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SB 1350 – Wolf Management Bill Introduced In Senate

October 24th, 2012

As expected last week, the Senate has introduced a bill that would designate the wolf as a game species in Michigan and pave the way for more comprehensive wolf management in the state and the potential for a future hunting season.

Senate Bill 1350 was sponsored by Sen. Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba) and received co-sponsorships from Sen. Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive) and Sen. Darwin Booher (R-Evart).  Sen. Casperson also happens to be the Chairman of the Senate Natural Resources, Environment, and Great Lakes Committee, where SB 1350 resides.

Be sure to call and thank Senators Casperson, Meekhof, and Booher for their support!

While you’re at it, call or write your Senator and Representative and ask for their support of SB 1350 as well. The anti-hunting and animal rights groups will be out in full force with emotional appeals and faulty logic.

The truth is the wolf has made an historic recovery in Michigan. What was once an extinct species now is over 700 strong in this state. The wolf is back and should be managed along with every other species across the Michigan landscape. It is sound and basic wildlife management.

The anti-hunting and animal rights organizations insinuate that making the wolf a game animal or creating a regulated hunting season will exterminate the population once again.

We know this argument not even based in reality. For nearly a hundred years, the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, with the use of hunting and trapping as management tools, has conserved our wildlife populations, and helped species once threatened to flourish again. The idea that a regulated hunting and trapping season will wipeout a population is simply and utterly false. This argument should not be given any credence in today’s society. Yet, sadly it is.

That is why sportsmen and women like you across the state can help spread the word to the public about hunting and trapping as an acceptable wildlife management tool. If regulated hunting and trapping has worked to conserve nearly every other species in Michigan, why would the wolf be any different?

This issue goes beyond just wolves. It gets to the heart of the debate over using science or emotion to dictate wildlife management decisions.

So which will it be? Sound science, or emotional appeal? With your help, we can make sure sound scientific management of wildlife wins the day.  

If you haven’t already, be sure to sign the petition in support of wolf management in Michigan at www.mucc.org/wolfmanagement.

  • Rork1

    “will exterminate the population” – you set up the extremists as a straw man, but have nothing against more moderate views that might go “apex predators don’t need to be hunted”. One question is what the goal is: intact ecosystems or maximizing hunting opportunity?

    I think you didn’t give any argument why wolves need hunting. Why will hunting wolves conserve them? Where is your “science”?

    I don’t adamantly oppose wolf hunting, but our reasons for why it is needed are currently a bit weak – that you don’t mention them seemed odd. Some folks will scream it’s obvious, but that isn’t science either. Hunting can be a useful management tool, but you have to show if it is in each specific case.

    “If regulated hunting and trapping has worked to conserve nearly every other species in Michigan, why would the wolf be any different?” Ingenuous. 1) For other species it mostly means limiting the kill. 2) Predators are different.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bradley.niedzwiecki Bradley Niedzwiecki

    Without getting into too many details there is obviously much you need to learn about managing wildlife Rork1. For instance; we learn so very much from wildlife biologists that have a great deal of knowledge on how all species in the wild are doing. Fact: wildlife biologists don’t go around criticizing sound management opportunities of any species in Michigan. They test samples submitted by law-abiding hunters, trappers, and fisherman that would like to see a balanced eco-system in Michigan. They take these results and compile all the data. Then they study them and make sound decisions based upon what they see occuring. If human intervention is needed in which to preserve a species or promote growth in numbers, they suggest the appropriate actions be taken to do so. You sir, are the one that is making the Michigan sportsman sound like he or she is out to kill everything they can. That could not be farther from the truth.

  • Clearcutter

    The white-tailed deer are overbrowsing much of their range and wolves are a proper solution. They hunt year ’round and generally take the weak, old, stupid, and injured, though they’ll certainly not pass up new fawn. I’m in favor of 500+ wolves in the U.P. and at least 100 in the northern L.P. to allow the forests to regenerate properly. There’s plenty of regeneration, but too many areas fail to recruit viable saplings (whips) into the next cohort because the deer browse the regeneration to death as soon as it pokes up above the snow.

    A generous population of wolves is the ally of foresters in managing our timberlands in Michigan.

  • Pingback: Michigan United Conservation Clubs » Wolf Management Bill On The Move!

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