"Blaze orange" for Michigan hunters

"Hunter pink" remains the feminist option, but manly "blaze orange" is still a must if you want to hunt this fall in Michigan.

The ruling says that hunters must wear some highly reflective clothing that's colored in blaze orange although they can choose something in hunter pink to. Some might say, orange and pink clash. The deep-rose color called hunter pink has become a hip, outdoorsy hue for hunting attire that some boosters of the game thought might attract more sharp-shooting women. In her bill, signed by Gov. Rick Snyder, the hue was defined as "the highly visible color commonly referred to as hunter pink, including a blaze pink, flame pink and fluorescent blaze pink."

But blaze orange has been required for hunting in Michigan since the 1970s. It’s an international standard for safety. Hunting-related injuries and deaths have steadily declined as a result of the requirement, the report said. The report added that — frankly — not every hunter would welcome peering into Michigan’s woods this fall and seeing pink. In fact, hunters opposed to it have been vocal on Internet forums, with some charging that the adoption of pink amounts to reverse sexism, the DNR report said.

"There are various online articles that reference the opposition to hunter pink. Many claim it divides the hunting community and that it is a chauvinist," the report said. In addition, because the color is so new to hunting, “there is not an accumulation of field data" supporting it, the DNR report said.

Taking heed, the state’s final arbiters of hunter safety ruled that Michigan’s hunters must continue to wear at least one prominent piece of attire, visible in all directions, colored in blaze orange after citing the hue's solid safety record, proven visibility and history of research showing it enhances the safety of hunters and people like construction workers. The ruling came after the DNR’s Law Enforcement Division studied the issue and recommended in its August report sticking with blaze orange.

Bottom line in the woods this fall? Hunters must wear at least one of the following, tinted blaze orange: a cap, hat, safety vest, jacket with the reflective fabric or rain gear, many of which "must be the individual’s outermost garment and be visible from all sides."