WILDLIFE WEDNESDAY: VOTE YES ON PROPS 1 AND 2 TO WIN THE NEXT BATTLE

 Drew YoungeDyke
On Tuesday, just vote “YES” on Props 1 and 2. It’s a simple concept, with complicated consequences. We’ve already won the battle on wolf hunting and naming game species by passing the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. Proposals 1 and 2 will have no effect on that. No, these proposals aren’t about this battle. They’re about the next one. And make no mistake, there will be a next one.
The Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, which was passed in August by the Legislature to become Public Act 281 of 2014, accomplishes everything and more for our environment and natural resources that a “yes” vote on Props 1 and 2 would accomplish. It allows the Natural Resources Commission to name game species and issue fisheries orders using sound science, provides free hunting and fishing licenses to active military, and puts wolves back on the game species list.
It also appropriates $1 million to prevent aquatic invasive species from messing up our fisheries, which also means the anti’s can’t repeal it by referendum. They’ve promised to sue under the single subject rule to overturn it, but Michigan’s case law doesn’t support their theory as it relates to the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.
So if the Humane Society of the United States can’t do anything about the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, why are they spending $1.5 million on a “Vote No” campaign for Props 1 and 2? Are they just putting a lot of time and effort into a meaningless gesture in a losing game, like U of M before the MSU game? (Sorry, Wolverines, this Spartan couldn’t resist). Not exactly.
 Ballot examples of Proposals 1 and 2
For one, they had purchased $750,000 of “media” in July, before we passed the SFWCA. They already paid for the airtime, now they’re using it. For another, they have to show their members that they haven’t given up. After all, they’ve made a lot of noise and spent a lot of money telling their members how they were going to “save the wolves.”
But more than anything, this is about the next hunting right that HSUS attacks. And we don’t know exactly what that will be. It could be hunting with dogs. It could be trapping. It could be hunting with lead ammunition (imagine what that would do to deer hunting in this state!), or it could even be bowhunting. They’ll come back to attack a hunting right, that we can be sure, but we don’t know when or exactly what. The results of the November election, though, will provide HSUS with a gauge of whether or not the voters of Michigan are gullible enough to vote to take away a scientifically-based hunting right in Michigan if HSUS spends enough money in misleading campaign ads.
That’s why it’s important to vote “YES” on Props 1 and 2, even though we’ve already won this current battle. Because the war will never be over. HSUS will never leave us alone. They will never stop trying to take away our hunting rights, and there is no magic solution that will make them. Not Proposal G. Not the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. As a hunting community, we have to understand that and continue to work together to fight the anti-hunting machine. They will never stop, so we can’t, either.
The SFWCA, like Proposal G, won its battle and made it harder for the anti’s to win the next battle. But not impossible. If you vote “YES” on Props 1 and 2, then you’re sending a personal message to HSUS that it cannot buy your vote and it will have the fight of its life the next time it comes back to Michigan. And that’s exactly the message it needs to be sent.
Vote “YES” on Proposals 14-1 and 14-2 on Tuesday!