Michigan Wolf Management Plan released
By JOHN PEPIN, Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE The Michigan Department of Natural Resources Thursday released its draft Michigan Wolf Management Plan, which is now available for public review and comment for 90 days.
The plan would allow the state to use lethal means to deal with problem wolves, in certain circumstances, after other non-lethal methods have failed.
The new document, which was presented Thursday to the Natural Resources Commission in Lansing, updates an original Michigan wolf management plan finalized in 1997 .
The 94-page plan incorporates public input, scientific literature, consultation with wolf experts, the results of an extensive public attitude study conducted by Michigan State University and recommendations of the Michigan Wolf Management Roundtable a 20-member committee convened by the DNR to represent the diverse range of wolf-related interests across the state.
Numerous ideas posed by the roundtable were included in the plan when a consensus could be reached. The committee was widely divided on the proposed recreational hunting of wolves. No consensus was reached on that issue.
Weve taken all the guidelines that were created by the roundtable and drafted a plan, said Michigan Wolf Coordinator Brian Roell, of the DNRs Marquette office. Were now rolling this out to the citizens of Michigan. Its going to basically replace the plan that was done in 1997.
Public comment will be solicited until Nov. 14.
After that, DNR wildlife division staff will consider comments received in creating a final version of the wolf management plan, which will be presented to DNR Director Rebecca Humphries for approval. Comment will be solicited on the final plan before it is adopted, likely in spring of next year.
The draft plan outlines four principal goals, which are to maintain a viable Michigan wolf population above a level that would warrant classification as threatened or endangered; maintain positive wolf-related interactions at socially acceptable levels; minimize negative wolf-related interactions; and conduct wolf management according to methods acceptable to Michigan society.
In order to meet these goals, the plan outlines strategies to address several issues: information and education, research, regulatory protection, wolf prey and habitat, diseases, human safety, depredation of domestic animals, public harvest, and wolfdog hybrids.
Roell said that in 1997, the state had comparatively few wolves and efforts were focused on recovering wolf populations from endangered status. Since then, the wolf population size has grown to more than 500 wolves in the Upper Peninsula and their distribution has expanded widely.
Today, state wildlife officials are now focused on managing wolf populations, using an understanding of wolf biology that has improved over the past decade.
Were beyond recovery now and we need to consider the social factors as well as biological factors in wolf management in the state of Michigan, Roell said.
Gray wolves are currently threatened species in Michigan. Wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin were taken off the federal endangered and threatened species lists on March 12. That action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shifted management of the species to those three states according to their individually developed wolf management plans.
Marvin Roberson, a Michigan Sierra Club forest ecologist from Skandia, was one of the roundtable members. He praised the DNR for having the foresight to gather diverse wolf interests together to work out issues to be included in the plan.
I thought the process was extremely successful, Roberson said. Overall, I thought it was a spectacular process.
Roberson said almost all of the issues Sierra Club members wanted included in the plan were addressed. One issue of particular importance to the group was recognizing the cultural significance of wolves to Native Americans. A tenet the group had hoped for but was not adopted was a ban on hunting wolves.
John Hongisto of Deerton represented the Upper Peninsula Sportsmens Alliance on the roundtable. He said he initially was as welcome as Typhoid Mary on the panel because he has opinions many people are opposed to, including support for recreational wolf hunting and rejection of the DNRs insisting wolves migrated to the Upper Peninsula on their own to establish the current population.
Hongisto said wolves were transferred to the U.P. from Minnesota, a contention he says is supported by some wolf experts and anecdotal evidence in the field.
It bothers me that these people (the DNR) have lied to us on this issue since day one, Hongisto said.
Hongisto said he thinks he may have changed some minds working on the committee.
While they might not necessarily agree with my stands, I think I have their respect, he said.
Hongisto said that although he took his responsibility on the roundtable seriously, which involved a lot of work, he says experts in the know, and not committees, should determine wolf management decisions.
Thats why we have wildlife managers, Hongisto said.
Hongisto said many aspects of the plan would most likely be decided by courts of law.
Five parties, including the Humane Society of the United States, have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the federal delisting decision made earlier this year. Roell said an appellate court will likely hear that lawsuit late this year.
If the opposition parties prevail, and wolves are returned to endangered federal status, much of Michigans wolf management plan would be in conflict with that decision. Many facets of the plan were written based on the assumption that wolves were delisted, Roell said.
The draft wolf management plan is available on the Michigan DNR Web site at www.michigan.gov/dnr Requests for hard copies can be sent to: Michigan DNR Wildlife Division, P.O. Box 30444, Lansing, MI 48909.
Comments can be e-mailed to: wolf_comments@michigan.gov; or mailed to: Wolf Plan Comments, Attn: Endangered Species Coordinator, Michigan DNR Wildlife Division, P.O. Box 30444, Lansing, MI 48909.