Wildlife management and conservation play a critical role in ensuring Michigan’s beautiful wildlife and natural resources remain here for generations.

Ensuring our forests, waters and wildlife are clean, healthy and support diverse wildlife is important to our families and outdoor traditions, our economy and our overall enjoyment of the outdoors.

A lot of hard work goes into maintaining our state’s natural resources. Without continued conservation and management activities, lakes, rivers, streams, forests, public lands and the wildlife that call them home would quickly become unhealthy and unbalanced. Numerous public and private organizations strive to ensure they are well managed so that all Michiganders can enjoy the benefits of our natural resources.

The public management of Michigan’s wildlife and natural resources is primarily funded through the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses and equipment – not state taxes.

Benefits to Wildlife

Scientific wildlife management ensures that wildlife populations are sustainable and non-endangered so that populations remain in balance with their habitats and other species. Wildlife biologists and conservationists work to restore the populations of rare, threatened or endangered species, such as moose, Kirtland’s warblers, piping plover or the Mitchell’s satyr butterfly. They also ensure each wildlife species’ unique challenges and threats are addressed, including preventing the spread of disease.

Benefits to our waters

Michigan boasts more than 36,000 miles of streams and more than 11,000 inland lakes. Through the management of our natural resources, Michigan can ensure the health of these waterways. This allows conservationists to prevent invasive species from contaminating our lakes, rivers and streams, keep pollution from degrading our waters, restore and enhance our waters and wetlands for wildlife, and ensure that ecosystem balances are met. All of which ensures Michiganders continue to have a multitude of opportunities to connect with the outdoors through water recreation.

Benefits to our forests

The Great Lakes State has 20 million acres of forestland. These forests help keep Michigan’s air and water clean – as forests renew our air supply and absorb and filter rainwater into groundwater. The careful management of our forests ensures that they will remain healthy and provide diverse habitat for thousands of Michigan wildlife species. Through the management of our forests, Michigan can also reduce the risk of wildfire and flooding and prevent other natural disturbances. In addition, the management of forestland ensures that our state’s trees will continue to not only provide beautiful scenery and opportunities for recreation, but also a remain a renewable resource – as trees also provide many wood products and contribute to the strength of our communities by accounting for more than 96,000 jobs and boosting Michigan’s economy by $21 billion!