deer, but you can find a list online of the ones that do.

And the venison though, is spread out around the state to a lot of great facilities.

All right, we are now talking with Garrett Zuver and Garrett, tell me what is your role in this whole program?

- Sure, I'm the Agriculture Business Specialist for the Food Bank Council of Michigan.

And we are the direct contractor with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for the Hunter Feeding Michigan program.

- Okay, so once the deer is here and processed, and then kinda what's your role from that point?

Where does the meat go?

- Sure, so we have seven Feeding America food banks in the state of Michigan.

And those seven Feeding America food banks cover all the counties in Michigan.

All 83 counties.

And they're responsible for serving over 2000 different agencies.

And those agencies are your church pantries, your food clubs, as well as any other type of pantry or soup kitchen that is in your community.

- Okay, and so how many deer kind of go through this process and how many people are we feeding in the area?

- Yeah, so we have, this year we're looking at hopefully 130,000 pounds of venison.

- Wow.

- And so the rule of thumb is it's about four servings per one pound chub of venison.

So that's four people that are directly fed from one pound of venison, from those deer that are donated.

So, you know, we have 1.1 million Michiganders who face food insecurity, which means they might not know when their next meal is coming.

And there's also one outta seven children in Michigan are food insecure.

So this program is a great way to give very healthy protein to Michiganders in need.

- [Jimmy] This program does a lot of great work.

Many of the processors around the state have worked with the DNR on this for years now.

- I gotta believe that we're probably in since the original, the first year.

And I can't remember if that was like 14, 15, somewhere in there.

- Okay.

- I'm not really sure.

But we've been a part of it ever since ground zero for sure.

- [Jimmy] And how many deer over the last couple years would you say, per year are coming in and being donated?

- [Adam] Last year was was a a the biggest year yet.

I think we were at 750 some donated.

- Oh wow, okay.

- Deer.

Yeah, so a pretty large number compared to, you know, we're doing 2,400 deer a year and- - Okay.

- 715, 50 of 'em to be donated was pretty big.

You know, I mean that's a lot of meat.

- [Jimmy] Are they crop damage stuff?

Are they just guys shooting does trying to get the ratio right?

Who's bringing these deer in?

- [Adam] So yeah, this is a very big ag area.

So we got a lot of farmers with a lot of damage between the DMAT program through the DNR and crop damage.

You know, we get a lot of calls in the summertime too.

Sometimes that aren't the easiest to facilitate when we're busy with our other business, but we try to help there as much as we can too.

But a lot of it is culling herds.

They need to take and harvest more deer than what they can eat or give to family and friends.

And so this gives 'em a perfect out, you know, for a great cause.

- [Jimmy] A great cause indeed.

So if you're up for donating a deer or just chipping in some money when you buy your license, it all goes a long way in helping some folks in need right here in "Michigan's Out of Doors".

- Thank you so much for joining us this week for "Michigan Out of Doors".

Make sure you stay tuned in upcoming weeks because everything is happening right now in Michigan.

We'll take you out for some fall salmon fishing, little bit of waterfowl hunting, and give you an update on how the archery deer season is going.

If you'd like to see where we are and what we're up to on a more regular basis, you can always do that online.

- Well, that's right, Jenny.

Online is a good way to see what we're up to on a more day-to-day basis.

There is so much going on around our state right now.

Make sure you are getting out and enjoying it.

And if we don't see you in the woods or in the water, hopefully we'll see you right back here next week on your PBS station.

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To learn more about all the product options available for your food plots, visit dairydew.com.

- [Announcer 2] Closed captioning, brought to you by Double D Ranch Foundation, a nonprofit 501 C3 foundation working to make hunting and fishing accessible for those with disabilities.

(upbeat country music) ♪ When I wanna far away a dream stays ♪ ♪ With me night and day ♪ It's the road that leads to my home state ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ Changing seasons paint the seed ♪ ♪ Like rainbow trout in a hidden stream ♪ ♪ Whitetail deer in the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ I am, I am a Michigan man ♪ Ask where I'm from ♪ And I'll show you my hands ♪ Lord above, love this land ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ From the Keweenaw down to St.

Joe ♪ ♪ Kalamazoo east to Monroe ♪ Sault Ste.

Marie and back (gentle music)