December Natural Resources Commission Meeting Preview

Amendment to exempt Beaver Island from baiting and feeding ban up for information

December’s Natural Resource Commission (NRC) meeting will be held on Dec. 13th at Lansing Community College Auditorium-West Campus. The LCC auditorium is located at 5708 Cornerstone Drive Lansing, MI 48917. If you are unable to attend this month’s meeting, join us online at MUCC’s Facebook page where we will be live streaming at 1:00 pm.

The Michigan State Parks Advisory Committee will be the first to meet at 9 a.m. They will be covering a management plan for Fayette Historic State Park, as well as a review of 2018 and goals for the coming year.

Following a break from lunch, the NRC Policy Committee on Wildlife and Fisheries will meet at 1 p.m. Updates will be given from both the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division Chief Russ Mason and Fisheries Division Chief Jim Dexter. Mason will be sharing preliminary firearm deer season results, talking about deer feeding exceptions for Beaver Island, as well as a January tuberculosis(TB) hunt.

The NRC Committee of the Whole meets at 2:30 p.m. starting with a director’s report. An update on chronic wasting disease (CWD) and TB will be given, as well as the Thomas L. Washington Conservationist of the Year Award.

Information

There is an amendment to change the name of the “Pure Michigan Hunt” to “Michigan’s Ultimate Hunt.” There is also an amendment to exempt Beaver Island from the ban on deer feeding that starts on January 31, 2019. This amendment can be found here.

MUCC has a resolution to support the ban on baiting and feeding of white-tailed deer due to the concerns that it can be a human-assisted vector to transmit diseases.

Action

The Natural Resources Commission will be taking action on the statewide regulations for Trout, Salmon, Whitefish, Lake Herring and Smelt. The expansion of a brook trout bag limit of 10 on certain Upper Peninsula streams has been omitted. The highlight of this fisheries order is the reduction in the daily limit for lake trout and splake from 3 to 2 in Lake Huron lake trout management unit MH-1, as a corrective action for when state-licensed sport anglers exceeded the annual harvest limit in 2016-2017.