Michigan’s first ever wolf hunt begins Nov. 15.

Casperson  shifted the listing of “game species”, animals hunted in our state, to a politically appointed committee.  The Natural Resources Committee cannot be reviewed by the voting public, so the 250,000 citizens who signed the ballot initiative calling for a vote on the wolf hunt, were disenfranchised, told to keep quiet, and take a hike.

While hiking in Michigan there is one thing you need not fear; a wolf attack. There has never been in Michigan’s history an attack by wolves on humans. Of course Capserson’s fairy tales tell of children being cornered by wolf packs at school. Casperson has made numerous bogus claims on the floor of the State Senate in Lansing, though admittedly,  he is not sworn to tell the truth while speaking.

Worse, professional Department of Natural Resource biologists now confess to falsifying testimony to the State Senate.  The Legislature resolved that wolves should be de-listed from the endangered species act, and then included wolves on the schedule of game species in Michigan.

If the DNR had enforced its own regulations requiring farmers to bury within 24 hours the carcasses of  dead animals then many of the wolf attacks on cattle could have been avoided in the first place.

Cattlemen have every right to kill wolves that are attacking their herds. That is the law and always has been. The DNR pays farmers and ranchers for the loss of their livestock killed by wolves.

The upcoming wolf hunt is not designed to manage wolves in the wild; but it could make wolf attacks worse.  Wolves are pack animals, they depend on an intricate social network to survive. If an alpha wolf is slaughtered the pack disintegrates, turning the survivors into rogues.

Only one biologist sits on the NRC, which listed the wolves as “game species”, and hers was the sole committee vote against the wolf hunt.

Other respected northern Michigan scientists have argued against the wolf hunt. With the deer population holding steady in the U.P., and wolf populations slightly declining, an ecological balance in the forests of northern Michigan is served by the apex predator, wolves.

Many sportsmen also oppose the new wolf hunt.

Hunting ethics written by Teddy Roosevelt, the North American Wildlife Conservation Model, warned against “frivolous hunts” like Michigan’s wolf hunt.

Michigan’s wolf hunt ignores the science of wildlife management. Michigan wolves do not need “management,” they are management.

Sen. Casperson has snatched the constitutional right of citizens to petition their government. The DNR has failed to enforce its own rules. Michigan’s wolf hunt will do more harm than good, leaving Michigan’s forests weaker.  Put the wolf hunt to a vote of the people next year.

— Mark Muhich lives in Summit Township and is the conservation chairman of the Central Michigan Group Sierra Club.