Even where public hunting land is abundant in regions like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, conflicts between deer hunters can get ugly. In a case that was recently resolved in Marquette County, one hunter was injured when his tree stand was vandalized and the person responsible for the accident was sentenced to jail time and lost his hunting privileges.
Twenty-three-year-old Thomas Steele III from Chelsea in southern Michigan was sentenced to 60 days in the county jail, loss of hunting in most states for an undetermined amount of time and will be responsible for reimbursing medical expenses for the hunter who fell 15 to 20 feet from his tree stand due to Steele’s actions. Steele will also be on probation for a year.
Steele was a student at Northern Michigan University in Marquette when the incident took place. The conflict started during October of 2020 when the hunter who eventually fell from his vandalized tree stand found a note from Steele at the location, asking him to remove his stand. Steele left his telephone number on the note. Steele also erased all of the photos from a game camera at the stand site.
The hunter harrasser’s actions regarding erasing camera photos would lead most hunters to assume a big buck was on camera, but DNR Lt. Ryan Aho said the only bucks investigating officers know of that were on camera were a pair of forkhorns and an average 8-pointer.
During a phone call to Steele, the unnamed hunter agreed to quit hunting his stand for a while. He returned to the stand several weeks later, however, when he assumed the conflict had been resolved. The climbing sticks leading to the stand were secure, but as soon as the hunter stepped on the stand it collapsed and he fell to the ground, injuring an ankle and his back.
After limping out of the woods, the injured hunter reported the incident to authorities. He eventually replaced the damaged stand and resumed hunting the location. Conservation officers also placed a camera there in case Steele vandalized the new stand and they caught him on camera doing that.
A news release on the incident stated: “The DNR hopes that by sharing the details of this case, we can bring awareness of the consequences of this person’s unethical and dangerous behavior and know that it will not be tolerated. Hunter harassment is real and taken very seriously.”
Lt. Aho said the DNR does get some hunter harassment complaints in the UP, but most of those involve hunters from out of the area that place blinds or tree stands close to someone else the day before hunting seasons opens or on opening day. He added most of those hunters are apologetic when officers investigate, claiming they didn’t realize they set up so close to another hunter.
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