Whether you’re an outdoors newbie building up your recreational skills or an experienced veteran searching for a fresh hobby, the DNR Outdoor Skills Academy has a class for you!

Starting this month, the academy will offer classes at the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center on Higgins Lake in Roscommon. The RAM Center recently opened for individuals, families or small groups to “Lodge and Learn,” a chance to stay amid Michigan’s northern woods while building outdoor recreation know-how.

Check out these upcoming classes:

• Walleye Fishing Clinic, June 19 – Pro walleye tournament angler Dan Miller will cover walleye fishing from A to Z.
• Bush Craft, Wild Mushroom and Wild Edibles Clinic, Oct. 8-10 – Instruction on wilderness safety, bush craft (surviving and thriving in the natural world), wild edibles and how to find, identify and handle a variety of Michigan's edible wild mushrooms.
• Ice Fishing for Beginners, Jan. 8, 2022 – How to set up equipment and how, where and when to fish, electronics, ice safety, and rules and regulations.
• Advanced Hard Water School, Feb. 25-27, 2022 – Learn from the ice fishing pros. Each student will pick a topic of interest and be assigned a pro fisherman.

The RAM Center isn’t the only place to catch one of these invaluable classes. The new North Woods Survival Skills Clinic will be at the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center in Cadillac Aug. 14. The class will cover skills needed in an outdoor survival situation, including navigation; wilderness first aid; and how to safely prepare water for drinking, safely start a fire without matches, make cordage (rope from plants), make a log stove and identify animal tracks and scat. Participants also will learn how to shoot a bow and arrow.

New this year, too, is a talk and book signing with guest speaker Denny Geurink at the Bear Hunting Clinics at the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center Aug. 7 and Aug. 8. Geurink – former syndicated outdoor columnist, Field & Stream magazine editor, host of the "Outdoor Adventures" TV show and owner/operator of the No. 1 brown bear outfitting company in the world for over 20 years – wrote two books, including "In the Land of the Bear," a look at his adventures hunting brown bears in Siberia and traveling in Russia.

For more details and to register for classes, visit Michigan.gov/OutdoorSkills.

Questions? Call the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center at 231-779-1321.