Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
BESSEMER — A resolution in support of the state of Michigan controlling the wolf population in the Upper Peninsula was approved by the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday.
Denny Ellos, secretary of the Western U.P. Citizens on Wolf Management, offered the resolution to the board.
“The efforts of all of us in the western U.P., especially Gogebic County, to get help with the increasing number of wolf conflicts in our cities, towns, townships and county continues to be the major concern,” Ellos wrote in a letter submitted with the resolution.
The county board adopted a similar resolution on Feb. 14, 2014.
The resolution says overpopulation of wolves is threatening tourism, recreation and business in the U.P.
The collapse of the deer population and livestock depredations are also referred to in the resolution, along with wolf attacks on pets and hunting dogs.
Although it doesn’t specifically mention wolf hunting, the resolution asks the Michigan Natural Resources Commission and MDNR to “immediately implement a management plan for controlling the overpopulation of wolves as a game animal.”
There was no wolf hunt in the U.P. last year and only a token hunt the year before, with no trapping allowed.
The county board’s support of the resolution was unanimous.
Ellos said the updated resolution will be mailed to the DNR, NRC and Gov. Rick Snyder.