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Category: Wildlife

Melting ice has polar bears in danger

It's official: The polar bear has become the first species to achieve protected status due to climate change.

Climate change, by the way, is the scientifically accepted term for the more politically charged "global warming."

The U.S. Department of Interior said that polar bears are in danger of extinction because the Arctic sea ice where they earn their living is shrinking dramatically.

The Bush administration immediately pointed out that in no way should that designation be used to regulate greenhouse gases or broadly address climate change.

No surprise there, I suppose.

But make no mistake: Scientists who study such matters are virtually unanimous in concluding that climate change is real, and human activity is speeding it up.

They aren't policy people. They aren't taking sides. Most don't even suggest any solutions. They're just looking at their data and telling us what they see.

Those who claim that's backing some wacky agenda are the ones to worry about. They're trying to cloud the issue and create a controversy where there isn't one.

Naturally, the solutions to climate change are hugely complicated. There is no magic wand to wave. Solving the problem will come with economic costs that need to be weighed against long-term ecological consequences.

But so far that discussion hasn't even begun, and it won't until we can agree that climate change is real.

Is it? Ask a polar bear.

If you can find one.

Category: Deer hunting

U.P. buck rules up for change

Keep an eye on the Natural Resources Commission when it meets June 5. If you're one of the deer hunters who's dissatisfied by seeing too many does and not enough good bucks, you'll want to stay tuned.

The state has been reluctant to adopt Quality Deer Management (QDM) principles in its management, but a potential change in U.P. buck rules is a step in that direction.

The goal of QDM is a better-balanced deer herd. By shooting plenty of does and letting young bucks walk, proponents say after just a couple years they see a healthier herd with a lot more mature, big-racked bucks.

That's a far cry from many parts of Michigan, where there are 20 does per buck, the bucks you do see are puny, crop damage is extensive and the lower stories of the woods are decimated.

As I read it (and they never make this just plain), the U.P. proposal would put antler restrictions on the combo license. That's the one that lets you shoot two bucks regardless of weapon (i.e. two with firearm or two with bow). One can be a spike if you're so inclined, but the other must have at least four points on a side.

So if you're a gun hunter and you're happy to shoot just one buck of any size, you still can. But if you want two, they can't be little ones.

(By the way, I doubt if this proposal applies to a hunter who buys an archery tag, then later buys a firearm tag separately. The cost would be the same as the combo, but each tag would likely be good for any buck as I read it.)

I'm one who wishes we could have a better balanced herd, not only for its ecological benefits, but also for the challenge of hunting bigger bucks.

The herd and the hunters would all be better off in the long run if those little spikes and three-pointers could live another year, all over Michigan and not just in the U.P.

But this is a start. Here's hoping it spreads.

Category: Wildlife

Battle Creek bear shooting was overkill

Am I the only one who's appalled by the police shooting of a young bear that had the misfortune to follow his nose into Battle Creek last night?

In case you haven't heard, Battle Creek police officers were in a neighborhood looking for a domestic violence suspect. One officer looked down a side street and was astonished to see a bear in the road.

So he shot it.

Because, of course, it was hurting someone. Or threatening to hurt someone. Or charging the officer. Or maybe menacing a cat or something.

Oops, none of the above. It was just, well, standing in the road.

Of course, after the first shot it became a wounded animal far more likely to injure someone out of fear or shock. But never mind that. IT'S A BEAR! SHOOT IT!

After more shooting during a chase through a neighborhood, they did manage to corner the poor beast up a tree and put it out of its misery. The DNR collected the carcass for testing.

Young male black bears often wander out of their northern Michigan range this time of year and have been seen in southern Michigan with some frequency. One was hit by a car near Flint last spring. Grand Rapids and Lansing have had reports.

And seeing one in extreme southern Michigan was a shock, I'm sure.

According to DNR spokesman Mike Bailey, public safety officers have the right to take immediate lethal action when a bear is determined to be a threat to public safety. As in, kill them.

But shooting a bear in the dark (what's beyond your target?) in a neighborhood (where will the bullet bounce if it hits?) with a handgun (notoriously inaccurate by definition) or a shotgun (more likely to wound unless it's point-blank) strikes me as horribly irresponsible and grotesquely inhumane.

And why? A resident had reported seeing a bear, but there were no reports that it was threatening anyone or being a nuisance.

Typically those roaming bears follow the food supply straight out of town. The ones who find a particularly savory trash source may stick around a few days, but they're relatively easy to sedate and remove. It happens all the time in bear country.

The officer who shot the bear says he's a hunter and even plans to hunt bears next year.

I wish he hadn't said that. Because his thoughtless actions give hunters and cops a bad name.

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Category: Great Lakes

Great Lakes compact needs finishing

Finish the job.

That's the message Michigan Legislators need to hear loud and clear when it comes to the Great Lakes Compact.

The compact is the eight-state agreement to keep water within the Great Lakes basin. New York, Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota have approved it. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin haven't yet, for a variety of reasons. Once they do, the measure will go before the U.S. Congress to make it federal law, and hopefully lay to rest the fear of any future water grabs by thirsty states in the west and south.

