Northern Michigan Conservation Network

Although plenty of debates remain on issues pertaining to Michigan wetlands and biodiversity policy (SB-163 and SB-78), now would seem to be a good time to step back and take stock of the accumulating positive news that we’ve seen in recent weeks.  Since many of these issues pertain to conservation and fisheries and wildlife management […]

Several U.S. House Bills which have implications on both federal wildlife refuges and U.S. military facilities here in northern Michigan have been sent on to the full U.S. House by the Committee on Natural Resources.  Specifically, these five fisheries and wildlife-related pieces of legislation include HR 819, HR 910, HR 1080, HR 1300 and HR […]

On May 8, 2013, Governor Snyder signed Michigan Senate Bills 288 and 289 into law – great news indeed. At the risk of sounding like the proverbial wet blanket by dampening the post-bill signing celebration, the reality is that for the full merit of this legislative achievement to be realized, we, as sportsmen-conservationists, must remain […]

The State House Bill (HB 4668) which includes the Michigan Department of Natural Resources license fee package has now been introduced and will be up for discussion on Wednesday (5/8) in House Committees. Amy Trotter, Resource Policy Manager for MUCC provides us with the following update: “Many of you supported the license fee increase directly […]

Okay, I’ll concede that Michigan Senate Bill 288 and House Bill 4552 would likely not be up for discussion were it not for the organized opposition to legislation resulting in wolves being added to the list of Michigan game species signed into law last December (Public Act 520 of 2012 – Senate Bill 1350).  Whether […]

by Drew YoungeDyke, Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) Grassroots Manager – So this is the line in the sand. This is where Michigan’s hunters, anglers and trappers will either stand up for their rights to hunt, fish and trap, for scientific wildlife management, and for the separation of conservation from politics, or where we will […]

In spite of our nation’s preoccupation with a handful of other more headline-grabbing issues (no need to list them here), there have been numerous pieces of natural resource/conservation-related legislation introduced in the current session of the U.S. Congress. Several of these bills have local and regional implications, including the reauthorization and funding for the National […]

Last Friday, the Michigan House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural Resources approved a budget package which did include a hunting and angling license fee package which is generally consistent with that advanced by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) as a part of the Governor’s FY 2013-2014 budget proposal.  For those who have […]

A 30-year study on cliff swallows which was conducted by researchers from the University of Nebraska has recently garnered considerable mainstream media attention. This is somewhat surprising since coverage of wildlife-related matters is more often limited to home videos of deer found in living rooms during their annual rut. Before we discuss those lessons learned from the […]

As the wolf management debate here in Michigan escalated in recent months, increasing references have been made to what is known as the North American Model for Wildlife Conservation.  Most notably, Dr. Russ Mason, Wildlife Division Chief of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, recently found it necessary to respond to assertions that if hunting […]