http://www.michiganoutdoornews.com/articles/2008/05/29/top_news/news04.txt
DNR wants input on wolf plan
Thursday, May 22, 2008 11:49 AM CDT
Steve Griffin
Field Editor
Marquette, Mich. - DNR Director Rebecca Humphries has postponed for a couple of months her action on a wolf management plan that seeks to find a balance between the needs of Michigan wolves and Michigan people.
Instead of approving the plan at the Natural Resources Commission's May meeting in Lansing, action is now expected at the July meeting in Munising - wolf country.
That delay is expected to offer the public additional opportunities to provide input.
Already, 1,500 comments from the public have been received as the plan was drafted, according to biologist Brian Roell, at the DNR's Marquette office. Those comments produced several changes in the plan, he said.
The plan has four goals:
� Maintaining wolf numbers above those qualifying it for threatened or endangered status;
� Bringing wolf-related benefits to the state;
� Minimizing human-wolf conflicts;
� Conducting science-based wolf management within socially acceptable bounds.
Plan revision began in 2004, with public meetings being held the following year.
Focus groups were convened and included livestock producers in the western and eastern U.P., U.P. hunters and northern Lower Peninsula hunters who use dogs for various game species, U.P. deer hunters and northern L.P. deer hunters, people mainly concerned with either individual wolves or entire populations, and trappers.
In all, 78 people formed these focus groups.
Michigan State University conducted a statewide survey on opinions about the state's wolves, and MSU's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and the DNR launched a review of the scientific literature on wolves.
Next came the Michigan Wolf Management Roundtable, with representatives from 20 groups and agencies, which met for 10 days in 2006 before submitting its report later that year.
The roundtable comprised a wide range of viewpoints, from the DNR, MSU, and tribal officials to members of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the Sierra Club, Safari Club International, and Defenders of Wildlife.
It made its recommendations to the DNR, which wrote a draft plan, released last year. That drew 1,480 e-mail comments and 15 letters, some reflected in plan details.
The plan followed recommendations of the roundtable “really closely,” said Roell, in a phone interview from his Marquette office. “The roundtable was very happy.”
That's notable, as the plan itself calls opinions on wolves “highly polarized.” Some see them as key components of a wild setting, while others consider them threats to people and the game species they pursue.
Support for wolves appears strongest where the animals are not found - southern Michigan - and weakest where they're most numerous - the Upper Peninsula.
There's controversy on the legal scene, too.
A lawsuit in federal court has challenged the decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the wolf from the list of federally classified endangered species.
While Michigan is not part of that suit, it could affect this state's management. If the suit were successful and wolves were again designated an endangered species, its management would have to be conducted within Endangered Species Act guidelines.
That would limit some options included in the plan, notably lethal action against problem wolves, Roell said.
The federal decision is expected any time, Roell said.
Michigan wolf numbers appear to be steady or slightly rising, said Roell of the 2008 survey, the numbers of which he currently is crunching.
That could open the door to more flexible management of them, if the federal suit is unsuccessful and Humphries approves of the plan.
“Now it's a matter of (the plan) jumping through the last few hoops,” Roell said.
