Michigan moose season? Not so fast

The reports out of Lansing are fairly breathless: Moose season! In Michigan! Next year!

Attached to all that excitement are some fairly unreasonable expectations and some misinformation to boot. It’s true that the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1013 authorizing moose as a game species in Michigan, and that in her final week as governor, Jennifer Granholm signed it into law. It’s also true that there could very well be a Michigan moose hunting season in the near future. But 2011? Forget it.

There is a mountain of unfinished business that will ultimately dictate whether Michigan moose will be hunted, by whom, when and under what conditions. If it happens at all, it will be a very small affair, a speck compared even to the elk hunt. It will almost certainly involve Michigan residents only. Among the details that still need working out:

The numbers. Sen. Jason Allen (R-Traverse City) has been quoted saying that there are as many as 1,200 moose in the Upper Peninsula, and the herd could sustain a hunt of up to 20 animals per year. But the scientists whose business it is to count moose say the number is much closer to 500 and probably lower. The most recent count in 2009 indicated there were 420 moose in their core area of the western U.P., which includes southern Baraga, southwestern Marquette and northeastern Iron counties. Another 100 or fewer roam the eastern U.P.

Since 59 moose were hauled from Ontario to Michigan in 1985 and 1987, the numbers have shown a very slow growth. At the time it was hoped that Michigan would be home to more than 1,000 moose by the year 2000, a number that has clearly not been met.

The biology. Brian Roell, a Michigan DNRE biologist, says it’s unclear why the moose haven’t expanded as much as hoped in what is part of their traditional range. Among the hypotheses: A deficiency of selenium in the Lake Superior watershed, which inhibits the muscle development of moose calves; climate change, the chief suspect in Minnesota where moose populations are dropping dramatically (all of the lower 48 U.S. states are at the very southern end of moose range already); and the recovery of Michigan’s wolves, which prefer easier prey such as deer but have a hard time finding them where the moose live.

Roell said the calves born in Michigan are robust and healthy, but there just aren’t that many of them, which may indicate a problem with the bulls’ breeding abilities. No one knows for sure, but a group of biologists led my Michigan Tech’s Rolf Peterson – of Isle Royale wolf/moose fame – says there simply aren’t enough moose in Michigan to warrant a hunting season and asked Gov. Granholm to veto the moose-hunting bill. Peterson points out that in states and provinces where moose are hunted their populations are declining, most likely as a result of warmer summers and expanding whitetail populations that spread a brainworm that is fatal to moose. In those areas, and game managers are concerned about the future of moose, and consequently, the future of moose hunting.

The process. From the day Granholm signed the bill into law, the DNR director has 60 days to assemble a seven-member advisory council that will study the feasibility of a moose season. The council will have representation from the DNR, the Legislature, a conservation group, two hunting groups and the intertribal council. The council will have 12 months to decide whether moose hunting makes sense from a biological and economic standpoint, and if it does, how long the moose season should be and how many tags should be issued.

In other words, the recommendations won’t even be issued until the end of 2011, which means that if a season is recommended it won’t happen before 2012. And that’s no certainty, according to Russ Mason, the chief of Michigan’s Wildlife Division, who said a whole lot of discussion has to happen before any action is taken. Even then the council may decide that moose hunting doesn’t make sense for Michigan.

“Do we have the ability to hunt them? Yeah,” he said. “Look at Shiras moose in Colorado. They had something like 300 animals, but they did it. Of course you can pick a number that’s sustainable or a number that doesn’t have any meaningful impact. Is this a reasonable discussion? Sure. Do we want to do it? That’s what this group is going to discuss.”

The tribes. In 2007, Michigan ratified an 1836 treaty that guaranteed tribes in the northern Lower Peninsula and eastern Upper Peninsula 13 percent of the hunting tags Michigan issues. But the western Upper Peninsula, where the bulk of Michigan’s moose live, isn’t part of the 1836 Treaty. That part of the state is subject to an 1842 Treaty that Michigan has not ratified. Wisconsin has ratified its portion of the 1842 Treaty, and tribes there receive 50 percent of the tags Wisconsin issues for that part of the state.

Mason said that so far in Michigan the 1842 group has fallen along the lines of the 1836 group. But that formal negotiation has not taken place, and if it doesn’t then Michigan’s 1842 tribes may also receive 50 percent of any moose tags issued.

“We need to work through those issues,” he said. “It’s not a matter of right or wrong. There are important legal and cultural issues that this group will address and hopefully move forward. I’m glad we have the opportunity to have this discussion.”