LANSING – Every year around Nov. 15, it’s expected that productivity on construction sites around Michigan will suffer a bit with the mass migration of tradespeople headed out to the woods to hunt deer.

Building trades workers, like no other group, take advantage of the opportunities to hunt, fish and camp in Michigan. And now, there are a couple groups that would like to take advantage of the trades workers’ love of the outdoors and explore a stronger relationship.

“Over the last 40 years, the few times there have been upticks in (deer) permits, it has corresponded with downturns in the building industry,” said Russ Mason, director of the Michigan DNR Wildlife Division. Mason was given an opportunity to speak to Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council Legislative Convention delegates on March 3. “Your members are our core constituency, so we want to find out what you want from the landscape, and we want to listen to you.”

Following Mason on the dais was Erin McDonough, executive director of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC).  She reiterated to delegates: “You are our core constituency. I can’t believe we haven’t made this connection before.”

She said having a connection with the building trades would be particularly valuable when it comes to combating or promoting ballot issues that affect outdoor sports and conservation.

Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council President Patrick “Shorty” Gleason, an avid hunter, is pressing for the strengthening of ties with the MUCC. He told delegates he first worked with McDonough last year to tone down the MUCC’s convention language opposing the construction of new clean-coal plants in Michigan. When the MUCC softened its opposition, Gleason said it was “a natural” that the building trades, the MUCC and the DNR open the lines of communication.

“So many of our people hunt and fish, we really need to look at ways where we can work together,” Gleason said.

Mason said strengthening its ties with the building trades would help to provide a unified voice for a constituency of hunters and anglers that historically have had little unity, and not much of a collective voice.

“I’d like to see conservation as a great force in this state,” Mason said. “Right now, frankly, it’s pretty weak.” He added: “Outdoor opportunities have the great potential to be an economic driver in this state. Right now we don’t have a consistent message to drive that home.”

One of the nagging issues for which the DNR is seeking input and solutions as part of a long-term deer management plan, Mason said, is the annual deer harvest. He said deer kills vary widely across the state, with northern Michigan hunters generally seeing less deer than southern hunters during the 2009 season. “It’s a lot easier to make fundamental change when people are unhappy,” he said.

Information released by the MUCC said the deer harvest over the entire state in 2009 was down an estimated 5 to 10 percent from 2008. The likely causes are a significantly delayed corn harvest, which provided deer with cover. Also likely factors were the severe winter weather in the northern two-thirds of the state the year before, causing herd mortality, and warm weather during hunting season.

For economic reasons, to scrutinize the 2009 hunting season, the state DNR has moved away from a checkpoint system to one that relies primarily on a mail/internet survey from hunters to gather information. The survey, and a wealth of other outdoors-related information, can be found at www.michigan.gov/dnr. A second survey that will gather information from building trades union workers can be found online at www.michiganoutofdoors.com.