ACT NOW or NO New Bass Season!

[djkimmel]

YOU and I need ALL of us to contact our elected Michigan state representatives FRIDAY AUGUST 22nd or MONDAY AUGUST 25th at the latest!

Go here: http://www.house.mi.gov/mhrpublic/ and use Find a Representative if you don't already know who your elected person in the State House is. If you're not a Michigan resident but you fish here you can still call the leaders of the House and tell them you support scientific fish and wildlife management. The anti's are using paid phone help from out-of-state to call our Legislators.

Call the office AND write a follow up email urging your elected state rep and House leaders to SUPPORT our Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act (SFWCA). The Michigan Senate has already passed our petition drive bill. We have to get it passed in the House now.

We have ONLY 1 day to vote on our act, and that is next Wednesday August 27. If the House passes our SFWCA the Governor does not even have to sign it - IT IS LAW! And we stop the radical animal rights, anti-hunting, anti-fishing groups from taking away our new bass season before we even get, and from taking the authority to name fish and game species, and issue fisheries orders away from the Natural Resources Commission where it belongs!

We HAVE to get this law passed to get our new bass season!! It is that simple. If we fail between now and next Wednesday, this whole issue of the wolf hunt and scientific management of game and fish goes to the regular ballot in November and since everyone thinks this is ONLY about the wolf hunt, and the anti's have millions to spend to keep confusing and misleading people, we will probably lose that vote.

Even we somehow win a vote in November - IT WILL BE TOO LATE FOR OUR 2015 BASS SEASON. We will have to wait until 2017 AND we will be dealing with more money and attacks by the radical anti's too!

So call your Michigan House member NOW FRIDAY August 22 or Monday August 25. Tell whatever staff you get you want your state representative :

1) To come to Lansing on August 27th to support and vote YES on the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act!
2) Support the use of Sound Science for fish and game management;
3) Support funds to stop invasive species;
4) Support free hunting & fishing licenses for active duty military!

They already passed this bill last May. We are just asking them to support it again WITH the invasive species appropriation!

The people of Michigan already have 'voted.' They voted in 1996 on Proposal G - 63% Yes. Many of these same House members also supported this exact same bill last year in Public Act 21. Almost 300,000 voters supported our petition drive for the SFWCA - signatures we collected using Michigan hunters and anglers who understand the importance of our natural resources economy!

This is not about 'letting the people vote.' This is about out-of-state deep pocket radical anti-hunting, anti-fishing groups trying to destroy Michigan's natural resource economy, and your and my favorite activity because they don't want ANYONE hunting OR fishing. That is ALL this is about and ALL it will ever be about for these radical animal rights people. We can't let them get away with it!

This is CRITICAL especially if you live in ANY of the following districts (NOTE - Jase Bolger is the Speaker of the House so anyone contacting him whether you live in his district or not will be helping out to make sure he supports acting on the SFWCA):

Representative Jase Bolger: 63rd District
or (517)373-1787

Klint Kesto: 39th District
or (517) 373-1799

Mike Callton: 87th District
or (517) 373-5670

Kevin Cotter: 99th District
or (517) 373-5754

Hugh Crawford: 38th District
or (517) 373-0827

Jeff Farrington: 30th District
or (517) 373-7768

Anthony Forlini: 24th District
or (517) 373-5746

Kurt Heise: 20th District
or (517) 373-5941

Ken Kurtz: 58th District
or (517) 373-1794

Matt Lori: 59th District
or (517) 373-5771.    

Tom McMillin: 45th District
or (517) 373-1773

Margaret O'Brien: 61st District
or (517) 373-1774

Earl Poleski: 64th District
or (517) 373-5694

Pat Somerville: 23rd District
or (517) 373-575

Eileen Kowall:  44th District
or (517) 373-2616

Gail Haines: 43rd District
or (517) 373-0615

Pete Lund: 36th District
or (517) 373-0843

Terry Brown: 84th District
or (517) 373-0476

Tom Cochran: 67th District
or (517) 373-0587

Fred Durhal: 5th District
or (517) 373-0844

Pam Faris: 48th District
or (517) 373-7557

Tim Greimel: 29th District
or (517) 373-0475

Jeff Irwin: 53rd House District
or (517) 373-2577

Stacey Erwin Oakes: 95th District
or (517) 373-0152

Harvey Santana: 9th District
or (517) 373-6990

Charles Smiley: 50th District
or (517) 373-3906

Thomas Stallworth: 7th District
or (517) 373-2276

Woodrow Stanley: 34th District
or (517) 373-8808

Adam Zemke: 55th District
or (517) 373-1792

Andy Schor: 68th District
or 517-373-0826

[Waterfoul]

I called my Rep, Thomas Hooker.  Great thing is, Tom was my goverment teacher in high school, and my wrestling coach!  I'm also facebook friends with him and have already asked him to support us to get this thru the house.  I will send him another FB message tonight when I get home.

