Michigan to revisit baiting ban

Michigan’s baiting discussion is back on the table, two-and-a-half years after the state’s Natural Resources Commission banned baiting and feeding of deer in the Lower Peninsula after a captive deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease in August 2008.

The positive test of a deer at a Kent County deer farm triggered Michigan’s CWD response plan, which was written in 2002 and included an immediate moratorium on the use of bait and supplemental feeding in the Lower Peninsula for three years. After three deer seasons of testing, wildlife officials believe CWD is not present in detectable levels in Michigan’s wild deer herd.

The NRC will begin a series of public discussions about the ban beginning with its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, March 10, in Rooms 124 and 124A at the Lansing Community College M-Tech West Campus, 5708 Cornerstone Drive in Lansing.

“In 2008 when the NRC voted to make the baiting ban permanent in the Lower Peninsula, they said they would revisit the issue in three years allowing the Department to test several thousands of deer for CWD,” said NRC Chair Tim Nichols of Fowlerville. “The result of these public discussions will be an NRC decision on whether to continue, lift or modify the deer baiting and feeding ban.”

The public discussion session will take place from 10 a.m. to noon March 10 as a part of the NRC’s regular monthly meeting, and public input will be heard at NRC meetings on April 7 and May 12. The NRC hopes to make a decision at its June 9 meeting so the results can appear in the 2011 Michigan Hunting Guide.

NRC Commissioner John Madigan of Munising, who chairs the NRC’s Policy Committee on Fish and Wildlife, will lead the discussion. A presentation will be made regarding deer baiting and feeding regulations in other states. At future meetings, the commission will review both scientific and social data regarding baiting and feeding of deer.

Deer baiting has been a contentious issue in Michigan for years and became even more so once the practice was banned. Hunters argued that baiting causes deer to stop long enough for a safe, clean shot, and that without baiting it would be difficult to see deer if less scrupulous neighbors ignored the ban.  

Growers and sellers of corn, apples and carrots across Michigan argued that the ban would cripple their businesses. Many have continued to sell deer bait openly because the ban did not address the sale of baiting products, only their use. 

Biologists have argued that baiting concentrates deer to such an extent that any disease in the herd would almost certainly be spread as the animals congregated onto bait sites, touching noses and spreading urine and feces. Some hunters oppose baiting as an unethical or lazy. They say hunting requires a greater understanding of deer behavior and movement patterns, and baiting is for people who don’t want to put in the time to better understand their quarry.

Before 2008, baiting had never been illegal in Michigan but became much more widespread in the 1980s and 1990s. Baiting is legal in Wisconsin, Ohio and Ontario. It is illegal in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.

Anyone unable to attend the upcoming NRC meetings may submit written comments to the DNR on the deer baiting and feeding ban by sending an email to deerbaiting@michigan.gov.