Ontario and Quebec, which cannot technically join, have agreed to abide by it anyway.

On Wednesday Michigan's House and Senate both unanimously voted to join the compact, but they didn't finish the job. Because there are still squabbles over private water rights, the Legislature did not vote on "implementing" legislation.

In other words, it's still toothless.

So what's the holdup? The compact is written to allow the states to decide how to use water WITHIN the basin. It recognizes that each state has its own views on that. It's very flexible about what they can do within the basin. And that's exactly what those little squabbles are about.

That's why there's no sense in waiting. Signing the compact won't take away Michigan's right to decide for itself. Same with Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

It isn't exactly wild speculation to suggest that water scarcity will be a huge issue in the future. The south and west have little. We have lots.

Their populations are growing. Ours isn't. Over time, those shifts will show up in our political muscle. And we'll be less equipped to fight off any hare-brained schemes to siphon our water to far-off dry places.

And make no mistake: Those folks in the southwest are obsessed with water, or the lack of it, and they're already old pros at moving it around. See for yourself.

That's why there's no sense in waiting.

Finish the job.

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Category: Wildlife

The migration is on

If you hunt, you've heard the lame jokes.

You mention any living creature in any context, and some knucklehead chimes in with "Did you SHOOT it?"

Har har.

What a lot of people don't understand is that many of us just love being outdoors and seeing real life happen. It could just be noticing a dogwood in bloom or catching a snake sunning itself. It's amazing what you can see when you sit still and open your eyes.

This is the best time of year to take a close look at who's flitting around our treetops. That's because we're hard in the middle of the spring neotropical migration, when millions of tiny birds make their way back north from wintering grounds in the Caribbean and Central and South America.

They're mostly headed for Canada, and the western end of Lake Erie is renowned for the migration. Point Pelee in Ontario is world famous. But plenty of birds pass by on our side of the border, too.

With that in mind, I took out the binoculars Tuesday morning and trained them on a small bird feeding in an elm tree. I expected one of the usual suspects -- a chickadee or a house sparrow -- but was astonished to see a brilliantly colored male Blackburnian warbler. Right in my yard.

And he wasn't alone. Two other warbler types were working the tree, but they wouldn't hold still long enough for me to ID them.

It happened again this morning, but with all new suspects: chestnut-sided warbler. American Redstart. Veery. Eastern wood-pewee.

I had to look these up, of course. And I know that to serious birders these aren't exactly once-in-a-lifetime species.

But I can't emphasize enough how easy this was, or how cool. I'm talking a grand total of 10 minutes of birdwatching -- from my porch in Ann Arbor.

I can't wait to see who shows up tomorrow.

I'm sure the neighbors will begin to wonder why I'm lurking in the yard with binoculars.

But so far I haven't aimed them at any windows.

Category: Hunting

Michigan spoke softly on new doe season

I have to admit I was a little mystified by the DNR's announcement via press release yesterday that we'll get a five-day September doe season in southern Michigan.

That struck me as huge news, but apparently they didn't think so.

The release started mysteriously, announcing "several changes to the Wildlife Conservation Order." Doesn't exactly jump out as "new deer-hunting rules."

First, they'll allow severely disabled military veterans to join the September youth hunt. A nice gesture for sure. Those who qualify have made a supreme sacrifice, and no one begrudges them some extra hunting time. Not out loud, anyway.

Next, extra antlerless tags for private-land hunters in southern Michigan. Was three, now five. Good enough. Knock back the herd a little bit.

Then finally, somewhere near the bottom:

Pssssst. Hey, c'mere. Listen: You can shoot does with guns -- before bow season.

The announcement came Monday on a decision rendered last THURSDAY.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the newspaper business we call that burying the lead.

A GUN SEASON IN SEPTEMBER.

Now, let me take this opportunity to acknowledge that we hunters can be, shall we say, somewhat vocal.

We complain when the rules change, and we complain when they don't. So it doesn't surprise me when a big announcement doesn't exactly come with a parade.

But this was a pretty big one, and it just trickled out. There's no reason for that.

Just give it to us straight. We can take it.

And we're still four months from the first shot. That's plenty of time for some serious complaining.

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Category: Hunting

Early antlerless deer season gets thumbs up

The deal is done: Michigan's southern Lower Peninsula will have an early private-land firearm doe season this fall, from Sept. 18-22.

The Natural Resources Commission, which sets policy in Michigan, pulled the trigger Thursday, opting for the late September antlerless season rather than the mid-October one that was initially discussed. Its goal, simply, is to reduce the herd.

The early season will also apply to the state's TB zone in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. That includes Alcona, Alpena, Iosco, Montmorency, Oscoda and Presque Isle counties.

There's one other change of note: The number of private-land antlerless tags one hunter can buy for southern Michigan has been increased from three to five.

The entire set of 2008 deer hunting regulations can be viewed on the NRC section of the DNR's Web site. You're looking for Wildlife Conservation Order Amendment No. 7, Option B.

