Lawmakers and hunters who are angry over a petition drive that could block a hunting season for wolves hope a new proposal in the state Senate will prevent it from happening again.
Sen. Tom Casperson, a Republican from the Upper Peninsula, has introduced a bill that would allow the Natural Resources Commission to name new game species in Michigan without legislative approval. The NRC is an appointed body that oversees hunting and other aspects of wildlife management.
The game species authority currently resides exclusively with elected lawmakers. Unlike actions by lawmakers, however, decisions by a regulatory body cannot be overturned by voter referendum.
Casperson said the move would protect the hunting and fishing rights of Michiganders, which he feels were threatened by a petition drive that ended last month that seeks to overturn the Legislature’s decision late last year to name wolves as a game species.
The petition effort — called Keep Michigan Wolves Protected — was backed by the Humane Society of the United States, a national animal advocacy group.
“Sportsmen in our state are very concerned that if a group like this can come into Michigan and use our rules and our laws against us, this has ramifications for all of our hunting rights,” he said. “What’s next?”
Keep Michigan Wolves Protected turned in 255,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office on March 21. The group wants to overturn the 2012 law that made wolves a game species and to block a proposed hunting season already under consideration by the NRC.
Details about the proposed wolf hunt will be revealed Thursday at the NRC’s monthly meeting. The Department of Natural Resources is expected to call for a hunt of 47 wolves in three specific regions of the Upper Peninsula.
However, if the petitions are approved by the Board of State Canvassers, the hunt will have to be shelved pending the result of the referendum on the November 2014 ballot.
“This is way bigger than a wolf hunt,” Casperson said. “Are they going after our ability to hunt and fish in Michigan? That’s the overreaching aspect of what this outside group has proposed doing in our state.”
The head of the petition drive called that laughable. The only person threatening the rights of Michigan citizens is Casperson, said Jill Fritz, Michigan director of the Humane Society of the United States and head of Keep Michigan Wolves Protected.
She pointed out that his bill includes a $1 million appropriation. Bills that have an appropriation attached cannot be overturned by referendum, according to the state constitution.
“Only Michigan residents can circulate petitions, and more than a quarter of a million registered Michigan voters signed the petition to keep wolves protected from hunting in our state,” she said. “ If (Casperson) doesn’t like that, I don’t know what to tell him. This is an appalling power grab by politicians who want to take away Michiganders’ long-standing right to have a say in what happens to our state’s wildlife.”
The state’s leading hunting group, the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, said Casperson’s legislation is not just a reaction to the wolf petition. The group has asked for this legislation since 1996, which was when voters approved a proposal that placed the NRC in charge of hunting and charged it with scientifically managing the state’s wildlife, said Tony Hansen, MUCC spokesman.
Hansen said the NRC has never been able to live up to its voter-approved duties because the Legislature has maintained the authority to regulate game species.
“It’s not about taking votes away from anyone,” he said. “But I don’t know if I’ve ever gone into a doctor’s office and said, ‘I need my appendix out. Let’s take a vote on how we should do it.’ That’s what we do with wildlife management. It’s not an opinion poll. It’s a science.”