At the April meeting of the Wolf Management Advisory Council (WMAC), a group created by Public Act 520 of 2012 (the Wolf Management Law), members were brought together to submit recommendations to the Natural Resources Commission and Michigan Legislature on the management of wolves.
Rather than waste our time and breath debating (once again) among groups diametrically opposed on the issue of public harvest, the DNR had a facilitator lead a discussion and exercise to draw out what the groups’ perspectives were on the potential consequences (both positive and negative) of the wolf season proposal currently before the NRC and scheduled to be acted on at their May 9th meeting.
The WMAC was also asked to prioritize these potential consequences that they would like to emphasize in their report to the NRC.
Among those consequences of a public wolf harvest, the most popular one cited by attendees was that a wolf season would increase the “social carrying capacity” of wolves for the benefit of wolf conservation. Several members of the WMAC believe that hunting and trapping (which will lower the human-wolf conflicts and localized population) will actually both help with tolerance of wolves and garner more support for their conservation.
Sounds like a win-win to us!
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