Written by
Keith Matheny
Gannett Michigan
Michigan’s general election ballot next November may be as teeming with wildlife as an Up North forest.
A hunters group on Monday will ask the Board of State Canvassers to approve petition wording as they attempt to create a new state law. The Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act would affirm that the state Natural Resources Commission has the power to name game fish and animal species in Michigan.
General election
The initiative could end up on the general election ballot next November, joining at least one, and possibly two, referendums on Michigan’s new wolf hunt.
The group behind the latest petition drive, Citizens for Professional Wildlife Management, said their effort is in response to continuing attempts to end Michigan’s wolf hunt by nonprofit wildlife advocacy group Keep Michigan Wolves Protected.
“Are you going to have scientists manage your wildlife? Or are you going to have emotional TV commercials and who can spend the most on TV commercials?” said Merle Shepard, chairman of the citizens group.
Under the state constitution, if the petition language is approved and 258,088 valid signatures are gathered within 180 days, the state Legislature has 40 session days to enact the proposal. If lawmakers fail to adopt the initiative, it goes before voters in the next general election on Nov. 4, 2014. Should the Legislature adopt its own measure, both it and the petition-driven initiative would go before voters.
Michigan’s controversial first wolf hunt began Nov. 15 and will conclude Dec. 31 or when the state’s quota of 43 wolves across three designated zones of the Upper Peninsula is met.
Remain on ballot
Keep Michigan Wolves Protected collected more than 250,000 signatures to put the question of whether wolves should be listed as a game species before voters in November 2014. But a bill approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder thwarted the referendum, putting the game species designation in the hands of the appointed Natural Resources Commission.
The Keep Michigan Wolves Protected referendum will remain on next November’s ballot.