August NRC Preview; Decision on CWD this Thursday

This Thursday, August 9th, the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) will be meeting at the at Lansing Community College Downtown Campus, Health & Human Services Dept., 515 North Washington Square, Lansing, MI 48933. If you are unable to attend please join us on Facebook for the MUCC live stream starting at 12:30pm.

Starting off at 9 A.M. will be the Michigan State Parks Advisory Committee. On the agenda is a management plan for the Watkins Lake State Park & County Preserve, a land use order to expand the field trial at Highland Recreation Area and financial and marketing updates regarding the 100-year anniversary and revenue from the recreation passport.

After a break for lunch will be the NRC Policy Committee on Wildlife and Fisheries starting at 12:30 P.M. There will be a Fisheries Division update regarding certain fishing regulations up for information and a Wildlife Division update about the expansion of the field trial lands at Highland Recreation Area and removal of temporary closure on department managed land at Otsego Dam Structure. At 1:00 P.M. the NRC Committee of the whole will have a director’s report from Keith Creagh followed by reports from each of the earlier committees.

MUCC supports the wildlife conservation order up for information to expand the boundary of the Highland field trial lands. The current area of the field trial land is 929 acres and this order would expand the land by 381.7 acres. A summary of wildlife conservation order amendment No. 15 can be found here: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/15WCO2018_Highland_Field_Trials_628128_7.pdf.  Other items up for information include fishing regulations such as netting, ice fishing shantys, and spawning closures.

The NRC will be taking action on the CWD regulations, which would exclude the October firearm season as well as adding Calhoun, Jackson, and Hillsdale counties to the CWD Management Zone. Amendments that were proposed by commissioners last meeting can be found here: https://mucc.org/conflicting-amendments-to-cwd-regulations-proposed-decisions-to-come-in-august/ and the commission may be voting on them during this August meeting as well as potentially adding new amendments. The amendments will be discussed during the Wildlife and Fisheries Committee and recapped during the Committee of the Whole for the benefit of the public, but voting will not occur until after the public comment period. The NRC will also be taking action on expanding hunting onto the Marl Lake property at South Higgins Lake State Park and the Pierce Road Unit hunt special opportunities at Sharonville State Game Area which was up for information at the last NRC meeting.

A full agenda for the August 9th, 2018 NRC meeting can be found at: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/August_Agenda_628471_7.pdf