Hunting Lands in Michigan

As NRA-ILA reported:

House Bill 4597, sponsored by State Representative Matthew Gillard (D-106), passed the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs on Wednesday, June 13. This “No-Net Loss” legislation would ensure that today's total acreage of public hunting lands would not be reduced.

HB4597 now heads to the Senate floor for consideration. Please contact your State Senator and respectfully urge him or her to pass HB4597 to protect Michigan’s hunting heritage.

As you might expect, the bill is a bit more complex than listed in their brief squib. You may find it online here at the Michigan Legislature website.

Particularly of concern is Section 504 (2)(a), which nebulously states

The department shall do all of the following:
(a) Keep land under its control open to hunting unless the department determines that the land should be closed to hunting because of public safety, fish or wildlife management, or homeland security concerns or as otherwise required by law.

Why is this of concern?

First, subdivision-mania. People like building their big houses next to wooded tracts of land, then, through legislation, banning hunting, farming, etc. around their pristine little sub.

Second, DNR management has been, shall we say, strange over the last few years. Take, for example, the management of the deer herd. The deer herd is huge in Southern Michigan, but deer hunting now stinks in the Northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula. Too many antlerless deer permits issued, too thin a population up north. For crying out loud, I don't even see road kill north of Flint on I-75 anymore. It wouldn't take much to shut down large tracts of land as part of their poor management program.

Third - homeland security concerns? What the heck does that mean? Is al-Qaeda going after the deer herd? Perhaps the turkey? This seems like an open-ended statement ready to invite disaster anytime some anti-gunner or anti-hunter wants to take advantage of this wording.

And since the Humane Society, SPCA and PETA have already teamed up to remove one hunting season from our hunters (doves), it isn't a stretch to say they'll take advantage of nebulous language in a bill.