Tooner,
If you recall, a few years back the DNR wanted to try APR in the NELP and the NRC gave them a Hunter Choice compromise out of the blue, because a minority of guys, like you, complained. In the last survey, it was 62% pro-APR and 38% anti. In Michigan, a vocal 38% rules if changes are to be made.
1000's of hunters in the NELP killed yearling spikes last year, 100% legally. If you want to call 3" an APR, so be it. In the NELP, any hunter can kill any buck over 3" spike, if they choose to do so.
The reason no APR survey was needed in the NELP before is because Hunter Choice isn't considered APR for all, so no survey is required. Do you remember the NELP APR survey a few years back? Of course you don't, there wasn't one because the NELP isn't a APR zone. Requiring a survey is the threshold. There can be no mandatory for all APR without a survey, under the current rules. And even then, at least 50% of all yearling bucks must be protected under APR rules. In the NELP under the HC rules, hunters are still killing lots of yearlings.
Geez, let it go. The minority has divided us enough. The OP wanted a nice name and you had to bring APR's into it. I was having fun with the history of the NLP and somehow you went into partisan APR mode. The minority won in the recent surveys, enjoy it! You can go on killing the spikes like I have in the picture, just like you always could in the NELP. Enjoy your victory and have an nice, complaint free season. Your 38% minority got what you wanted. Savor it.