Michigan United Conservation Clubs

Michigan United Conservation Clubs is the largest statewide conservation organization in the nation. Founded in 1937, our mission is to unite citizens to conserve, protect and enhance Michigan’s natural resources and outdoor heritage. This mission drives everything we do as an organization.

Our strength is in our membership and support: over 40,000 hunters, anglers, trappers and conservationists and over 200 affiliated local clubs around the state. We were founded in 1937 with a simple purpose: harness the combined strength of Michigan’s outdoors community to protect conservation from politics. Since then, we have been the foremost power in Michigan protecting the rights to hunt, fish and trap. Our policies are determined by our members through Michigan’s most robust grassroots policy-setting process. Our experienced and professional staff carry out the resolutions adopted by our members through a suite of conservation programs ranging from direct advocacy and communications to on-the-ground wildlife habitat conservation and youth outdoor education.

Mission

Uniting citizens to conserve, protect and enhance Michigan’s natural resources and outdoor heritage.

 

Advocacy

We have led significant conservation victories such as the passage of the Bottle Bill and the creation of the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund in 1976, protecting the Trust Fund in the Michigan Constitution in 1984, protecting hunting rights from anti-hunters through Proposal G in 1996 and passage of the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act in 2014.

Communication

Since 1947, we have published Michigan Out-of-Doors Magazine. Our youth magazine, TRACKS, reaches tens of thousands of upper-elementary school students each year. In 2015, we launched the Michigan Out-of-Doors Podcast to reach a new generation of hunters, anglers and trappers. Our weekly Conservation Insider e-newsletter details the latest conservation news in Michigan, and our daily staff blogs at www.mucc.org ensure that content is always relevant and up-to-date.

Conservation

Our award-winning On the Ground (OTG) wildlife habitat conservation program launched in 2013. As a partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, it has engaged more than 3,000 volunteers in dozens of fish and wildlife habitat projects on public lands and waters around the state. Additionally, our On the Water program was launched in 2019 and has removed nearly 4,000 pounds of trash from Michigan’s lakes, streams and rivers.

Education

The Michigan Out-of-Doors Youth Camp, located at the Cedar Lake Outdoor Center in Chelsea, Michigan, has educated over 58,000 youth since its founding over 70 years ago, introducing generations of Michiganders to the outdoors.