Discover the U.P.

Interview with Jordan Hoover of the U.P. Deer Management Initiative (DMI) team to hear about his experience, the process over the past few months and the recommendations they submitted to the Michigan DNR and Natural Resources Commission. The NRC will consider their update to the Michigan Deer Hunting regulations for 2024 based on the DMI recommendations. This is the full interview from the latest episode of "Discovering".

May whizzed by in a blur and I can't remember what I did yesterday. Oh, yea I can, I filmed 3 stories in one day! Thankfully not a regular day, yet it was still a fun day and I got plenty of fresh air and mosquito bites. Here's a look at what stories I have coming up in June for "Discovering" and the podcast and a few of my most frequently asked questions. Plus a question for you - what should I do for my 100th episode?

Whew, I can talk. But there's a lot to talk about when it takes you 12 days to shoot a turkey. On today's episode I share my experience of spring turkey hunting, seriously hunting, for the first time. There aren't as many gobblers in the Upper Peninsula as there are in a lot of other places, but there are enough that you can hunt them in every county, even in the "high snowfall zone" that I live in. These birds are a lot smarter than I initially gave them credit for, and now I'm addicted.

My full interview with Dean Juntunen, who completed his lifetime goal of kayaking the entire Lake Superior Shoreline, and he is the first paraplegic to do so (as far as we know!). There are so many things he's seen on his journey that few have laid eyes on. Dean shares his adventures, his favorite spots along the Lake Superior shoreline, some of the challenges he overcame, how to do a kayak water rescue, plus we get into local river kayaking.

I sit down with outdoor writer Richard P. Smith to get his thoughts on the 2023 deer harvest, the lowest deer harvest on record, here in the U.P. I interviewed him back in January for my "Discovering" episode about the 2023 deer harvest and only had room for a few of his comments. I wanted to share his full interview like I did with the rest of the sportsmen I interviewed. Artwork photo provided by Richard P. Smith

I took advantage of the beautiful weather last weekend and went for a hike on a portion of the North Country Trail. I met up with a hiking group and the hike leader, Mark Roberts, V.P. of the Peter Wolfe Chapter of the NCT. While out there I interviewed Mark about the North Country Trail, new unit designation under the National Park Service, need for volunteers and what type of volunteer work needs to be done. We talk about the Peter Wolfe Chapter of the trail (which is the part of the trail I hike most), this crazy winter and good places to hike in the Western U.P. right now during our unseasonably warm and dry El Nino winter. This winter was a popular topic on the trail that day and we all agree we're going to get a huge snowstorm yet before May!(Artwork Photo Credit: Keith Meyers)

December 2023 was the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. The U.P. is an important place for the conservation of species and there are currently 15 species on the federal Endangered Species List that you can find here in the Upper Peninsula, including a venomous snake.  I talk to Scott Hicks of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the Act and its importance in the conservation of plants and animals, how species get on and off the list, as well as some Michigan success stories in recovery of some species that were once endangered, like the Kirtland’s Warbler.(Episode Artwork features the federally endangered Piping Plover which nests along the shores of Lake Superior)

A chat with Brian Whitens of the 906 Outdoors show and Cooking Wild Seasonings. I started working with Brian back in 2019 when he was the producer/host of the “Discovering” program on WLUC-TV6. Brian took over for the show creator Buck LeVasseur back in 2012. With me as co-producer of the show in 2019, Brian had more time to pursue his other projects – 906 Outdoors and Cooking Wild Seasonings – until 2022 when he left “Discovering” and I took over the full-time role of producer/host. We chat about how he wound up producing the “Discovering” program after Buck, how he got into the outdoors television business back in the day, a little behind the scenes on how this outdoor TV biz operates, the evolution of video cameras, his idea for Cooking Wild Seasonings, how the spice business is going, new products in the works and his plans to expand.