Post by ridge on Feb 12, 2018 17:33:10 GMT -5
THE CONCERNED SPORTSMEN OF MICHIGAN
Dedicated to protecting and promoting Michigan's Whitetail Deer resource, through the promotion of responsible, science based policies and regulations. www.concernedsportsmen.net
February 2018 NRC meeting recap
Two deer hunting/CWD related items were included in this months meeting. During a review of the Governors proposed budget, it was mentioned that the proposed budget includes a $2.6 million dollar appropriation for Disease Mitigation. That appropriation is to replace the one time $1 million dollar CWD funding supplemental appropriation which was included in last years budget. The $2.6 million is not just for CWD mitigation, however, it also has to go towards Bovine Tuberculosis, EHD, West Nile and a variety of other diseases that are tested for. This new appropriation is in addition to the existing annual $4.2 million dollar allocation, which has been part of the DNR's appropriation for some time. While all of that sounds like a lot of money, I suspect that it will disappear very quickly, if the NRC actually decides to substantially increase the scope of testing for CWD. Commissioner Shlaybaugh asked some detailed questions about this funding and said that he hoped that it would be enough but you could clearly see that he did not believe that to be the case and I would bet that he has the best handle on how much money will be needed, of any of the Commissioners.
There was also a $1.5 million dollar appropriation to hire and train 10 new CO's, which would bring the total force up to 255 officers. Keep in mind that this budget is a proposal only, it now gets sent to the legislature and after all of the budget negotiations are finished, it's very likely that some of this proposed funding may not make to the final budget.
The other part of the meeting focusing on CWD was a presentation by Deputy Director Bill O'Neill, on the DNR's implementation of the first of the four proposals made by the CWD work group, in their recent report. The DNR will be addressing one of the each of the four areas of focus at each of the meetings this spring. This month, the portion of the report that was discussed was the Recommendation regarding communication. O'Neill announced that the DNR has hired an independent communication firm to help them get the message out. The problem is that it's readily apparent that the DNR has no clue as to what that message should be. So what they have proposed is a 3 part plan, to try and determine what we should be doing and what stakeholders want to hear from the DNR in regards to combating CWD. The focus of this plan is Engagement, Audience Research and Strategic Communication.
I was among many who were kind of dumbfounded that this portion of the "plan" seems to consist of asking hunters what we should do. The way they are proposing to implement this plan will have three phases.
1st, A DNR team consisting of former Deputy Director Bill Moritz, Kelly Straka and Chad Stewart, will sit down with the leadership of the main stakeholder organizations (MUCC, QDMA, Michigan Farm Bureau and probably UP Whitetails, among others) and ask them what their organizations think we need to be doing to combat CWD and how they think the DNR can work together with them to accomplish those goals.
2nd, The DNR will hold Stakeholder meetings with the rank and file of those organizations, to further get their input.
3rd, The DNR will then hold a series of 9 public meetings around the state, to get input from average hunters. The stated purposes of these three phases are to "build relationships with stakeholders", "Get to know each other", "Increase Transparency" and a number of other typical catch phrases. In addition, the DNR will use social media, the DNR website, press releases, etc., to keep people up to speed on what we are doing to combat CWD. They are also proposing to do a stakeholder survey, conducted by the marketing partner, as well as add additional questions on the annual hunter survey, related to CWD, to try and determine what people are thinking about the disease and it's impact. The time frame for accomplishing all of three phases is that they would complete it by October, which clearly indicates that nothing resulting from these efforts would be able to be utilized for any changes being made for the 2018 hunting season, so this essentially pushes those changes off until 2019, at the earliest. O'Neill repeated several times that this is a marathon, not a sprint and that this will be an ongoing effort that will take years.
As an aside, I really had to feel sorry for Bill O'Neill, he was dealt kind of a crappy hand being tasked with dealing with this. Bill was the former head of the forest division and did an excellent job at building partnerships between the DNR and private industry and really maximizing the forest products assets of Michigan. Based on the peter principal, he was recently promoted to Deputy Director, even though all of his expertise is related to forestry issues. This is just a personal observation and I could be way off base but I don't think Bill knows much about or has much interest in hunting and he certainly does not know anything about communicable cervid diseases like CWD, yet he has been tasked with "selling" the DNR's and the work groups recommendations. I feel for the guy, he did an enthusiastic job of making the presentation but you could tell that he knew he was essentially selling hot air.
