- Well, hey everybody.

Welcome to "Michigan Out Of Doors."

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

We've got a brand-new show for a jam-packed, we're going to start off by doing a little bow hunting.

Jordan Browne was able to get out those first few days of the season.

We'll see what he's been seeing in the tree stand.

We're going to stop in at a Northern Michigan bow camp on public ground.

You won't want to miss that.

We're also going to sit down with a brand-new conservation club here in the state of Michigan, the Green Way Conservation Club, see what they've been up to.

And we're gonna have time for a little bragging board as well, see what you, the viewer, have been up to.

So much to see on this week's show.

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 ♪ - [Hunter] What a beautiful day in the woods.

♪ Someday our children all will see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy ♪ ♪ The wonder and the love of Michigan ♪ ♪ As the wind comes whispering ♪ ♪ Through the trees ♪ ♪ The sweet smell of nature's in the air ♪ ♪ From the Great Lakes to the quiet stream ♪ ♪ Shining like a sportsman's dream ♪ ♪ It's a love of Michigan we all share ♪ (lively music) - [Announcer] "Michigan Out Of Doors" is presented by... - [Presenter] By Country Smokehouse, a sportsman's destination since 1988, featuring varieties of homemade sausage, jerky, brats, and gourmet entrees.

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(dramatic music) (gun popping) (dramatic music) (engine purring) (upbeat music) - My preparation for the 2026 bow season started out much like any other year with habitat and food plot work throughout the spring and summer, leading into trail cameras and trimming stands as the season approached.

However, my plans for the actual bow season were going to be a little bit different this year.

Well, it's hard to believe, it is already October, my absolute favorite time of the year here in Michigan.

Really September, October, November are just, just great.

There's so much going on in the state, but I love to bow hunt and it feels great to be back into the tree.

This year admittedly has been a little bit different.

You know, last year I killed the biggest buck of my life and knew that deer for a couple of years and all summer was planning for him.

Ended up hunting him for about 30 days in total last year.

This year's just different.

I think we lost a few deer to EHD.

We also had a pretty tough gun season last year.

A lot of bucks that we were hoping might make it through got killed during gun season.

So just not as many good ones around this year.

Compared to the last five years, it's definitely the lowest that it's been.

So can't control that.

So you got to hunt what you have and I've got one pretty good buck this year, nice mainframe 10-point.

I do know what buck it is from last year, at least I think I do.

But he got all busted up last year so I really wasn't keeping tabs on him.

He broke about every tine off his rack last year.

But this year he put on quite a bit.

He's a nice deer.

So I'm going to hunt for him, but I've also made it a goal this year to spend more time with friends and family and a little more time exploring the state during October.

So I'm going to be bouncing around a little more and not hunting quite so hard on our place this year.

All that being said, the nice 10-point that I do have pictures of was in this food plot two nights ago.

So my wife's been chasing him around the first week with no luck and finally I just had to get out in the stand and at least see what's going on.

So maybe we'll get lucky and first night he'll come in here, but I'm not too worried about it if he doesn't.

I'm just glad to be back in the tree.

(animals chittering) (animals chittering continues) Well, just settling into prime time here and that was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had, I think, in a tree stand.

I have hunted for a long time and I've never seen a gray fox in person.

I've gotten a few pictures and I've heard occasionally somebody else might see one, but I just had a gray fox underneath me for at least 10 minutes eating apples.

I think I knew that they would eat apples, but I didn't put two and two together.

But I couldn't tell if he was mousing or what he was doing at first.

Then he started chewing on the apple clear as day, and then he ate three or four of 'em before he left here.

That was super, super cool.

What an encounter.

And just to have him stick around so long, it's one thing to see one, but I had him right underneath me for like 10 minutes.

Oh man, feels good to be back in a tree.

That was awesome.

(upbeat music) The gray fox sighting was certainly the highlight of the first week of bow season.

And after hunting a few times around home, I decided to head north for a couple of days to cover a bow camp with a big group of archers hunting a mix of public and private land, hoping to make the most of some unseasonably warm weather.

- We're not wasting time again.

(campers laughing) (campers chattering) (upbeat music) We're not wasting time again.

(campers laughing) (campers chattering) (upbeat music) - Northern Michigan, this is our bow camp.

Year four of having the bow camp, year five of our property, and it's my sons and my father-in-law and then a couple buddies, and just trying to see what we can get.

It's kind of the October lull, but hoping to shoot something this weekend.

So yeah, five years ago we bought 40 acres up here with a cabin.

We own 11 acres down in Evart on the Muskegon River that we just wanted something a little bit bigger and a little bit more comfortable place to stay.

So bought the 40 acres surrounded by state land.

We've been hunting for a long time and the boys were brought up hunting and so we wanted a place where we could expand a little bit.

