MDNR wildlife chief not on right page with wolf threat to deer population

To the Editor:

In regards to a Nov. 17 article which included comments from Michigan Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Chief Russ Mason, I feel his comments were a slap in the face to the intelligence of all hunters, trappers and sportsmen of the Western U.P.

He said the reason deer numbers are so low are because of the last two hard winters, which I do agree with, however our deer over the last 40 years have seen numerous hard winters, especially in the mid-’90s.

He also blames the coyote as the main factor, with no mention of our top predator, the gray wolf.

Deer populations after killer winters have always recovered, despite high coyote populations. The fact that deer population levels have plummeted with the arrival of the gray wolf is no coincidence. Yet, Mr. Mason and our U.P. game biologists find it politically incorrect to even mention the word wolf when discussing deer population levels.

In the last 10 years, I have seen numerous deer camps dissolve and go up for sale simply because of no deer. This also coincided with the arrival of the gray wolf.

My experience with canines came from a life of trapping this great land, which began with my first coyote in 1972 and my first wolf in 1996. Now, one-third of my catch entails releasing nuisance wolves. My education about these animals was not obtained by reading a college text or sitting at a desk doing a computer model or mail-in surveys of wildlife populations.

So Mr. Mason, please don’t insult us and say we have a coyote problem when wolves have taken deer numbers to less than half of what they used to be. It saddens me that our game managers show no sense of embarrassment toward the fact that our Great Lakes states neighbors all have wolf management already in place and Michigan has nothing.

In the end, the biggest danger to wolf populations in the U.P. is to simply do nothing. Unregulated shooting is already on the rise and will continue until there is public acceptance of this animal which can only be obtained by a managed harvest.

Joe Allen

Marenisco