Guest Editorial: There and Back, Again
By Adam Robarge;keweenawnow.com
MARQUETTE -- For the second time in less than a month,
I found myself this
past Tuesday (April 23) making my way around the Capitol
Square in Lansing.
I had spoken at a press conference on March 27th to announce
the submitting
of over a quarter million signatures that hoped to protect
Michigan's gray wolf
from being hunted. I had declared that as Michigan citizens,
"we endeavored to
become a model in wildlife conservation -- and a point of
organization to
forward thinking individuals across our entire nation."
Two weeks later with
the introduction of Senate Bill 288 and its House chamber
companion, House
Bill 4552, my words and the thoughts they invoke found
themselves at risk of
being silenced. So I returned to Lansing on Tuesday with
every intent of
defending them.
Adam Robarge, author of this article, is now the director of Wild
Land Guardians, a Marquette-based
grass-roots group advocating for wildlife and wildlife habitat. In
January, February and March, he
worked with Keep Michigan Wolves Protected on the petition
drive for a referendum on Michigan's
PA 520, legislation designating the wolf as a game animal. Here
he is speaking about the petition
during a presentation at the Portage Lake District Library on
Feb. 9, 2013. Keep Michigan Wolves
Protected collected more than a quarter of a million signatures
for the petition, far more than the
necessary minimum of 161,000 signatures. (Photo by Keweenaw Now)*
As I sat in the offices of our Senators and Representatives,
I soon discovered that
it wasn't only my voice that was being silenced or ignored.
It was truth.
The day began with a rally on the Capitol steps in opposition
to SB 288 and HB 4552.
As the winds picked up, a collection of activists and concerned
citizens huddled in
close before the podium. It was a sea of determination
speckled with red, as we all
wore hats silhouetted by a gray wolf, with the question
"Will of the people,
endangered too?" I had given nearly everything to this
campaign over the course
of a cold and snowy UP winter.
At times I questioned my actions, my beliefs. I always
returned to the endorsement
of Dr. John Vucetich. Here was a wolf biologist, co-director
of the Isle Royale
Wolf-Moose Study and a lead researcher of the annual Isle
Royale Winter Study.
Who could argue with that? I stood there that morning as
did many others,
needing no further validation for what we had accomplished.
In front of the Capitol building in Lansing, Dr. John Vucetich, Michigan
Tech professor of wildlife
ecology and co-director of the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Study, speaks
during the April 23, 2013,
rally opposing SB 288 and HB 4552 -- both of which would allow the
Natural Resources Commission
to decide on a public harvest of wolves. (Photo © and courtesy Adam Robarge)
Instead, we listened intently for words to rally around, words
to keep us moving
forward. Listening so intently, people often forgot to cheer
at opportune moments,
rather remaining focused upon what would be said next.
Dr. Vucetich spoke of science, and in truths. The recent DNR
population survey does
not actually suggest that the wolf population in the Upper
Peninsula is declining.
The correct interpretation is that the population is leveling off,
naturally. So the
DNR suggests that the proposed hunt is to protect human safety,
rather than
population control.
Dr. John Vucetich addresses the crowd at the April 23, 2013, Rally
against wolf hunt legislation,
saying, "Hunting is not a tool for dealing with human safety (issues).
If there is a threat in April,
you can't wait until the next hunting season six months from now,
with the hope that some hunter
will have the good fortune of taking the offending wolf. It just doesn't
work that way." **
However, Dr. Vucetich appealed, "Threats to human safety,
when they occur,
had better be dealt with swiftly, precisely, thoroughly and
immediately. Protecting
human safety cannot wait until the upcoming hunting season."
Discussing the decline in hunting and the increase in negative
attitudes toward its
practitioners, he told us, "Studies show that the public will
overwhelmingly support
hunting methods when given good reason to do so."
Dr. Vucetich added that hunting the wolf will result in a further
mistrust of this act
steeped in our cultural heritage. There exists no good reason to
randomly hunt
members of the gray wolf population. It may be as simple as
this. Hunting without
reason is killing.
We then sat by his side in the offices of legislators while he
attempted to educate
them. For we are told that these bills -- now named the
"Scientific Wildlife
Management Package" -- are meant to encourage just that
-- science. But they
weren't listening. This was an expert, a scientist from our
own state of Michigan
sitting in front of them. Our legislators remained fixed on
the idea of outside
interests and their information. They remained fixed on
representing a portion
of inside residents, and their phobias. Certainly, nuisance
behavior is found to exist
within the gray wolf population -- within any population,
for that matter. And losing
livestock or a pet, or feeling threatened by wolves, is
not something to ignore.
But a random hunt is not the answer. Data exists that
suggests this may actually
increase unwanted behaviors. And that is an outcome
none of us are looking for.
A sign at the April 23 rally expresses the view that SB 288 and
HB 4552 are not based on scientific data.
(Photo © and courtesy Adam Robarge)
It's hard to know how or where to keep fighting when
our legislators won't see
science or listen to truths. Senate Bill 288 passed the
floor with a vote along
party lines on Thursday, April 25. It now moves to the
House Committee on
Natural Resources. We must implore our Representatives
-- Dianda, Kivela,
McBroom, and Foster. Implore them to hear their other
constituents, to provide
us answers based on science and truth. Implore them to
hear you. We are running
out of time. I returned home believing the only option
for us is to keep fighting,
despite the defeats. The truth will shine through, for
it is all that truly exists.
It is my feeling now to demand that they at least
represent us as equally as possible,
no matter what their final vote says. I want to see
that science has truly been brought
to the table, whether it is merely to be debated or
actually seen as an amendment to
the bill. If the gray wolf is to be hunted, I want it
transparent to everyone that all
measures were rightfully considered and that a
framework to be followed when
making such designations be put in place. Only then
should this bill be voted upon.
Editor's Notes:
* See our Feb. 15, 2013, article, "Video report:Presentation on wolves offers
facts, petition signing opportunity" on this
presentation at Portage Lake District
Library in Houghton.
See also this March 10, 2013, article by
Greg Peterson, "Petition signing to protect
wolves continues in Marquette."
** See "Letter from John Vucetich, wildlife
ecologist: Reasons to oppose SB288,"
posted on Keweenaw Now April 16, 2013
Click here for the present version of SB 288 as
passed by the Michigan Senate on
April 25, 2013.
Click here for the present version of HB 4552,
which has been referred to the
House Committee on Natural Resources.
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