"There were so many people walking along the trails that deer were not around."
A bow hunter wrote that comment after the 2022 season in Cascade Peace Park, and Cascade Charter Township filed it in a March 2023 board packet. It explains a lot about the 198 acres of floodplain, meadow and old-growth forest off Bolt Drive and Grand River Drive. Every fall the park holds a permit-only archery deer season, and every fall it stays open to anyone who wants to walk it. The township's own records show the hunt exists because of how the land was bought. Those same records show that the trail traffic has been the hunt's biggest obstacle.
This year's first hunting period opened October 30 and is underway now. If you take the Main Trail on a November morning, you are sharing the woods by design.
Why a Preserve Has a Hunting Season
Peace Park was never meant to be a hunting ground. The township's open space study picked out the property for its natural features, and the plan was preservation and passive recreation. Buying it took more money than the township had. A $1.2 million Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant closed the gap, and MLive reported in March 2010 that the grant "came with requirement that the township allow hunting on the property."
Township Planner Steve Peterson told the board, as MLive reported, "We have to honor the commitments that we made during the grant process," and added that "it is something that the state encouraged." The township also lists The Nature Conservancy and The Land Conservancy of West Michigan among the partners in the purchase.
The first rules were narrow. The ordinance that went to public hearing in March 2010 proposed bow hunting for deer only, from November 1 to November 21, with no more than 15 permits a year, portable equipment only, and firearms banned at all times. The township's fall 2010 newsletter confirmed that first season ran on those terms, a three-week bow season capped at 15 hunters, and reported that all the permits for 2010 were taken. Board members talked about splitting the park into hunting and non-hunting zones. According to MLive, Peterson said the conservation officers the township worked with discouraged that approach. That decision still shapes the park today. Hunters and hikers use the same trails, and no part of the park is set aside for either group.
From Three Weeks to Two Months
The township expanded the program beginning with the 2022 season. Instead of 15 permits over three weeks, it now offers 45 permits across three periods from late October through December 31. Permits are doe-only and assigned by lottery, with preference rankings used to place hunters in a period.
The township's parks programs page lists this season's periods:
- October 30 to November 19
- November 20 to December 10
- December 10 to December 31
Permit holders may hunt only does, with bow or crossbow, and must be at least 17. The township's deer management page says registration for the 2026 season is closed. The hunters in the park this fall were selected weeks ago, and the season will run its full course through the end of the year.
A season this long overlaps the stretch of fall when the trails are often busiest. The township's own hunt report shows what that overlap does.
What the 2022 Season Produced
The township ordinance requires a report each year. The 2022 report, the first season under the expanded rules, was included in the township board's March 8, 2023 meeting packet. Here are its numbers:
| 2022 Peace Park bow season | Count |
|---|---|
| Permits available under the program | 45 |
| Applications received | 38 |
| Permits issued | 27 |
| Denied or non-hunters | 11 |
| Does harvested | 0 |
Even with the window tripled, fewer people applied than there were permits, and the permit holders reported taking no deer at all. Eleven hunters took part in the first period and five in the second. The report sums up the hunters' view this way: "hunting was hard in a park where residents and their pets are able to roam," and hunting does is "less desirable than bucks."
The hunters' written comments say the same thing in more detail. One hunter described the park like this:
"Deer is present but mostly nocturnal, a lot of 'disturbance' from other park users during the season (e.g., dog walkers, runners, mountain bikers, ...), the trail system is very dense and hardly any quiet spots."
Another wrote that they had seen "more than a few deer," none within shooting range, with "more people walking this year because weather." In the second period, one hunter suggested "larger signs at entrance notifying public of archery hunters."
The 2022 report is the only season whose harvest figures are cited here. In it, the hunters named the trail traffic as the main reason they took no deer.
One Set of Trails, Two Sets of Rules
The township wrote the sharing into its rules. Section 6 of the Cascade Township parks ordinance, adopted February 12, 2025, permits archery hunting only, prohibits firearm hunting, requires hunters to follow all state hunting laws, and states plainly that "the park will be open to nonhunters during hunting season."
The rest of the ordinance and permit terms set out how the overlap works:
- Hours. The park is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Permitted hunters may enter one hour early during the season, so a hunter may already be in place when the first walkers arrive.
- Equipment. Only portable blinds or stands are allowed, and hunters must remove them every day. The township's permit application tells hunters to take "utmost safety precautions" because nonhunters may be using the park.
- No firearms. Firearms and target practice are prohibited. Deer hunting is limited to bow and crossbow, and only white-tailed does may be taken.
- Passive uses only. The 2025 ordinance permits hiking and walking in Peace Park and prohibits bicycling inside it. The mountain bikers mentioned in the 2022 comments were there before that rule took effect.
The township rules do not say what walkers should wear. The Michigan DNR's hunting safety guidance advises anyone spending time outdoors near hunting areas to wear hunter orange so hunters can see them. In a park with no separate zones, that is easy advice to follow.
Planning a Walk Between Now and New Year's
The township's Peace Park trail map shows a 1.70-mile Main Trail, a 0.40-mile Lookout Trail and a 0.43-mile North Loop, plus several shorter connectors. The same map notes that bow hunting is allowed October 30 through December 31 with a Cascade Township permit only.
There are two ways in. The Bolt Drive entrance is at the west end of Bolt Drive on an unpaved section of road, with a small parking area the township describes as better suited to handicapped access. The Grand River Drive entrance, at the far northeast corner of the property, has public parking and sits on a dedicated bike lane. You can ride the lane to the entrance, but bikes are not allowed past it.
The season ends on December 31. Before then, the township's Christmas in Cascade is set for Friday, December 4, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Cascade Historical Museum, 2839 Thornapple River Dr. SE. It includes holiday music, hot cocoa, cookies, crafts and photos with Santa, and the tree lighting is at 6 p.m. For more on what is changing in the township, see our look at how Tassell Park is trading its auto shops for a way under Cascade Road, or browse the Cascade neighborhood page.
The rules summarized here come from township and state pages and are offered as general information, not legal advice. Anyone with questions about permits or park use should check directly with Cascade Charter Township or the Michigan DNR.
If you have questions about Peace Park or the land around it off Grand River Drive and Bolt Drive, Linda S Pell would be glad to talk it through over coffee or a walk on the Main Trail. Let's Connect.
