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michiganconservation.net:

... is a website to tell you about the Michigan Conservation and Michigan Natural Resources magazines, which were published by the Michigan Department of Conservation (later the Department of Natural Resources) from 1931 to 1999.

The magazine's exquisite span of nearly 70 years contains not just a wealth of text and images of hunting, fishing, camping, forestry, fisheries, natural history, public policy, and land management in Michigan (sometimes elsewhere), but the most complete record of conservation history in Michigan for the 20th century. In its long run, the magazine won numerous awards and accolades for its excptional journalism and editorship; beautiful art, photography, and design; and high print quality.

After the Michigan Natural Resources's untimely demise during the disastrous 'privatization' craze of the engler regime, it seems to have been mostly forgotten by the public. This website is here to remedy that; to show people that there exists in their public libraries and perhaps even personal collections a vast, unsurpassed encyclopedia of Michigan outdoor lore and history!

It also gives us some valuable perspective in the longger history of its pages, now, after being completely gone for over 20 years: it tells us a little bit about how things used to be ... back when going outside was influenced less by sophisticated 'lifestyle marketing' and image identity than by the pleasure of an established way of life and self-developed interests. When the promotion of knowledge and skills was more important in publishing an 'outdoors' magazine than the promotion of the latest 'gear' or fads. When the colors of nature were considered the attraction, not the garish colors of advertising logos begging to be seen. When people cared more about going outside than being identified with going outside.

This website will show you the magazine covers, tables of contents, and lots of the art and articles that were published. It'll also give some information on the history and personnel of the magazine, how it flourished and served, and how it died. It will have information on related topics, such as books published by the magazine or authored by its staff, some information on the circulation and press of the magazine, and maybe a few examples of similar publications elsewhere. It will tell where you can, even now, still find some elements of the magazine.

Since I have a collection mainly from the late 40s to the end, that's what I'll have to present for now, but anyone who has older issues is encouraged to contribute!

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Progress:
It's a new website started March 26, 2010. Right now (June 26th) I'm pretty busy with some far-out fieldwork in Alaska so not getting to the website much. I finished scanning covers, tables of contents, editorials, and many articles from my collection in the spring while I was still in the UP. So there's something from every issue 1949-end and a few earlier ones too. Probably adding these scans to the website'll not happen until later in summer, so check back later to see...