By Fritz Klug
The Department of Natural Resources is delaying the sale of licenses for Michigan’s first wolf hunt.
The sale was originally scheduled to begin this Saturday but has been rescheduled for Sept. 28 to make sure the sales technology can handle the expected demand.
“We anticipate that there will be a lot of people trying to buy a very limited number of licenses in a short timeframe,” Adam Bump, DNR bear and furbearer specialist, said in a release Tuesday.
Bump said the anticipated high interest in licenses will present a “new challenge” to the DNR.
“This is a first-come, first-served purchase, unlike other limited-license hunts that require an application and drawing process, so it presents a new challenge for our retail sales system,” Bump said. “We want to make sure the system is equipped for the high volume so sales go smoothly and everyone has an equal chance to get a wolf license.”
There will be 1,200 licenses available for over-the-counter purchase. The hunt will begin Nov. 15. The hunt will be limited to 43 wolves in three separate areas of the UP in an attempt to decrease population in those specific areas.
Hunters will be required to report their kills to keep the hunt limited to 43 wolves. There are an estimated 658 wolves in Michigan’s UP overall.
Earlier this month, Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission again voted to allow a hunt. The vote came after a new state law was passed in 2012 to circumvent a ballot referendum on an earlier law that would have allowed wolf hunting.
The hunt, however, will no longer include trapping. When the NRC took its second vote on the issue in July, the hunt proposal did not include the trapping provision.
Proponents of the hunt say wolves are causing problems in the Upper Peninsula, killing livestock and pets. Opponents, however, question if the wolf population — which was once endangered — could handle a hunt. They also say wolves are a natural resource and voters should decide if there should be a hunt.