Michigan Free Hunting and Fishing Licenses for a Disabled Veteran

Section 324.43537(2) is one sentence and it is the broadest recreation benefit in the Michigan file: a disabled veteran is eligible to obtain any resident license under this part for which a lottery is not required free of charge. "Any resident license under this part" is Part 435 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, which is the whole licensing scheme. That covers the base license, the small game licence, deer licences, the combination hunt and fish licence, the all-species fishing licence, waterfowl and turkey licences and the rest. The resident combination hunt and fish licence alone is $75, and a veteran hunting deer and fishing through the year would otherwise be several hundred dollars down. The lottery exception is the only limit. Elk, bear and moose licences are allocated by drawing in Michigan, and the section does not reach a licence for which a lottery is required, so a veteran applies and pays in the ordinary way for those. Who qualifies. A disabled veteran for this section means either a resident who has been determined by VA to be permanently and totally disabled as a result of military service and entitled to veterans' benefits at the 100% rate, for a disability other than blindness, or a resident rated by VA as individually unemployable. As with the property tax exemption, the unemployability route carries no permanence requirement. The "other than blindness" words in the first route are there because a legally blind resident has a separate entitlement in subsection (1) to purchase a senior all-species fishing license, and the drafter did not want the two to overlap. Residency is required on both routes. A nonresident veteran, however rated, is outside the section. Proof. The department may demand proof of eligibility, and the licensee when hunting or taking aquatic species must possess proof of eligibility and furnish it on the request of a peace officer. That is a carry requirement, not merely an application requirement, and the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency tells veterans to carry the documentation when using the licence. How it is funded. Subsection (4) requires the department to process these licences in the same manner as licences issued to senior citizens for the purpose of receiving legislative appropriations under section 43546, so the general fund reimburses the game and fish protection fund rather than the department simply absorbing the loss. This is separate from the Recreation Passport exemption, which is entry to state parks and is keyed to holding a disabled veteran, ex-prisoner of war or Medal of Honor registration plate rather than to a VA determination.