LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan officials say the 2014 deer hunting harvest was down about 15 percent from the previous year, due in part to back-to-back years of severe winter weather.

The state Department of Natural Resources says Wednesday its Michigan Deer Harvest Survey Report found that roughly 615,000 hunters statewide killed a total of about 329,000 deer last year.

Wildlife managers say regional declines were the greatest in the Upper Peninsula, where the overall harvest was down by nearly 36 percent.

DNR Director Keith Creagh notes, however, that the state’s deer harvest numbers have risen and fallen in an ebb-and-flow pattern since the early 1960s. The DNR and the Natural Resources commission, meanwhile, are working on ideas to improve future deer hunting seasons.