Coalition Says State Should Vacate Its Transfer of Authority to the NRC Because the People Have Spoken Emphatically on the Issue

LANSING, Mich. - In the first-ever statewide votes related to wolf hunting in any state, Michigan voters sent a loud and clear message that a wolf hunting season is premature in Michigan and that the Natural Resources Commission should not have unilateral authority to transfer any “protected” species to the “game species” list.  Voters repealed Proposal 1 (moving the wolf to the game species list) with a 55 percent “no” vote, and they defeated Proposal 2 (giving the NRC the authority to decide which species can be hunted), with a 64 percent “no vote.  Proposal 2 was defeated in 69 of 83 counties, in a landslide rejection of NRC decision-making power.

“Ballot measures are the clearest expression of the views of Michigan voters, and the people of our state spoke in unmistakable terms that they don’t want trophy hunting of wolves, or the transfer of authority to a group of political appointees to open up hunting seasons for wolves, sandhill cranes or other species,” said Jill Fritz, director of Keep Michigan Wolves Protected. “The NRC should stand down and absolutely not open wolf or crane hunting seasons for the foreseeable future.”

Legislators, in their haste to circumvent a citizen’s referendum on wolf hunting, tried to cut voters out of the decision-making process by handing over power to the seven, partisan political appointees on the NRC.  Fritz continued, “The vote on Proposal 2 was a landslide. This is a test of whether lawmakers accept the will of the electorate.”

Michigan voters cast more ballots against Proposal 2 than they did for any other candidate for statewide office in their winning campaigns.