JANUARY, 2008 NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION (NRC) MEETING

The only committee to meet this month was Wildlife and Fisheries. TB and CWD were first on the agenda. Some 8,000 deer, 160 elk and 8 moose have been checked for TB with 25 deer testing positive, 23 of which were from the TB area. I believe this is a reversal from the trend of the past few years. This count may go up as there is more testing to be completed. There were no positive results from the CWD tests. However, CWD is spreading in Wisconsin and is considered uncontrollable.

Out of 181 licenses issued 166 elk were harvested, of which 56 were bulls. Two double and one triple kill occurred. The only comment I heard was that they didn’t fall after the first shot. Maybe the orientation should include how to follow a blood trail. Of course you all know the best place to shoot an elk – as close to the truck as possible.

The internet survey on the deer season indicates this year’s success rate was up as was the harvest. This is somewhat supported by an increase in the number of deer passing through the check stations. This is preliminary and won’t be finalized until the mail survey is completed some time this spring. 724,236 individuals purchased a deer license with 1,533,541 kill tags being issued. Both were down slightly from last year. The number of youth hunters held about the same as last year, which was up significantly from prior years.

The first item on the agenda for the Committee of the Whole was the budget. Primarily the $10 million ending balance in the Game & Fish Fund. It was no real surprise to me that there was a balance left in the fund. First of all, you can’t overspend a fund. So, if I was responsible for the fund, I would not allow all of it to be budgeted just in case I got a few surprises. That is exactly what the DNR does. Secondly, after the cuts to meet the fund balance were made, the Governor cut back on all state spending including monies we, hunters and anglers, put into the system. I don’t know how a governor can prevent monies from being spent when we, hunters and anglers, have mandated that they be spent. The governor can’t spend the money any where else. Better if the General Fund was simply reduced. Oh yea, I forgot, there isn’t enough General Fund contribution to reduce. Lastly, the return on the investments state wide came in better than expected, some of which applied to the Game & Fish Fund. Good news? Yes. But investing is not under the control of the DNR. This is not a big deal, the funding of the protection of our natural resources is. The Commissioners and the Director pledged to have monthly reviews of the status of all the funds. I will be there to observe and make my feelings known. The Senate Fiscal Agency studied the situation and came to the same conclusion that the Hunting & Fishing License Work Group announced in its recommendation. Either the license fees go up, or the programs get cut back, or a new source of revenue must be found. The shortfall in funding the DNR will not go away until it is addressed and resolved.

As a side note, MUCC has been putting out some erroneous information about this situation. There was no $20 million boot. The DNR didn’t deliberately keep the information from the public. There was definitely a lack of communication with the constituencies and the license increase effort could have been curtailed earlier. MUCC plans to do an audit to determine what, I don’t know. The state funds, all of them, are audited by the state and federal audit organizations each year. This is to determine that monies spent from a fund are done so as prescribed by the statute that established the fund. It seems like a waste of both MUCC and DNR time and money. We need to get off this kick and apply our efforts where they can do some good. The DNR is under funded and something needs to be done.

The public appearances covered a lot of territory this month. There was support for the early firearm deer hunt for disabled hunters, QDM was discussed as was the Grayling theme park. The Island Lake folks were in complaining about the noise from the shooting range and banning deer baiting was again proposed. The Kennecott mine land lease was opposed. The others I would like to cover in more detail.

There were people from Roscommon and Crawford counties complaining about the lack of deer and clear cutting. They berated the DNR on those two issues and the funding issues. These complainers have been at prior meetings and I have determined that they are just looking for something to harangue the DNR about.

Their comments were dispelled by one person who hunts the same counties and has seen more deer since the clear cutting. His party has to draw straws to see who will get to hunt the clear cut area. I have had many people tell me they hated the clear cut practice until they saw the results of the regrowth. We hire good scientists to do a job and then insist on telling them how to do it. I’m all in favor of public input but with some of these people it’s like teaching a teenager how to drive – or anything else for that matter.

Dave Borgeson, President of the Michigan Resource Stewards (mostly retired DNR folks who were kind enough to let me join) presented their position on a number of subjects. The Stewards oppose high fence harvesting (I would never call it hunting), cross bows during the archery season, baiting and would like the muzzleloader season to revert to its original intent. Dave stressed maintaining a high level of sportsmanship and the spirit of fair chase.

The U.P. Whitetails Association is pursuing a change to the deer hunting regulations. They propose the combo license first tag allow the taking of a buck with three points or more on a side, and the second tag allow the taking of a buck with four points or more on a side. Further, that a single tag be offered for the hunter who wishes to take any legal buck. This hunter would be allowed to take only one deer. These licenses would apply to all seasons. At the on-set this request would seem reasonable. However, it remains that many would buy only one license, thus, reducing their field time and presence in camp which would have an economic impact on the businesses in the hunted area and on the funding of the DNR. The pressure to provide trophy deer continues to plague deer management. Everybody wants something different and has hundreds of reasons why it is scientifically sound, mostly because some other state does it this way or that way. The majority of hunters just want to see deer and have a reasonable opportunity to harvest an animal. If that disappears, so will the hunter. You want a Boone & Crockett animal, work for it. The DNR is under no obligation to provide it for you particularly at the expense of the enjoyment of most other hunters. The DNR has enough problems keeping a healthy deer herd at a level satisfactory to everybody on a county-by-county basis.

The Committee of the Whole resumed and passed the special firearm deer hunt for disabled hunters and the falconry regulations. The Kennecott Mine activity was held up until Kennecott responds to a number of DNR requests. If you wish to make comments on the Kennecott proposal, the DNR will still take them.

I have four issues I am taking up with the NRC. Expanding the fall turkey season, making the portable ground blind and portable tree stand regulations consistent, licensing of anyone who uses the natural resources for personal gain and collecting amounts due from non-residents who purchase resident licenses.

Jim De Clerck