By David Fleet
Editor
Ontonagon County— It’s been just short of 30 years since Groveland Township resident Jason Wilton first mixed a unique concoction of cookie dough, doughnuts, granola, topped off with a few gummy bears.
While the blend may be overly sweet to some, it’s the perfect palette-pleaser for black bears.
Wilton is a bear hunter and the ideal menu item paid off for two of his friends in the northern regions of the state this season. Each August, Wilton makes several 13-hour treks from Oakland County to the Bergland hunting zone of eastern Ontonagon County in the western Upper Peninsula to deposit the bait. The September UP Bear season is by lottery and allows baiting a few weeks prior to the opening.
“I really enjoy bear hunting,” said Wilton, who over the years has been successful, but now assists family and friends to score a bear. “The weather is great in late summer and we hunt federal ground where there’s plenty of room.”
Wilton hunts some very remote areas off old logging trails near the Ontonagon River.
“The first part of the 2023 season started slow, it was an unseasonable 95 degrees during the day,” he said. “That really slows the bears down, they are walking around the woods with a fur coat on, they did not move much. But it cooled off and the bait started working so it picked up.”
Wilton said they hunt late in the day and bears hit the bait just before dark.
“Bear are nocturnal and know to get at the bait early before others can feed,” he said. “We hunt from tree stands and in very heavy cover. The shots are about 50 yards tops.”
Wilton’s success this year is in line with the Department of Natural Resources estimates.
Cody Norton, the bear, fur-bearer and small game specialist for the state DNR, said the state bear population is relatively higher compared to a decade ago.
Statewide bear populations are flourishing by design in the upper peninsula and northern section of the lower peninsula, said Norton during an interview with The Citizen. The bear hunting quotas in both regions were reduced by the DNR in 2012.
“The 2021 bear population estimates for northern lower are about 2,200 animals, that’s an increase of 70% since 2012,” said Norton. “That’s one bear for eight-square miles.”
The bear population in the upper peninsula is about 10,650 or about one bear for every two miles, he said. Since 2012, that number has increased about 25%.
Statewide total bear hunting permits are about 7,000, of those about 1,100 are issued for the lower peninsula.
“Right now we are at the point of stabilizing that population, that’s our goal,” he said.
The western upper peninsula has the highest concentration of bear harvested.
“We are hearing good things from the UP hunters this year,” he said. “For bears the main source of mortality is hunter harvest. Bears can live a long time and have few natural predators.”