By Jonathan Oosting
LANSING, MI — Hunting groups seeking to preserve a wolf season in Michigan have turned in petitions for citizen-initiated legislation that could undermine two opposition proposals set to appear on the November ballot.
Citizens for Professional Wildlife Management on Tuesday dropped off more than 374,000 signatures at the Michigan Secretary of State headquarters in Lansing, where staff will review the petitions before potential certification by the Board of State Canvassers.
The proposed legislation would reaffirm the ability of the Natural Resources Commission to designate a game species, as it did last year, when it allowed Michigan’s first-ever wolf hunt in three zones of the Upper Peninsula.
“Passing this does not make a wolf season,” said CPWM chair Merle Shepard, state director for the Safari Club International. “The science will make a wolf season.”
The coalition used a combination of paid petition circulators and volunteers to collect voter signatures. Groups like the Michigan Bear Hunter Conservation, Safari Club and the Michigan United Conservation Clubs helped fund the effort, according to campaign finance reports filed in late April.
If the signatures are certified, the measure would go before the state Legislature, which would then have 40 days to approve it, propose an alternative or allow it to go to the statewide ballot in November.
Shepard expects lawmakers to act in late summer or early fall even though the Legislature is often on break at that time of year. “We feel there’s a few issues they’ll come back for,” he explained.
The legislation would also require the state to continue offering free hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for active military members and set aside $1 million to fight Asian carp and other invasive species.
Because it contains an appropriation, the measure would be immune from referendum, meaning anti-wolf hunting groups could not attempt to overturn it.
Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, a coalition funded largely by the Humane Society of the United States, has already turned in signatures for two ballot proposals seeking to overturn laws that allowed wolf hunting to begin last fall.
State Sen. Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba), who has sponsored wolf hunting legislation, said he hopes his colleagues will act on the citizen-initiated bill rather than letting it go to the ballot, where it would appear alongside both anti-wolf hunting proposals.
“The fear I have is 30-second soundbites,” Casperson said, predicting an expensive ad campaign. “The problem with 30-second soundbites is the guy or gal that comes in with the most money has the advantage, and I just think that’s not the best way to manage our wildlife … I’m much more comfortable if we let the NRC deal with this.”
Jill Fritz, campaign director for Keep Michigan Wolves Protected and state director for the Humane Society, said her group will urge lawmakers to reject the bill, which she said would “take away the right of citizens to vote on these wildlife issues.”
Fritz noted that Natural Resource Commission members do not need to have a scientific background and said the only biologist on the seven-member panel last year voted against the wolf hunt, which was approved in a 6-1 vote.
“Legislators were duped the first time around when this legislation was passed last spring,” she said. “They were told it would allow scientific wildlife management, when in fact, there is no science behind it.”
There are an estimated 636 wolves in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, according to winter studies. That’s up from just three in 1989 but down from 658 from last year, when 22 wolves were killed during a 45-day hunt that began on November 15.
An MLive.com investigation last fall found government half-truths, falsehoods and wolf attacks skewed by a single farmer distorted some arguments for the hunt. Supporters say a small “harvest” is still justified due to wolf-related conflicts, particularly with cattle and dogs.
CITIZENS INITIATIVE
How it’s done:
“In order to exercise the right to initiate legislation (initiative), a citizen or group must secure, on petitions, the signatures of registered electors in an amount not less than 8 percent of the total vote cast for all candidates for governor at the last gubernatorial election.”
What the Legislature can do:
“…The legislature has 40 days from the time it receives the petition to enact or reject the proposed law or to propose a different measure on the same question. If not enacted, the original initiative proposal and any different measure passed by the legislature must go before the voters as a ballot proposal.”
When it happened last:
In 2013, the Michigan Legislature approved citizen-initiated abortion insurance legislation. The measure was backed by Right to Life of Michigan, which collected signatures and sent it to the Legislature.
History:
Prior to the 2013 abortion insurance measure, there had been “five instances of the legislature approving initiatives proposed by the citizens, which eliminated the need for the measures to go before voters. These citizen-initiated and legislature approved acts were 1964 PA 2, 1987 PA 59, 1990 PA 211, 2004 PA 135, and 2006 PA 325.”
Source: 2009-10 Michigan Manual and MLive