"We're not cutting any more acres of forest than we would over the typical 10-year planning period," Matt Foster, manager of the DNR's Atlanta Unit, said last October. "It's just that we're doing it all in a condensed time frame within this area."
That condensed time frame is now. The ice storm of March 28–31, 2025, has mostly dropped out of the news, and the DNR's trail and campground reopening notices make it sound finished. In the state forest around Hillman, Atlanta and Lewiston, the work has moved from clearing debris to cutting timber. Salvage sales are being offered out of the Atlanta office on M-33. Aspen clearcuts that were scheduled to start in 2028 have been moved up. The 10-year plan behind all of it is open for public comment for 12 more days. So the woods you hunt this November are being rearranged on purpose, partly with deer and elk in mind.
What "Fully Reopened" Actually Covers
The DNR's storm response page says all state parks, boating access sites, state forest campgrounds and DNR-managed motorized and nonmotorized trails have fully reopened. The scale behind that sentence is worth remembering. The storm hit nearly 1 million acres of DNR-managed land across a 12-county disaster area, including 3,400 miles of state roads, 54 state forest campgrounds and 3,290 miles of state-managed trails.
Reopening a trail means one corridor is safe to use. It says nothing about the cover on either side of it. By the DNR's own count, the storm touched about 919,500 acres of state forest, nearly a quarter of the system. Of that, 19,000 acres were rated severely damaged and 35,000 moderately damaged. The reopening notice doesn't list road-by-road or two-track status either. Any other closures are posted on the DNR closures page, which is worth checking before you drive a familiar route to a familiar blind.
The DNR's August 2026 recovery story map is blunt about what that means off the trail. Hunters and other recreationists "should expect that forests will be more challenging to traverse over the next several years" while the debris breaks down. Broken limbs are still hanging in trees and can fall without warning, and some trees are down or leaning on others. The agency asks people to look up and down as well as ahead, and to stay on open trails. If you walk into a stand before dawn with a headlamp, that advice applies to you.
The Salvage Cuts Have Names and Bid Dates
The DNR plans to harvest severely damaged red pine plantations, trench them and replant with red pine seedlings over the next several years. Some will be left to regrow naturally as mixed species. Moderately damaged stands will likely get partial salvage harvests that leave the canopy more open than a normal thinning would.
Montmorency County now has specific sales on the books from the Atlanta Management Unit at 13501 M-33.
| Sale | Bid date | Size | What the prospectus says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ice C25 Oak Aspen Salvage | Jan. 8, 2026 | 127.1 acres | Advertised at $57,221.75, with snowmobile-trail operating protections and oak-wilt restrictions |
| Ice Meridian Line HWD Salvage | Aug. 6, 2026 | 130.5 acres | Hardwood and red oak damaged by oak decline and the 2025 ice storm, advertised at $72,427.80, on a two-year contract with no extensions |
| Ice Haas Rd Red Pine Salvage | Aug. 13, 2026 | 14.4 acres | 575 cords advertised at $4,140, with operations to end by Dec. 31, 2027 |
These are advertised sales. The prospectuses don't say who won the bids or whether saws are running yet. Still, the terms show how fast the DNR wants the wood out. The Meridian Line prospectus tells buyers to "harvest the wood as soon as possible." It also says timber lying on the ground wasn't counted, and prices were cut to reflect the damage and steep slopes. The Haas Road sale requires the buyer to post logging and truck-traffic caution signs on Haas Road and on the two-track north of the sale before work starts. If you see those signs this fall, that's the reason. The DNR's interactive forest management map shows where harvests are planned.
Fresh Aspen Is the Point
Some of this cutting would have happened anyway. The storm changed when it happens.
In October 2025, the DNR announced it would speed up aspen clearcuts across a 30-square-mile area. The work covers nine compartments in the state forest management units of Montmorency and Otsego counties, in the Atlanta Unit and the neighboring Pigeon River Country. It was supposed to start in 2028. The storm moved it up because salvage work was needed in the same area.
