EDITORIAL: Lawmakers should allow voters to settle debate on wolf hunt

Jul. 26, 2014   |  

The state Legislature has a reputation for not just cherry-picking battles, but choosing winners and losers, as well. We still hold out hope, however, that lawmakers will do the right thing and sit out the pitched battle over the hunting of wolves in the Upper Peninsula.

The Board of Canvassers on Thursday unanimously approved a third wolf petition for the November election, teeing up an opportunity for lawmakers to nullify two other proposals already on the ballot.
The third ballot proposal comes courtesy of Citizens for Professional Wildlife Management, which turned in nearly 300,000 valid signatures, easily surpassing the required 258,088.


The Legislature has 40 days either to pass the initiative, come up with a competing proposal, reject it, or do nothing. This is one case in which doing nothing, which our Legislature has been known to do on far more pressing issues, is the only decent alternative.


Were the Legislature to pass the initiative — and it’s already voted twice in the past two years to support a wolf hunt — it automatically becomes law. If they reject it or do nothing, the initiative will appear on the November ballot along with two other anti-wolf hunting proposals that have already been approved for the ballot, leaving the whole issue up to voters.


We’re not big fans of making policy through ballot initiatives — a blunt instrument that rises and falls less on substance or merit than it does on emotion, and few issues are more emotional — and polarizing — than the debate over wolf management.


Yet it’s unseemly — and undemocratic — for an elected body to so blatantly ignore the will of its citizens, particularly absent a compelling public interest that might justify taking an unpopular stand.
Strictly speaking, we do not oppose the hunting of gray wolves. Those who do have legitimate objections about the haste in which the Legislature cleared the way for A hunt, basing its decision not on science but on the discredited ravings of a few zealots whom it seems would like nothing better than to see the gray wolf again disappear.

Neither are we impressed, however, with anti-hunting crowd’s vitriol toward those they disparagingly refer to as “trophy hunters,” as though the only legitimate hunters were those who did so for sustenance and some spiritual connection to our lost wilderness.

Wildlife management isn’t romantic nor, for many, is hunting, but hunters play an integral role in the states’ management of the wild, and those states, including Michigan, have an excellent track record of managing other formerly rare species such as deer, elk, mountain lions and black bears. What's more, wildlife management experts and biologists understand that wolves are good for the ecosystem and are highly motivated to see the species succeed. So are we.

Forget hunting. A far greater threat to the future of the gray wolf in North America is the vicious cultural war that puts this beautiful predator species — demonized by myth and ignorance — in the middle of a zero-sum game that marginalizes efforts to educate the public and create consensus-based policies.

The Republican-controlled Legislature’s zeal to appease a vocal minority — even if it means circumventing voters — only fuels that war.

There is no imperative — no pressing public interest — to establish a wolf hunt, certainly not against the will of the majority of Michigan voters, all of whom share an equal stake in the preservation of our natural resources.

If lawmakers give a lick about the rights of its citizens and the democratic process, they will let voters decide this issue.

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