LANSING – This year’s youth firearm deer season will see extra hunters taking the field, but they won’t be youths.

They’ll be disabled veterans, thanks to a new law.

The law creates a pilot program for disabled veterans during this fall’s two-day youth hunting season, Sept. 22-23. The program will operate in Mason, Newaygo and Marquette counties.

“It’s an opportunity for them to get outdoors and enjoy a better quality of life,” Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, said.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) supports the law, even though it already schedules a preseason hunt the third weekend of October for all hunters who are unable to walk because of injury or disease.

“This differs slightly in that this bill pertains exclusively to veterans,” Dan Eichinger, legislative liaison for the DNR, said. “The October disabled hunting season affects a broader community.”

The weather during the regular hunting season was a factor in proposing the program, Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom, R-Norton Shores, said.

“Many of these guys are in wheelchairs, many are using canes. It’s difficult then for them to get out and about while it’s snowing,” Van Woerkom said. “So we thought it would be terrific to bring them out when the weather is good.”

Any disabled veteran who is 100-percent disabled or rated as individually unemployable may participate in the three counties.

However, with the passage of the bill so close to the scheduled hunt, most participants are likely to be from the state-run Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and the D.J. Jacobetti Home for Veterans in Marquette. Those veterans will be transported by volunteers to private land being made available for the hunt.

“We worked it out with a few people so they would open up their land,” Van Woerkom said. “We’ve had a lot of people step forward. They really think it’s a great idea.”

Volunteers will also assist the hunters into the field, he said.

And according to Eichinger, getting hunters out is what drew the DNR to the proposal. “If we have a chance to bring a hunter back into hunting, we’ll support it,” he said.

Getting out and hunting is exactly what some veterans love to do, Van Woerkom said, and providing this opportunity seemed logical.

The extra hunters in the field during the youth hunt shouldn’t cause any conflicts, Eichinger said. “There’s plenty of space and there’s certainly plenty of deer this year.”

Both senators said they hoped the program will expand after this year. “It doesn’t cost anything but someone’s time and some equipment,” Jelinek said.

However, to expand, Van Woerkom said, more land will be needed. “We’ll do some analyzing on it and see how it can be restructured in the future.”