By Jonathan Oosting
LANSING, MI — With Michigan’s first-ever wolf hunt well underway, a new coalition of conservationists and sportsmen is seeking to protect future hunts from a planned voter referendum.
A group calling itself Citizens for Professional Wildlife Management on Tuesday announced plans to launch a petition drive for citizen-initiated legislation that would affirm the Michigan Natural Resource Commissions’ ability to designate game species and issue fisheries orders.
“This is about making sure that decisions about fish and wildlife management are made by relying on sound science and the recommendations of biologists, not activists or television commercials,” Merle Shepard, chairman of CPWM, said in a press release.
The proposal also includes a $1 million appropriation earmarked to help the state Department of Natural Resources rapidly respond to threats of invasive species, such as Asian carp.
Legislation containing appropriations are immune from voter referendum, meaning the initiative could supersede a pending ballot proposal asking voters to overturn a state law that allowed the NRC to establish a wolf hunt in three areas of the Upper Peninsula.
The Michigan Board of Canvassers will be asked to approve the form of a petition for the citizen-initiated bill on Monday. The group will need to collect approximately 258,000 signatures during a 180-day window in order to send the bill to the Legislature, which could choose to enact it or let it go on the statewide ballot in 2014.
The proposal appears to be the latest political gambit in a long-running legislative feud over wolf hunting.
A committee led by the Humane Society of the United States already collected enough signatures to suspend an older law allowing the hunt. Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature responded by enacting a second law, and the national non-profit is in the midst of another petition drive seeking to overturn the newer law as well.
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.”
How often it’s happened:
“…There have 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
Jill Fritz of the Keep Michigan Wolves Protected ballot committee and U.S. Humane Society of Michigan, had not seen the proposed initiative but said it is unlikely to stop the group from fighting future hunts.
“We are continuing our efforts to get that second referendum on the ballot and return the wolf to non-game status in 2014,” Fritz said.
There are an estimated 658 wolves in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, up from just three in 1989. The NRC earlier this year approved a limited hunt that began last Monday. The DNR has reported 11 kills to date.
As MLive reported earlier this month, government half-truths, falsehoods and wolf attack numbers skewed by a single farmerdistorted some arguments for the hunt. But supporters say the UP wolf population still justifies a small “harvest.”
The “Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act,” as backers are calling the new citizen-initiated legislation, would also protect free licenses for active military members.
The effort is backed by a wide variety of groups, including the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the Upper Peninsula Sportsmen’s Alliance and the Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association.
“This initiative will show that the people of Michigan believe in using biology to make fish and wildlife decisions,” Erin McDonough, MUCC’s executive director, said in the release. “It also provides the resources to make scientific fisheries decisions by making sure the DNR can respond rapidly to aquatic invasive species like Asian carp.”