According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, bears have likely been in Michigan since the melting of the last glacier.

Bears were unprotected in the state until 1925. Regulated hunting is an important part of bear management. About 80-85% of bears in Michigan live in the Upper Peninsula.

Bear hunting in the U.P started Sept. 11 and runs in periods through Oct. 26.

There are seven Bear Unit Management boundaries in the U.P. — Bergland, Baraga, Amasa, Gwinn, Carney, Newberry, and Drummond Island.

Bear hunting is so popular, the limited number of licenses are awarded by lottery. The highest license quota is in the Baraga Bear Management Unit.

The vast majority of bear hunting licenses are awarded to Michiganders, although a few out-of-state applicants are awarded licenses for the annual bear hunt.

Legal hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hours after sunset.

The Michigan DNR offers bear hunting clinics, where student learn about bear habitat, gear, stand placement, baiting, rules and regularions, and carcass care and hide care.

Visit www.michigan/gov/outdoorskills, or call the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center at 231-779-1321.

Within 72 hours of harvesting a bear, hunters must take the unfrozen bear head and pelt, or entire animal, to a DNR registration station to be examined, sealed and registered. Bear registration stations are listed online.

For information on hunting regulations, visit www.michigan.gov/city/managing-resources/laws/regulations.

One important rule: hunters are required to wear hunter orange when bear hunting.

Vickie Fee can be reached at 906-228-2500, extension 506. Her email address is vfee@miningjournal.net.