12-30-2003, 10:40 AM
Cooperation needed on baiting issue
Saturday, December 27, 2003
By Howard Meyerson
The Grand Rapids Press
I couldn't help but read with interest how the Michigan Farm Bureau has called again for a total ban on baiting deer. It wasn't all that long ago that agricultural interests fought any controls on baiting. There were mega-bucks to be made selling sugar beets, carrots and corn to several hundred thousand hunters each year looking for an advantage.That, of course, was before bovine tuberculosis.
A Press story Wednesday discussed the history of the cattle testing program in Michigan and how TB spread starting in 1994 from deer to cattle. It spoke of farmers' hopes of regaining TB-Free status for Michigan and of the costs to the state so far -- about $25 million in lost hunting tourism and a $62 million expense to test deer and livestock. It spoke of the role of bait piles in the spread of the disease.
That the Farm Bureau moved to the other side of the debate speaks only of its good sense, both financial and common. That the Department of Natural Resources moved to limit hunters to two gallons of bait speaks of the same, though the agency's reticence to close the door says a lot about its lack of nerve when it comes to making hunters mad.
But what I find particularly confounding, in light of that compromise, was simply alluded to in a sentence near the end of the story that said, "... Baiting and feeding rules are widely ignored."
Hunters, though they know better and have so much to lose, not only ignore the two-gallon rules. They often violate them flagrantly.
"We saw one pile in Branch County that was five pickup loads," said Lt. Ray Berringer, the law enforcement supervisor for nine southwest Michigan counties. "It's that bad. People are not paying attention to the rules."
Berringer and other law enforcement officials say most illegal baiting takes place on private land and out of sight of most conservation officers and concerned hunters. Those who bait on public lands often stick to the rules.
"We haven't even scratched the surface," added Sgt. Kevin Hackworth, a DNR conservation officer out of Plainwell. "We flew over Muskegon and part of Newaygo County looking for road hunters during the season and came up with a bunch of big bait piles.
"In one 90-minute flight over east Montcalm County, we marked 18 large bait piles. We could see them that well from the air and we didn't even fly an entire township.
"At Greenville, we watched a guy load a pickup truck full of sugar beets that he bought from a local stand. At another baiting site we filled an entire pickup and still had 53 pumpkins left that we couldn't haul away."
Both officers say their crews are marking the locations of bait piles and visiting their owners. But both question why hunters aren't taking this proverbial bull by the horns. The results in the northeast at the height of the TB problem should have awakened them.
"If people want healthy deer, they need to cooperate," Hackworth said. "They aren't doing deer any favors when they dump a pile of bait out there. There is a misconception that we have this under control. We may biologically, but from the law side we haven't gotten good compliance."
That, of course, could change next year if hunters deem it so, if the NRC decides to ban baiting totally, and if excessive baiting is prosecuted.
Each and all will make a difference. They are all at the top of my holiday wildlife wish list and should be right up there for every deer hunter in the state.
Contact Howard Meyerson via e-mail at: hmeyerson@gr-press.com
© 2003 Grand Rapids Press. Used with permission
[signature]