The reasoning comes down to browse. Aspen regrows from root suckers without replanting, and elk and deer feed on young aspen year-round, especially in fall and winter when other food runs short. Foster said some aspen stands in the core elk range weren't regenerating to minimum standards because of browse pressure. Shelby Adams, the DNR wildlife biologist for the Pigeon River Country, called aspen "a critical food source for elk." Grouping the cuts together is meant to give the herd more patches of fresh growth so no single site gets browsed down.
Elk hunters have already felt the change. After the 2025 elk hunt, which ended with 153 elk taken, DNR's Brent Rudolph said downed trees and limbs made some woods hard to get through, and elk were missing from some spots that hunters had relied on before. The DNR's 2026 deer preview describes high fawn recruitment and antler growth in the Northern Lower Peninsula. It doesn't link this year's deer outlook to the storm. Put those two together and the herd looks healthy, while the places it feeds are being moved around by saws and regrowth.
Opening Day Logistics in a TB Focus County
The 2026 calendar for Montmorency County follows the Lower Peninsula dates:
- Archery: Oct. 1–Nov. 14, then Dec. 1–Jan. 1, 2027
- Regular firearm: Nov. 15–30
- December firearm season: Dec. 4–6, any legal firearm. The muzzleloader season applies only to Upper Peninsula units.
- Late antlerless firearm: Dec. 7–Jan. 1, 2027
Baiting and feeding remain banned across the Lower Peninsula on both public and private land, with a narrow exception for qualifying hunters in the Liberty and Independence hunts.
The step that's easiest to get wrong is testing. Montmorency is a bovine tuberculosis focused-monitoring county in 2026. Report your harvest first, then submit the head. The DNR asks Montmorency hunters to bring the head to a wildlife field office and request a CWD test along with the TB test, rather than removing lymph nodes themselves. The nearest office is the Atlanta DNR Wildlife Field Office at 13501 M-33, listed at 517-284-9453. The DNR says drop-off locations can change during the season, so call ahead, and take the head off before you arrive.
Nov. 15 in Hillman and Atlanta
The Hillman Area Chamber and the Atlanta Chamber both list a Buck Pole on Nov. 15, 2026. Neither calendar gives a venue or hours yet.
Hillman's version is new. Up North Voice covered its launch last year. The 2025 contest ran at Patchwood Plaza, 14797 State Street South, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with no entry fee. Bucks had to be shot within 30 miles of Hillman, and hunters needed ID matching their tag. Categories included largest rack, largest antlers by a lady, largest youth rack for ages 16 and under, and heaviest buck in men's, ladies' and youth divisions. Those are last year's details. The chamber at (989) 742-3739 can confirm the 2026 setup.
The Comment Window Closes Oct. 12
All of the cutting above sits inside Michigan's 10-year State Forest Management Plan. The plan was nearly finished when the storm hit. Foresters went back into the woods to account for damaged timber and new replanting needs. "This was a once-in-a-century storm," said Dan Heckman, the DNR's forest planning and modeling specialist. "It also had a significant impact on parts of our plan."
The revised plan is open for public review from Sept. 14 through Oct. 12. You can comment on any part of it, but the DNR will only make further changes to storm-related content. The DNR's announcement links to both the plan and the comment survey, and you can find it here. Heckman is listed as the contact at 989-619-4924.
The recovery has a price tag too. The DNR's current estimates include $7,513,800 to clear and reopen state forest roads, $9,566,100 for debris removal at parks, boating sites and trails, and $13,996,200 to replant and restore state forest land. The largest of those three figures goes to the stage of recovery that's just beginning.
Did the storm change the woods on your own land, or on the parcel you hunt next to state forest? At Aimee Smith, we walk acreage around Hillman and Atlanta all year and are glad to talk through what a damaged stand means for your property. Get in touch.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
