By Mackenzie Mohr
Erin McDonough, Executive Director of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, or MUCC, says that many individuals who purchase licenses for hunting, fishing and more, don’t realize that they are financially supporting the sustainability of Michigan’s habitats.
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, she says, the MUCC unites citizens to conserve, protect and enhance our natural resources through communication, education and advocacy. “We really want to protect peoples’ rights to hunt and trap, we want to engage people,” McDonough says, “and we want to help people foster a stewardship ethic.”
The MUCC advocates using natural resources wisely, she says, which is where a strong economy and a strong environment meet. “You’ll see us continually looking for that balance throughout all of our natural resources decisions,” says McDonough.
She says the MUCC had input in Gov. Snyder’s recent statement on energy and the environment. Land-based initiatives include the Michigan Blue Ribbon Panel on State Parks and Outdoor Recreation, a land management plan and trail expansion plan, says McDonough.
Some wonder why the MUCC is involved in land policy, she says. “Our lands are multi-purpose, multi-use” McDonough says. “Our members are trail users, our members are interested in the long-term perpetuation of our public lands.”
The Michigan Blue Ribbon Panel on State Parks and Outdoor Recreation submitted a proposal to the governor in October, she says, which was the result of a year of researching innovations in people-land dynamics in urban and rural lands.
“It was so telling how integral so many of these parks are to those local economies,” McDonough says, “and how they can also be [economic] drivers with the appropriate investment.”
Investing in Michigan lands, she says, should yield outcomes such as a sense of place, protection of natural, cultural and historic resources, health benefits, urban revitalization efforts, a way to connect people to nature, and the resulting economic benefits. “If we invest our dollars in these appropriate ways,” McDonough says, “we’re going to get these outcomes.”
Users of parks and trails will see strategic investment in the future, she says, particularly in connectivity of trails and communities. “It is amazing and inspiring,” McDonough says, “the number and the depth and breadth of organizations and people that are engaged in helping to make Michigan a trail state.”
The land management plan is just getting started, she says, which is a strategic guide for the use of all state lands. McDonough says 4.6 million acres of state lands are used for hunting, fishing, trapping, trails, timber harvesting, mining, and camping. “They are bountiful, they are beautiful,” she says, “they are the foundation of Pure Michigan.”
Michigan’s newly implemented Mentored Youth Hunting Program essentially eliminated the youth hunting age, McDonough says, making it easier for young people to purchase hunting licenses. “When you get them engaged that young,” she says, “you’re going to have them engaged for a lifetime.
Recently passed legislation allows wolves to be game animals, McDonough says, but that does not mean there is a wolf hunt in effect. The Natural Resources Commission and area tribes must consider the sustainability of the population and the best methods for a potential wolf hunt, she says.
“They’re really looking at specific areas in the UP,” McDonough says, “where there’s a lot of human-wolf conflict, agricultural-wolf conflict.” The wolf population is now over 700, she says, which is something to celebrate in comparison to the state’s original 200-wolf goal.
The Human Society of the United States has brought a lawsuit to the federal level, McDonough says, requesting wolves return to the endangered species list. “There is no science that would dictate that that should happen,” she says.
“We want science to guide our resource decisions,” McDonough says, “not a gut check, or not an emotional response.” The MUCC partners with researchers at Michigan State University, she says, who focus on science-based fisheries and wildlife management.
Both land- and water-based Invasive species are troubling to the MUCC, McDonough says, most prominently the Asian carp. “It is so clear when you look at that, that the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” she says. Mississippian communities that have Asian carp are ghost towns, McDonough says, and the Great Lakes need to make every effort to prevent species invasion.