So the 40 acres is nice.

We just had it timbered off a couple years ago, so we're still waiting for it to improve a little bit, but we're surrounded by a couple thousand acres of state land, so it's great.

The boys don't even hunt on the property at all anyway.

They go down there in their saddles and do their thing.

So it's kind of nice, we're just trying to get this better and ready, you know, hopefully for them for a long time.

You know, it won't be mine forever.

And then the kids and the grandkids, that's what we're hoping for, to make it a really, really desirable spot for the deer to come in.

- Here we are in Northern Michigan on a little bit of public... Here at bow camp.

We're on a little tight piece tonight where hopefully they're pattern-only shots within 18 to 25 yards.

So we're going to be right in close with them on some good transition lines and whatever.

We've had some good deer showing up lately, so held off on hunting it until we could be here tonight.

- [Jordan] After a slow night in the tree stand, we headed back to camp for dinner.

Although the deer hunting isn't the best this time of year, that's why these guys have this camp when they do, so that more hunters are able to make it up and not feel like they're missing something on their primary hunting spots.

For these guys, camp is much more important than what hangs on the pole.

- Obviously, being the hunters that we are, we wanted to bring our buddies in and bring the friends.

We've done traditionally just gun deer camps, you know, for the gun openers, but we primarily bow hunt now.

So we thought let's do a camp for all the bow hunters and trying to get some of the boys and actually some of my buddies, too, that weren't bow hunters into bow hunting more so they can expand their seasons just like we can and get new hunters.

That's what we're looking for.

So yeah, we do the smaller, just family traditional gun season camp, but for bow, we wanted to open it up and we got, I think this year there's like 21 or 22 people this year.

Yeah, and we thought it was important to, again, bring that camaraderie, that sense of, you know, tradition, Michigan deer camp and just kind of make it something with the younger generation so they can keep pushing it.

And as we get older, my father-in-law, you know, he's getting older, and we can just sit back and let these guys do their thing and let them enjoy it and learn.

And hopefully their kids start, you know, when they all have kids, bring them into the fold and do all that.

So we're just trying to keep that whole Michigan deer camp camaraderie, hunting, and expand that to get that.

So, you know, more people involved, the better for us.

- Doing some Northern Michigan, public land, bow hunting, sitting on the edge of a kind of a clear-cut field, some fresh acorns dropping.

It's a little warm this morning, but just kind of seeing what will walk by, hopefully.

Good buck, or if not, doe or two.

- [Jordan] Well, our second hunt was much like our first, no deer spotted.

Hunting public land can be difficult in general, but when it's almost 70 degrees out in mid-October, it is even more tough.

Thankfully, the hunting success doesn't change any of the camp traditions.

- This will be year four of our bow camp, and the first year was like just 12 guys or 10 guys, just a couple of us and a couple of their buddies.

And then it expanded and then everybody shoots their bows obviously up here.

So we decided let's have a little competition.

People can shoot all weekend except for today.

They can't shoot out.

We just shoot a 40-yard target.

You get one shot, cold bore are the only one that counts.

So everybody shoots and we leave all the arrows in.

We've been fortunate we haven't had a Robin Hood yet.

The winner gets a logo hat that's with the gold emblem.

And then after that, these guys will get going.

We got a 100-yard lane, so they'll be shooting out to 90, 95 today and then they'll all just probably lose an arrow or two, but it's all fun.

- That might be it.

- That might have done it.

- At the buzzer, possibly.

- I think they'll want it.

Really, folks.

- Yes!

- It's just nice to watch these kids want to be in the outdoors and be passionate about it as young men.

You know, they're all in their 20s for the most part.

A couple of us are a bit older.

And then there's, you know, two other dads with their kids here and stuff, so that's cool.

And getting these guys who've never hunted and then teaching them, letting them sit with the other guys.

I mean, now with the saddles, they can get out and sit together and learn and do all that and just get that a little bit more passion for it.

Hopefully they keep it going in Michigan because I know we're losing hunters.

We're trying to, you know, reverse that as local as we can, you know, the best we can do.

So yeah, just trying to make it fun and keep people in the outdoors.

We got some guys that didn't even hunt this morning or deer hunt.

They went out bird hunting, so, you know, we get a little bit of everything.

The dogs are here.

We got bird dogs, we got labs, we got tracking dogs.

We got it all, so it's just kind of a big group.

We're going to have a phenomenal fish fry here in a little while.

My father-in-law lives on the Saginaw Bay, so perch and walleye.

Then guys will go back out hunting a little bit and hopefully we can knock one of the big fellas down.

(cooking oil sizzling) (hunters chattering) - [Jordan] Whether it's mid-November or mid-October, deer camp is a special place and it felt great to spend a couple of days at this one.

