Government

New proposal would add deposit to water bottles

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — There’s another move underway in the Legislature to expand Michigan’s 40-year-old beverage deposit law to include water and juice containers. But prospects for passage this year appear unlikely. The latest effort would add the current 10-cent deposit requirement on metal, glass and plastic carbonated beverage containers to include noncarbonated drinks, with exceptions for milk, other dairy products, unflavored soymilk and unflavored rice milk. The major additions would be water, juice, wine and liquor containers. The law that voters approved in 1976 covers containers of one gallon or less of “soft drinks, soda water, carbonated natural or mineral water or other nonalcoholic carbonated drink; beer, ale or other malt drinks of whatever alcoholic content or a mixed wine drink or a mixed spirit drink.” It took effect in 1978.

Environment

DNR steps up chronic wasting monitoring

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By JOSHUA BENDER
Capital News Service
LANSING – In an effort to protect Michigan’s deer, the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wants to double the number of core areas monitored for deadly chronic wasting disease. This expansion would include six new townships in Eaton County and two in Clinton County. The fatal disease interferes with the digestive abilities of deer, literally causing them to waste away in its later stages, said Drew YoungeDyke, chief information officer for Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the state’s largest hunting organization. The disease can cause deer to become delirious, walking in circles for hours and being unable to even properly drink water, he said. “They become kind of robotic.”

The full extent of the spread of the disease is not yet known, said Chad Stewart, the DNR’s deer management specialist.

Business & Economy

Gun sales booming as regulations increase

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By JOSHUA BENDER
Capital News Service
LANSING – Statewide some retailers see a substantial spike in sales of guns and ammo resulting from recent executive orders handed down by the Obama Administration. The orders primarily affect online gun sellers and people conducting sales at gun shows, further regulating these sales and attempting to limit firearms sold without a background check of the purchaser, according to a White House press release. “We have seen an uptick in gun sales, we are running into shortages at the distributor level for product,” said Brian Harrison, manager of Leitz Sports Center in Sault Ste. Marie. “Typically we wouldn’t be as busy this time of year as we are.

Environment

Debate continues on how to get the lead out – of ammo

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By BROOKE KANSIER
Capital News Service
LANSING – Hunting is killing Michigan wildlife – and not just in the way you think. It’s because a toxic metal – lead – has been a hunting staple for centuries. Despite being removed from products like paint, gasoline and pesticides, lead remains popular for shot and bullets due to its malleability and tendency to fracture, making for bigger wound tracks and faster kills. That fracturing has its downsides, however. Lead fragments in gut piles – left behind when hunters lighten the load to carry their kill out of the woods – can put wildlife at risk of ingesting remnants of the toxin, according to the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin.

Agriculture

Land cap not a problem for DNR

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By STEPHANIE HERNANDEZ McGAVIN
Capital News Service
LANSING — The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports no negative outcomes from the initial cap on its land ownership of 4.626 million acres statewide, which was implemented by state law in 2012. While some feared that the initial land caps would hurt the DNR’s ability to maintain its lands and achieve its environmental goals, Sen. Tom Casperson, an Escanaba Republican, said that the caps were never meant to harass or limit the department, but simply give it guidelines. “It has been irrelevant because we had put some grace that allowed the department to keep buying. The intent was to not cut them off but set up a parameter,” said Casperson. “Right now, there’s 20,000 acres still left and the cap hasn’t held anything up — it’s just more that it’s there.“

DNR public information officer Ed Golder said that although the initial land cap has yet to hurt the department, it continues to work with the Legislature to avoid being limited in future land management.

Environment

State fights illegal trafficking in bear parts

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By COURTNEY BOURGOIN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Government agencies and advocacy organizations are working to make sure the sun sets on Michigan bear poaching. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) arrested four people in early August for illegally purchasing and selling black bear parts. And the House Natural Resources Committee has passed a set of bills that call for stricter poaching penalties. The measures already won Senate approval and await action by the full House. Overseas demand for organs motivates poachers to kill the animals through unlawful methods, whether by hunting off-season or exceeding legal limits, DNR officials said.

Business & Economy

New grants to promote more snowmobile trails

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By SIERRA RESOVSKY
Capital News Service
LANSING – Expansion of snowmobile trails could boost local economies, but may lead to conflicts about crossing private land as well, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said. In a move to head off such conflicts, a new state grant program will allow local governments and organizations to purchase permanent easements for snowmobile trails that cross private property. According to DNR recreation specialist Ron Yesney, half of Michigan’s snowmobile trails are on privately owned land. And although easements are necessary to use those trails, that use is at the discretion of the landowner. Twenty-five percent of the trail system is on state forest lands that are open to snowmobiling.

Environment

Congress may take up state management of gray wolves

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By BROOKE KANSIER
Capital News Service
LANSING — The late 2014 return of the gray wolf to endangered status in the Great Lakes area may be short-lived if a bipartisan bill passes Congress. The bill, sponsored by Republican Wisconsin Rep. Reid Ribble, would remove federal protection from the species in four states: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Still in draft stages, the bill would turn over management of the gray wolf to those state governments. The species has seen a lot of controversy in past years, with numerous attempts to delist the wolves from federal protection, and heavy debate between both sides. Hunting supporters say populations have met recovery quotas and that this growing population threatens pets and livestock, and conflict with humans has been rising.

Environment

Poachers, trespassing hunters could face higher fines

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By KYLE CAMPBELL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Deer poachers might soon be paying big bucks for illegally killing big bucks in the Great Lakes State. A pair of bills in the Senate aim to deter hunters from trespassing on farmland, as well as increasing penalties for poachers who target large-antlered deer by tacking on additional restitution fees. Ypsilanti resident Jim Pryce, president of the Tri County Sportsmen’s League in Saline, authored a resolution for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) that inspired the legislation. “Here in Michigan we have devalued the big bucks,” Pryce said. “Right now it doesn’t matter if you look at a 10-point buck or small buck, the fine is only $1,000 for poaching.”
Sens.