Once the $10,673 in state funding was secured, Paul led a volunteer effort to plant hundreds of trees in the fields around the K-12 school in Alger County’s Burt Township.

Paul is 16.

That makes him the youngest person to secure a grant in the 17-year history of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Upper Peninsula Deer Habitat Improvement Partnership Initiative.

For Paul, improving deer habitat – and ultimately, the deer population – is a passion project.

Burt Township students including Lola Zeller, facing camera, help plant a sapling to improve deer habitat near the Burt Township K-12 school in the Upper Peninsula. (Alger Conservation District photo)

“I just like being in the woods,” said Paul, who just completed his sophomore year. “I snowmobile and ride off-trail and do a lot of hunting and fishing. And I just started trapping. That’s about all I do. I’ve been hunting my whole life, but I really got serious about it four years ago when we moved up here.”

Paul’s family moved to Grand Marais from the Flint area. He started planning the DNR grant in 2024, as a 15-year-old, after securing a smaller grant from a local hunting club to get archery targets for his school.

The DNR grant came together this year, with support from Burt Township Schools and the Alger Conservation District.

Over several days in May, about 17 students in grades seven through 12 – roughly half of Burt Township’s K-12 student body – helped plant some 425 native trees and saplings and erected protective fencing on 600 acres of school-owned land.

Once mature, the trees’ fruit and foliage will provide deer with cover and food.

White tail deer are seen in late fall, early winter in this photo provided by the Michigan DNR.

Burt Township Schools Superintendent Gordon Tester noted that Paul completely wrote the grant himself; the superintendent simply signed a letter of approval. The grant, officially run through the Alger Conservation District, is a partnership between the DNR, the conservation district and the school system to support student and local conservation efforts.

“I am very proud of Will and his involvement in all aspects of this project, from applying, to planning, to implementing,” Tester said. “The students have done a wonderful job of jumping in, getting their hands dirty and helping plant the trees and shrubs.”

Alex Kolton, executive director of the Alger Conservation District, said the initiative provides a local economic boost by using trees and shrubs from the U.P. It also gives the students a real-world lesson.

“I think the project accomplishes the goal of improving habitat for the deer, but the subtext of the accomplishment is that it really gets the younger generation more involved and gives them the opportunity to get out in the field,” Kolton said. “It shows them another side of conservation and how it actually works instead of just talking about it as a theory.”

Paul, who will graduate in 2027, said he wants to be a builder or a conservation officer, or, better yet, both. He credits members of the Grand Marais Sportsman’s Club for helping him improve his hunting skills and for developing an appreciation of the importance of deer habitat. He plans to apply for the DNR grant again next year to continue improving the local deer habitat.

“I just like to help the deer; it feels like the sportsman’s thing to do,” Paul said. “That’s part of hunting – having a good habitat – so that years down the road, some kid who comes up here and gets into hunting like I did will still have deer to hunt.”

‘Deer know no boundaries’

In addition to the Burt Township project, the DNR’s 2025 crop of Deer Habitat Improvement Partnership Initiative grants included 14 other collaborative projects across the U.P. for a total of $148,300.

The U.P. deer habitat grants are open to proposals on private acreage and public land not owned by the state of Michigan. The DNR manages millions of acres of state forests, but deer herds roam freely, of course, so it’s important to improve their habitat on a broader scale, noted Bill Scullon, longtime grant coordinator and a U.P.-based field operations manager for the DNR’s Wildlife Division.

“The grant program inspires landowners who might not otherwise focus on deer habitat to get involved,” Scullon said. “Deer know no boundaries. They move from state land to federal land to private land – wherever they can find food sources. Over the years, this initiative has created a true collaborative approach to cultivating their habitat among private landowners, sportsmen’s clubs, industrial partners, nonprofits and local schools and public agencies.”

Now in its 17th year, the U.P. grant program has awarded 162 grants totaling $1.28 million in state funding. Grant partners have contributed an additional $953,701 in matching funding or in-kind work.

State support comes from the Deer Range Improvement Program, a public fund through which $1.50 from every Michigan deer hunting license goes to improve and maintain deer habitat.

Private sector involvement

In the central Upper Peninsula, the U.P. Whitetails Association, a nonprofit deer-management group, recently secured six grants totaling $46,400 to bolster deer habitat on private land in Delta County. Much of the acreage borders industrial plots or state land.

Shawn Cannon of Cannon Forestry, which is overseeing the projects, said the work includes planting clover and other nutritional food sources and mowing previously enhanced land. Three of the projects were completed recently, and the other three will be finished by summer’s end.

Cannon, a Delta County resident and devoted deer hunter, said much of the project land is between the deer’s wintering territory and their summer range – a key area for nutrition to keep the animals alive in early spring.

“The goal of the grant is to improve habitat within these deer wintering complexes or adjacent to it, so you have to include the private sector,” Cannon said. “These landowners also buy their hunting licenses – they pay that $1.50 into the habitat fund. I think it all shows what good collaboration and partnership we can have with the private sector, the state and our nonprofit organizations.”

Giving deer an edge

In the western U.P., the Gogebic Conservation District secured a $10,777 grant to enhance spring and fall forage on about 60 acres of county-owned land that encompasses decommissioned logging roads.

The project is part of a decade-long partnership to cultivate deer habitat between the conservation district, the Gogebic County Forestry and Parks Commission and the DNR, according to Max Ramsay, district manager for the conservation district.

The work, which will commence in July, involves mowing previously enhanced land and planting new food sources. Previous projects have included distributing apple trees to nearby private landowners at a discounted price.

“It can be tough hunting up here,” Ramsay said. “We have mature forests that don’t provide much forage, and our winters can be pretty harsh. So, the deer density is inherently low. You do whatever you can to give deer an edge in surviving, and I think these collaborative projects do just that.”

Find out more about the deer habitat improvement grants, including how to apply for them, on the program webpage at Michigan.gov/DNRGrants.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state’s natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. For more information, go to Michigan.gov/DNR.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

• Daily Newsletter
• Breaking News
• Obituaries

Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

• Yes
• No