After the presentation was made, Commissioner Tracy voiced concerns that I think a lot of the people in the room were feeling. Chris said, essentially, that he thought the time for asking stakeholders for input on this issue was long past and that instead, the DNR needs to come up with a plan and them market the plan to stakeholder telling them what is going to be done and why they are doing it. Several other Commissioners concurred and a similar take was voiced by several of the people who spoke at public comment. You could see Bill O'Neill deflate like a tire with the air coming out of it. He did a nice job of trying to deflect criticism by saying that they could change the plan and then Director Creagh stepped in and said that it was always the intent that such a plan would be flexible and that they could go another direction if the Commission so desired.
While I agree that the idea of stakeholder "buy-in" will be an important part of the success of any plan, the fact is that each stakeholder group has their own agenda and if the DNR bases their response on those competing agendas, science and common sense will both be thrown out the window and instead we will have more proposals like "APR's are a great tool for fighting CWD" and other idiotic agenda driven crap. It's abundantly clear that the DNR has no idea and no plan as to how they are going to try and stop the spread of CWD in Michigan. I am starting to believe that the DNR leadership has decided that it is a losing battle and is now more focused on how to deflect blame, instead of actually coming up with viable solutions. The CWD work group gives them the ultimate cover, it provides the public with the illusion that substantial efforts are being made to thwart the disease and at the same time, it gives the DNR a scape-goat to point to, when CWD continues to spread unabated.
As far as the DNR adopting any of the recommendations that are being made by me or others, highly doubtful, I don't see any of the DNR employees sticking their neck out to promote ideas that have not been previously tried in other states and even then, they would rather fall back on the work group recommendations. They simply do not want to take the risk of being blamed for failures, which could threaten their careers. If I had to guess, the DNR will continue with these outreach efforts, try and team up with some other states to fund some research (provides great opportunities for DNR biologists to engage in academic research, funded by others, to pad their resume) and continue to push a bait ban, which is the path of least resistance, especially given the support from the big three groups involved in deer politics in Michigan. The only unknown at this point is whether the NRC will go along with that or whether they will be willing to push for other, more pro-active measures. I was able to talk at length with one Commissioner after the meeting, who expressed support for my suggestions and who is opposed to a total baiting ban, so that's one down, 3 more to go, in order to reach a majority. Clearly, our work is cut out for us.
Jim Sweeney
Dedicated to protecting and promoting Michigan's Whitetail Deer resource, through the promotion of responsible, science based policies and regulations. www.concernedsportsmen.net
February 2018 NRC meeting recap
Two deer hunting/CWD related items were included in this months meeting. During a review of the Governors proposed budget, it was mentioned that the proposed budget includes a $2.6 million dollar appropriation for Disease Mitigation. That appropriation is to replace the one time $1 million dollar CWD funding supplemental appropriation which was included in last years budget. The $2.6 million is not just for CWD mitigation, however, it also has to go towards Bovine Tuberculosis, EHD, West Nile and a variety of other diseases that are tested for. This new appropriation is in addition to the existing annual $4.2 million dollar allocation, which has been part of the DNR's appropriation for some time. While all of that sounds like a lot of money, I suspect that it will disappear very quickly, if the NRC actually decides to substantially increase the scope of testing for CWD. Commissioner Shlaybaugh asked some detailed questions about this funding and said that he hoped that it would be enough but you could clearly see that he did not believe that to be the case and I would bet that he has the best handle on how much money will be needed, of any of the Commissioners.
There was also a $1.5 million dollar appropriation to hire and train 10 new CO's, which would bring the total force up to 255 officers. Keep in mind that this budget is a proposal only, it now gets sent to the legislature and after all of the budget negotiations are finished, it's very likely that some of this proposed funding may not make to the final budget.
The other part of the meeting focusing on CWD was a presentation by Deputy Director Bill O'Neill, on the DNR's implementation of the first of the four proposals made by the CWD work group, in their recent report. The DNR will be addressing one of the each of the four areas of focus at each of the meetings this spring. This month, the portion of the report that was discussed was the Recommendation regarding communication. O'Neill announced that the DNR has hired an independent communication firm to help them get the message out. The problem is that it's readily apparent that the DNR has no clue as to what that message should be. So what they have proposed is a 3 part plan, to try and determine what we should be doing and what stakeholders want to hear from the DNR in regards to combating CWD. The focus of this plan is Engagement, Audience Research and Strategic Communication.