Thanks to Matt and the crew for inviting me up for a fun couple of days in Northern Michigan, and good luck to all of the other bow hunters out there still looking to fill a tag.

(gentle music) - Well, we're here today with Kyle Green from the Green Way Conservation Club.

And Kyle, tell me a little bit about what you guys are and why you're starting this conservation club here in Michigan.

- Well, as you know, MUCC, an organization that was around for almost 100 years, closed their doors recently.

And the whole goal of MUCC was to be a voice for hunters and fishermen and trappers in our state.

And once that voice was gone, regardless of whether people agreed or disagreed with the voice that they gave often, it needed to be replaced.

We needed a way to actually enhance the way people can communicate with their elected officials, with the Department of Natural Resources, with anyone making decisions about hunting and fishing rights.

- Okay, and how long have you guys been officially up and running?

- For like a month and a half, yeah.

We just started, and luckily with Michigan, there's enough issues going on right now, it wasn't hard to sink our teeth into a few right out of the gate.

- Well, and I think that's a good place to start.

I mean, you guys are brand new, but you've actually really done a lot of stuff in the last two months.

But specifically talk to me about the waterfowl issue and what was happening with expanding some hunting rights.

- Yeah, so one of the big issues is budgets at the Department of Natural Resources.

They will talk to you about it right now being extremely low, extremely tight.

And because of that reason, they told us their goal was to cut managed waterfowl area draws at four of our major waterfowl draw areas.

So Fish Point, Nayanquing Point, Shiawassee, and Harsens Island were all going to be cut from seven days a week, two draws per day, down to just five, five draws total, so over five days, - Oh, wow.

- And not on Sundays.

So you were going to have one draw per weekend on a Saturday morning and all the hunters that wanted to get in draws for the entire weekend would have to go to that specific draw, which would overcrowd the place.

Additionally, you go there a couple times and not get a draw, you're not very likely to go back.

And I was really worried about that.

The thing is, a lot of times when these changes are put in place, especially if they're budget-related, that just becomes the new norm.

And at the end of the day, if we only have five draws per week at these managed waterfowl areas, people are going to lose interest, people are going to quit going, people are going to quit participating.

As soon as that happens and it becomes too expensive, then they're going to get rid of the managed waterfowl areas that are so near and dear to me.

It's where I shot my first mallard, that's what got me into hunting.

They're so important.

So we stepped in, we said we have to solve this.

So I met with the Department of Natural Resources.

I met with Ken Borton and David Martin, our state representatives that help oversee the budgets at the Department of Natural Resources.

And I said, "Listen, what do we need to do to solve this problem?"

And what it came down to, there was a lot of hurdles to get there, but me being a business owner and a practical thinker, I just kept pitching idea after idea until finally we landed on, if we were able to actually hire some part-time workers at the managed waterfowl areas during the draw season, then that would be enough to cover the draws and make it so we could go back to two per day, seven days a week.

But at the time, the Department of Natural Resources was not allowed to hire seasonal or part-time work.

It was part of the budget cuts that took place.

So Ken Borton and David Martin worked with the state representatives to get that overturned so that we could do that.

They were very helpful in this entire scenario.

- Wow!

- I will be honest, Shannon Lott and the Department of Natural Resources, Keith Kintigh, they were all very helpful.

It was like, I didn't know what I didn't know.

Like they didn't all get along all the time, but bringing 'em together with the common good and you know, pouring into hunters in the state, they were all really eager to help.

So what we did was we said, okay, we need about $20,000 for each one of the four zones, so $80,000 in total.

And then I worked with some of the managed waterfowl area groups, the conservation organizations.

I signed my name on the $80,000 out of the gate and I was like, I'll raise it if I need to.

But conservation organizations stepped in, including Ducks Unlimited, including Delta Waterfowl, including the Shiawassee Flats Citizens, the Harsens Island groups, everyone, they all came together, put in the money.

We raised it in, I think, three days.

- Geez, that's awesome.

- Yeah, Brian Siess was a big helpful partner on that with me raising the money.

Raised it in three days, saved the managed waterfowl areas and turned it around, protected it for another year.

But the important thing of GWCC in general and like what we're working on is creating a permanent fix to that solution because that was a temporary band-aid, right?

And a lot of people say that to me like, "Okay, that's great for this year.

What about next year?"

So I'm working with Ken Borton and David Martin right now, as well as Keith Kintigh over the Department of Natural Resources to come up with a solution that accounts for inflation that will protect the managed waterfowl areas specifically for years to come, because one in four duck hunters in the state use 'em.

And even if they don't use 'em, I guarantee they're impacted by them because we would be a flyover state without them.

That food source, those refuges, they're so important to managed waterfowl areas.

