The crowd at the 2007 Michigan Deer & Turkey Spectacular saw row upon row of trophy mounts, many of deer shot during the 2006 season.
February 14, 2007 Installment
Living as I do in the Atlanta area, it's easy to forget how tough winter weather "up north" can be. But I was reminded of that last weekend, when I traveled to Lansing, Michigan, to present seminars at the 2007 Michigan Deer & Turkey Spectacular.
Although the weather in Michigan isn't as nasty today as it was a week or two ago, the cold, snow, ice and wind are enough to make me glad I'm not a whitetail having to face those conditions 24 hours a day. It's amazing that these animals, as well as other wildlife, seem to view a typical winter as little more than an inconvenience. No wonder they've thrived across much of the continent for millions of years.
Fortunately, it was quite comfortable inside the Lansing Center, where the show was held last weekend. I met dozens of folks who read North American Whitetail magazine and watch our TV show, and I saw row after row of fine trophy bucks from around Michigan. For a season many Great Lakes hunters would call especially challenging, I'd say Michigan whitetailers did pretty well.
And, as if I needed any reminding, this show reinforced the notion that private-land deer management is a hot topic. Tony LaPratt, Michael Faw and I presented three "tag team" seminars on habitat management, and the size of the audiences showed just how great the interest in developing deer land really is. All three of us now look forward to Feb. 23-25, when we'll present management information to seminar audiences at the Illinois Deer & Turkey Classic in Bloomington (www.deerinfo.com).
In the meantime, I'm off to Texas for a week, to accompany some business associates on an exotics hunt at Bill Grace's beautiful Mustang Creek Ranch (www.mustangcreek.com), then visit my family's own Texas ranch before returning to Georgia.
And, the other members of the NAW team are mighty busy as well. Whether attending events, researching articles for future issues or scouting locations for filming future episodes of NAW Television, we have plenty of off-season "hunting" going on. We hope you do, too.
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