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MUCC Policy Report for February 4, 2008

This edition:

MUCC Regional Meetings Reminder
DNR Completes Draft of State Forest Management Plan
Tourism, Outdoor Recreation, and Natural Resources Committee Preparing to Move Bills
New Bill to Help Municipalities Fight Invasive Species Now In House
CORRECTION (from 1/17/08 report): DNR's Limited Bobcat Hunting Season Restored

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MUCC Regional Meetings Reminder

MUCC’s Annual Regional Meetings are upon us; this is your chance to help set MUCC’s policies and priorities for the upcoming year. At regional meetings, representatives from the DNR and DEQ will speak and there will be regional business conducted. Get your resolutions ready! For more information on the Policy and Resolution process, please visit MUCC’s website at: http://mucc.org/policy/convention/membersguide.pdf.

The schedule for the remaining MUCC’s Regional Meetings is as follows:

Region III - February 16th at South Joseph County Conservation Club and Sportsman’s Club in Sturgis. Registration will be at 8 a.m. and Call to Order will be at 9 a.m.
Region IV - February 17th at Frankenmuth Sportsman’s Club in Frankenmuth. Registration will be at 8 a.m. and Call to Order will be at 9 a.m.

Please see MUCC’s website (www.mucc.org) for directions to these meetings. If you need any more information on the meetings or resolution process, please contact Resource Policy Assistant, April Bennett at 517-346-6472 or abennett@mucc.org.

DNR Completes Draft of State Forest Management Plan

Department of Natural Resources officials announced recently the completion of a revised draft of the Michigan State Forest Management Plan. Revisions to the plan were in response to comments on an initial draft that was presented to the public in August of 2006. The plan is a requirement of forest certification, which the State of Michigan achieved from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 2006. The revised plan and DNR responses to public comments on the initial draft plan can be viewed on the DNR Web site at www.michigan.gov/dnr.

The DNR is seeking public comment on the revised draft management plan at the Feb. 7 meeting of the Natural Resources Commission and via an e-mail-based comment system. Comments may be submitted via e-mail at Dnr-SFPlanning DNR@michigan.gov, prior to or at the NRC meeting. Comments will be accepted until Feb.15, 2008. A final decision for approval of the plan is scheduled for the March 2008 NRC meeting.

Tourism, Outdoor Recreation, and Natural Resources Committee Preparing to Move Bills

Five new bills are currently working their way through the House Tourism, Outdoor Recreation, and Natural Resources Committee that may affect conservationists across the state. The committee, chaired by Representative Joel Sheltrown, has been hearing testimony on the bills, and will continue the process at their next meeting on February 12. The bills cover a wide range of topics, from hunting licenses to lake boards, and are detailed below:

SB 338 – Introduced by Michelle McManus. This bill would create new gift cards, to be offered by the Department of Natural Resources, which could be used to purchase hunting and fishing licenses, state park motor vehicle permit and camping fees, mooring fees, and off-road vehicle and snowmobile license fees. The bill was passed out of the Senate unanimously in May of last year.
HB 5331 – Introduced by Howard Walker. This bill would allow individuals to accompany others on a bear or bobcat hunt without a participation license, so long as the individual did not carry or use a firearm during the course of the hunt. The law would pertain to those accompanying trappers as well, with the same restriction.
HB 5607 – Introduced by Brian Calley. In response to a request by the DNR, Representative Calley has introduced a bill which would allow a person with a disability to operate an electrically powered vessel on a waterway normally closed to motors. In order to do this, a disabled person would be required to obtain a marine exemption certificate and operate at slow-no wake speeds. Sheriff departments would issue certificates after presentation of a physician’s attestation that an individual has a disability that prevents rowing or paddling.
HB 5630 – Introduced by Joel Sheltrown. This bill would allow for the dissolution of private lake boards, following the same guidelines used for dissolving a public lake board. In order to dissolve, lake boards must show that the reasons for their establishment no longer exist, and that their existence is no longer necessary for the improvement of the lake.
HB 5648 - Introduced by Michael Lahti. HB 5648 is a technically detailed bill that deals with the reversion of state owned land that has been sold to municipalities. Under current law, municipalities may purchase land used exclusively for forestry purposes with the stipulation that all “prime land” be reverted back to the state when forestry activities cease. HB 5648 clarifies that when purchased properties are split, the resulting parcels are only considered “prime” if they are within the boundaries of a DNR program, or provide access to a public body of water.

As always, MUCC is evaluating and closely monitoring these bills to ensure that the rights of Michigan’s outdoorsmen are upheld and the state’s resources are preserved in a sound, scientific manner.

New Bill to Help Municipalities Fight Invasive Species Now In House

A new bill that will add another weapon to local governments’ arsenals in the fight against invasive species will be heard in the House committee on New Economy and Quality of Life next week. The bill, SB 0047, has already been adopted by the Senate without a single opposing vote, and is now standing before the House. Introduced by Senator Jason Allen, SB 0047 will allow municipalities to create water resource improvement tax increment finance authorities. These authorities would be charged with improving water quality and water-dependant natural resources. The powers of the board would be broad, and according to the language of the bill, “the board could improve land and construct, reconstruct, rehabilitate, restore and preserve, equip, clear, improve, maintain, and repair any public facility, building, and any necessary or desirable appurtenances to those buildings, and operate a water resource improvement, as the authority determined reasonably necessary to achieve the purposes of the proposed Act, within the development area for the use, in whole or in part, of any public or private person or corporation, or a combination of them.”

Financing for these authorities could come from a number of sources, including:

Donations to the authority for the performance of its functions.
Money borrowed and to be repaid, as specified in the bill.
Revenue from any property, building, or facility owned, leased, licensed, or operated by the authority or under its control, subject to the limitations imposed upon the authority by trusts or other agreements.
Proceeds of a TIF plan established under the proposed Act.
Proceeds from a special assessment district created as provided by law.
Money obtained from other sources approved by the municipality's governing body or otherwise authorized by law for use by the authority or the municipality to finance a development program.

CORRECTION (from 1/17/08): DNR's Limited Bobcat Hunting Season Restored

Reversing a lower court opinion, the Court of Appeals has ruled that the state may continue its bobcat-trapping season in the Northern Lower Peninsula.

In Michigan Bear Hunters Association v DNR (No. 270745), four hunting groups wanted to eliminate the bobcat trapping season because, they said, the state didn't have enough scientific evidence to prove that adding trapping to the existing hunting season wouldn't risk impairment to the population of bobcats.

To read the court opinion, you can search by docket number at courtofappeals.mijud.net/resources/ds.htm

Updating our list for 2008: If you would like to receive the policy report directly to your email address (or if you wish to be removed from this email list), please contact Amy Spray at aspray@mucc.org.

MUCC is committed to providing our members with up-to-date and accurate information on conservation policy issues from Lansing, Washington D.C., and around Michigan. If you enjoy MUCC’s biweekly policy action report, please consider becoming a member and support our efforts to conserve Michigan's natural resources by remembering MUCC in your contributions and planned giving.

MUCC Policy Action Report

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