The managed waterfowl areas in general, protect those birds, feed those birds, and keep those birds here.

So if you're in Saginaw Bay, you can thank Fish Point for having that managed waterfowl area.

That's why you're shooting ducks still.

- That's awesome.

Well, that's a lot to get done in a year or more, but just a couple of months.

What other stuff are you kind of working on right now?

What are you hearing as you are kind of getting out there and being just a sportsman, you grew up here hunting and fishing and now you're like, okay, eyes wide open, what do we want to do here?

- Yeah, it's interesting that you say that, too, because it's what specific projects can we work on?

And obviously the managed waterfowl areas were like a specific project, a specific problem, but these things are popping up all the time.

There's a lot of people that have opinions on baiting in Michigan, a lot of people that have opinions on APRs, the one-buck rule, all those different scenarios people have opinions on.

And then what they can do is write in to us.

So our platform actually works where almost any topic in the state can be covered, and it isn't necessarily us doing the work of raising money or doing this, but instead it's connecting the hunters and anglers in our state with the politicians, with the Department of Natural Resources so they can use it.

Give an example, like we'll just use the managed waterfowl area 'cause that's what we've been talking about.

We made a video about that and then people could click on that video, put in their name, put in their address, and put in their email, all completely free.

And what will happen is if they agree or disagree with me, everyone agreed on the managed waterfowl area, but they would click Agree and a letter would be drafted for them.

Now they can go in and manipulate that letter, change it however they want, make it their own.

They can sign their name with their finger on their phone or using their mouse on a computer and click Send.

And based on their address and based on the topic, our system will automatically know all the politicians, all the state representatives, all the governor, the Department of Natural Resources, the NRC, whoever might be important to that, it'll know exactly who to send that email to.

And what's so cool about it is it sends from their email on their phone or, you know, their computer so that they can track the responses.

They can get a response, and the most important thing is the Green Way Conservation Club is free.

You can join, there's optional memberships, and when you do, you get all kind of prize packages and stuff that outweigh the value of what you're paying anyways.

But additionally, you're going to be able to have your voice heard at any point on any topic.

And if you are a member, you can write in to us about topics that you'd like to see on the site as well.

- So free memberships, or I guess that would be, it almost sounds too good to be true.

Can you sustain with that kind of thing?

Or you think people will be like, "Hey, they're doing a lot of work here.

I want to join up, 30, 50," I don't know what the price is to join.

But do you think you can keep this going?

- Yeah, you know, we've been blessed with The Green Way Outdoors, which a lot of people confuse the two companies, but The Green Way Outdoors is a hunting and fishing TV show we have on the History Channel.

We have many great partners through that organization, and this is kind of more of my way of giving back.

So if it makes money, great.

I mean, we invested so much in it.

I'm certainly never gonna make money doing this, but at the same time, I didn't think it was my place to stand in between with a pay threshold for people to be able to contact their politicians, the NRC, the DNR easily.

So that's the thing, you know, and I love Uncle Ted and I love Mike Avery and I love all these people who say, you know, "Contact your local officials, contact this."

No one does it because you got to go find their email, hunt them down, draft an email, do all this work.

We've taken all of that legwork out of it.

Realistically, you can use our system.

I say it takes three minutes to describe, but 30 seconds to use.

You can go through that system so quick.

So I didn't want to stand between people and having their voice heard.

I didn't think that was my place.

If people want to join, God bless 'em and I hope they do, but at the same time, I'm going to be doing this my whole life, this is my way of giving back.

- Well, that's awesome.

Well, special thanks to Kyle for sitting down with us.

We are excited to see what the Green Way Conservation Club can do right here in our great state.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) Well, everybody, thank you so much for watching "Michigan Out Of Doors" this week.

If you missed part of this week's show, maybe last week's show, you can always check us out online.

Our website is michiganoutofdoorstv.com.

We have full episodes of the show there, and you can see what we're up to on a more day-to-day basis by following us on Instagram or Facebook.

Make sure you're getting out and enjoying everything our state has to offer.

It is a great time to be a sportsman here in the state of Michigan.

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

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(bright music) (bright music continues) ♪ When I wander 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 ♪ (bright music) ♪ Changing seasons paint the scenes ♪ ♪ Like rainbow trout in hidden streams ♪ ♪ The whitetail deer in the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan Man ♪ (bright music) ♪ I am, I am, a Michigan man ♪ ♪ Ask where I'm from ♪ ♪ And I'll show you my hands ♪ ♪ Lord above, I love this land ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ (bright music) ♪ From the Keweenaw down to St.

Joe ♪ ♪ Kalamazoo east to Monroe ♪ ♪ Sault Ste.

Marie and back again ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan Man ♪ (upbeat music)