I was among many who were kind of dumbfounded that this portion of the "plan" seems to consist of asking hunters what we should do. The way they are proposing to implement this plan will have three phases.
1st, A DNR team consisting of former Deputy Director Bill Moritz, Kelly Straka and Chad Stewart, will sit down with the leadership of the main stakeholder organizations (MUCC, QDMA, Michigan Farm Bureau and probably UP Whitetails, among others) and ask them what their organizations think we need to be doing to combat CWD and how they think the DNR can work together with them to accomplish those goals.
2nd, The DNR will hold Stakeholder meetings with the rank and file of those organizations, to further get their input.
3rd, The DNR will then hold a series of 9 public meetings around the state, to get input from average hunters. The stated purposes of these three phases are to "build relationships with stakeholders", "Get to know each other", "Increase Transparency" and a number of other typical catch phrases. In addition, the DNR will use social media, the DNR website, press releases, etc., to keep people up to speed on what we are doing to combat CWD. They are also proposing to do a stakeholder survey, conducted by the marketing partner, as well as add additional questions on the annual hunter survey, related to CWD, to try and determine what people are thinking about the disease and it's impact. The time frame for accomplishing all of three phases is that they would complete it by October, which clearly indicates that nothing resulting from these efforts would be able to be utilized for any changes being made for the 2018 hunting season, so this essentially pushes those changes off until 2019, at the earliest. O'Neill repeated several times that this is a marathon, not a sprint and that this will be an ongoing effort that will take years.
As an aside, I really had to feel sorry for Bill O'Neill, he was dealt kind of a crappy hand being tasked with dealing with this. Bill was the former head of the forest division and did an excellent job at building partnerships between the DNR and private industry and really maximizing the forest products assets of Michigan. Based on the peter principal, he was recently promoted to Deputy Director, even though all of his expertise is related to forestry issues. This is just a personal observation and I could be way off base but I don't think Bill knows much about or has much interest in hunting and he certainly does not know anything about communicable cervid diseases like CWD, yet he has been tasked with "selling" the DNR's and the work groups recommendations. I feel for the guy, he did an enthusiastic job of making the presentation but you could tell that he knew he was essentially selling hot air.
After the presentation was made, Commissioner Tracy voiced concerns that I think a lot of the people in the room were feeling. Chris said, essentially, that he thought the time for asking stakeholders for input on this issue was long past and that instead, the DNR needs to come up with a plan and them market the plan to stakeholder telling them what is going to be done and why they are doing it. Several other Commissioners concurred and a similar take was voiced by several of the people who spoke at public comment. You could see Bill O'Neill deflate like a tire with the air coming out of it. He did a nice job of trying to deflect criticism by saying that they could change the plan and then Director Creagh stepped in and said that it was always the intent that such a plan would be flexible and that they could go another direction if the Commission so desired.
While I agree that the idea of stakeholder "buy-in" will be an important part of the success of any plan, the fact is that each stakeholder group has their own agenda and if the DNR bases their response on those competing agendas, science and common sense will both be thrown out the window and instead we will have more proposals like "APR's are a great tool for fighting CWD" and other idiotic agenda driven crap. It's abundantly clear that the DNR has no idea and no plan as to how they are going to try and stop the spread of CWD in Michigan. I am starting to believe that the DNR leadership has decided that it is a losing battle and is now more focused on how to deflect blame, instead of actually coming up with viable solutions. The CWD work group gives them the ultimate cover, it provides the public with the illusion that substantial efforts are being made to thwart the disease and at the same time, it gives the DNR a scape-goat to point to, when CWD continues to spread unabated.
As far as the DNR adopting any of the recommendations that are being made by me or others, highly doubtful, I don't see any of the DNR employees sticking their neck out to promote ideas that have not been previously tried in other states and even then, they would rather fall back on the work group recommendations. They simply do not want to take the risk of being blamed for failures, which could threaten their careers. If I had to guess, the DNR will continue with these outreach efforts, try and team up with some other states to fund some research (provides great opportunities for DNR biologists to engage in academic research, funded by others, to pad their resume) and continue to push a bait ban, which is the path of least resistance, especially given the support from the big three groups involved in deer politics in Michigan. The only unknown at this point is whether the NRC will go along with that or whether they will be willing to push for other, more pro-active measures. I was able to talk at length with one Commissioner after the meeting, who expressed support for my suggestions and who is opposed to a total baiting ban, so that's one down, 3 more to go, in order to reach a majority. Clearly, our work is cut out for us.
Jim Sweeney