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Category: Great Lakes

No quick fix for low lake levels

Remember that study a few months ago that suggested the bottom of the St. Clair River had washed away so badly that it was acting as a huge open drain that was emptying out Lake Huron? It was commissioned by the Georgian Bay Association, a group of homeowners who are understandably tired of powerlessly watching the shoreline and their property lines drift steadily apart (in Canada your property line ends at the high-water mark).

Preliminary findings indicate it isn't true, and a bigger study, the International Upper Great Lakes Study, is under way to see who's right. Those results are due in July 2009.

In the meantime, the Georgian Bay folks have another suggestion that's making more than one set of eyes roll: They're lobbying for a giant inflatable bladder to be installed at the bottom of the St. Clair River. The idea is to inflate it into a temporary dam of sorts to impede the flow when Lake Huron water levels reach "crisis" lows. Like, say, now.

I'm not making this up, honest. And they say it can be done for "only" $10 million.

Of course, that leaves open the question of who decides when the bladder would get inflated -- a simple conversation that would only involve state governments in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario and feds in Canada and the U.S.

Piece of cake, right?

And how, once the Georgian Bay folks are happy, to explain continued dropping water levels to folks on Lake St. Clair. And along the Detroit River. And on Lake Erie. Et cetera.

No biggie.

What to do about all the environmental impacts that would cause. Pffff. Minor!

OK, it's a kooky idea, but their concern over water levels is anything but. The natural 20- to 30-year cycle of rising and falling lakes -- the "they'll bounce back" argument -- is in jeopardy from a much bigger threat: climate change.

Most models point to a continued decline in water levels across the Great Lakes basin over the next 100 years. That's all the lakes, not just Huron.

No inflatable bladder is going to solve that.

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Category: Wildlife

Nature didn't create cormorant explosion

One other note on cormorants, the destroyers of fish populations and uninhabited islands that are currently being culled across the Great Lakes:

Animal rights folks argue that nature should be allowed to run its course, and that it's wrong for humans to intervene, especially when intervention requires actively killing animals.

The problem with that argument, of course, is that the explosion of cormorants is a direct result of human intervention in the first place, and now the birds are having a devastating impact on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

I just spent nine days traveling around Lake Erie with the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources. I and a group of other journalists met with scientists, policy-makers, business people, environmentalists and others to discuss a number of environmental issues surrounding the Great Lakes.

One thing that became abundantly clear is just how much humans have altered the lakes. We've dumped toxic chemicals, manipulated shorelines, altered the flow from the upper lakes to the lower and introduced invasive species that have fundamentally changed vast ecosystems.

The idea of letting nature take its course at this point is pretty laughable. That ship sailed decades ago.

Cormorants have thrived because of species humans introduced to the lakes. The filtering activities of zebra mussels and the introduction of alewives and round gobies have created an easy close-to-shore feast for the birds.

As their numbers grew exponentially, native fish stocks collapsed and beautiful islands became stinking guano heaps.

I admit as a hunter and angler that I tend to side with the ecosystem. Balance is crucial to the health of all kinds of species, not just the ones we prey upon.

And when our activities disrupt that balance, sometimes adjustments are necessary.

Letting nature run its course didn't create the cormorant problem. It isn't going to solve it, either.

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Category: Wildlife

Michigan moving on cormorants

Jim Johnson is a fish guy.

As director of the DNR's Alpena Fisheries Research Station, his job is to know what's swimming around Lake Huron.

These days that means he pays very close attention to birds, specifically double-crested cormorants. They eat fish. Lots of fish. And the best way to see what's in the lakes is to open up a few cormorants.

Johnson says there's good news in those bird bellies. Just a couple years ago the cormorants in the Les Cheneaux Islands, east of St Ignace, were full of round gobies. These days the Lake Superior State University scientists who open up the birds are finding perch, pumpkinseeds and other natives that indicate a fish community regaining a much better balance.

Not coincidentally, Michigan has been knocking back the Les Cheneaux cormorants since 2005 with a combination of egg oiling, which keeps the young from hatching, and sharpshooters who kill off the adults.

There were roughly 3,200 cormorant nests in the Les Cheneaux a few years ago, and anglers threw up their hands in disgust. The fish, they said, were gone.

Now there are somewhere between 500 and 1,000 pairs of Les Cheneaux cormorants, and a heck of a lot more fish.

"The Les Cheneaux (fish) population is right on target," Johnson said. "We're pretty upbeat about that outcome."

Things aren't quite as rosy in Thunder Bay, near Alpena. There, some 4,000 pairs of cormorants have denuded islands and decimated fish populations. What's left are gobies, which now make up about 96 percent of cormorants' diets in Thunder Bay. There's nothing else left.

"It's not just an apocryphal statement," Johnson said. "The whitefish are virtually gone."

Not surprisingly, cormorant reduction is farther behind in Thunder Bay. Islands have been so devastated by cormorant colonies that it's nearly impossible to tell what kinds of trees their poop -- guano to the more civilized -- has killed.

But the biologists have a plan for Thunder Bay and elsewhere, and they're working it. They believe that fewer cormorants equal a more diverse, vibrant aquatic community.

The science of the Les Cheneaux seems to support that. So pass the oil and sharpshooters, please.