[djkimmel]

Thank you! This is CRITICAL. hsus is walking neighborhoods and calling our neighbors confusing good people about this issue. Our elected officials are getting more calls from Michigan residents and voters thinking they are protecting the wolves and their 'right' to vote when all they're doing is serving the interests of an anti-hunting, anti-fishing organization that just happens to have millions of dollars to spend.

[TheFishinPollock]

I went and called  Mr. McMaster, our area rep.   Of course he didn't give me a difinitive answer, but.  He is a hunting and fishing " friend" of mine. Hopefully. good thing is he is my neighbor half a block away. I can always go bug him at home 

[djkimmel]

Thanks for calling him! Maybe he doesn't want to say it publicly? Who knows. Remind him this is really about support for anti-hunting, anti-fishing group. Nicely. Don't give up, because a vote against the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act is a vote against hunters and anglers, and a vote against active military personnel. You're either against radical animal rights and anti-hunting/anti-fishing agendas, or you are for them. There's no middle ground. It's that simple.

Regardless of what anyone claims - that is what this is about, not wolves - if it wasn't wolves the radical animal rights people would make it about something else - whatever the next easiest target they figure they could go after. And when their done with wolves they will just move on to the next target. And the next. And they will keep doing that, confusing and misleading people however it takes until there's no hunting or fishing left to go after. They don't care how long it takes as long as they can keep raising money. Anyone directly involved knows this.

[mchesney]

You should post this at BBC and LSC.net as well Dan.

[djkimmel]

Yes - thank you! I need to send out email and post other places yet. I'm trying to decide on the best message after the results of the number of phone calls I made to the state capitol yesterday. I have a family event for a few hours, and then I will get back to this so people can get email out this weekend and make phone calls Monday. Thanks for reading and helping!

[t-bone]

I got the word out to Klint Kesto. Hopefully he got the message and will represent us.

[djkimmel]

Thanks - that is a BIG help!! He voted for yes last year. Nothing has changed. The anti's want to come up with ways to make it easier to stop us from all hunting and fishing. And we have to keep them from doing it.

[djkimmel]

Please - tell me that more of you are taking a few minutes to email and/or call your Michigan state representative TODAY to vote YES on the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act this Wednesday! They NEED to hear from you!!

If you want to see how your state rep voted on this exact same bill last year, minus the $1 million invasive species appropriation, (Senate Bill 288 - passed 72 yes to 38 no - and enrolled as Public Act 21 of 2013) go to this link for House Journal 41(PDF doc) and search for "Senate Bill No. 288, entitled" to see the votes by Representative just below. http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2013-HJ-05-02-041 is the link to either an MS Excel sheet or the PDF version of the Journal documenting this vote.

If your state Rep voted YES last year on SB 288 (Public Act 21 of 2013) please make sure they will vote YES again Wednesday. If he or she votes NO, they are supporting the goals of an out-of-state anti-hunting, anti-fishing organization, period.

Here is an EXCELLENT statement our own Mojo wrote to his elected official in Lansing urging him to vote YES on the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act - GREAT JOB Mojo!!!

Here is what I wrote:

"We HAVE to get this law passed !! Otherwise the Natural Resources Commission loses all authority to regulate fish and game, active military lose their free fishing and hunting licenses! 

Let me explain:  The people have 'voted.' They voted in 1996 on Proposal G - 63% Yes. Many of these same House members also supported this exact same bill last year in Public Act 21. The only difference this time is the added $1 million appropriation for an emergency aquatic invasive species fund - everything else in the SFWCA was passed by a majority of the House and Senate last May.

This is not about 'letting the people vote.' This is about out-of-state deep pocket radical anti-hunting, anti-fishing groups trying to destroy Michigan's natural resource Billion dollar economy and your and my favorite activity because they don't want ANYONE hunting OR fishing. They can afford to keep doing more petition drives to steal more hunting and fishing rights from us if we don't win this one! Please do not let them do this !

The gray wolf population has been brought back rather nicely from 3 to over 700 in Michigan. The MDNR and NRC managed them, ELK, MOOSE, LYNX, COYOTE and COUGAR populations to coexist with Michigan residents. They learned (from the coyote debacle) that if you don't step in and do very limited hunts (to prevent population explosions) then a species with no natural predators will quickly expand into dangerous territory for them, and for children. Wolves are different. They will kill babies, children, dogs, and livestock if they aren't managed properly. To me, if the wolf population explodes, we have BIG problem, and the right way to manage them is just the way the NRC proposes: Limited and controlled hunts. Its more natural that way.

In conclusion, the MDNR and NRC DO use science and conservation practices and they do a VERY good job. I've hunted and fished for 40 years, and the natural resources have ALWAYS been abundant. Voting NO means they no longer are the managing body !!!! Why would you change that ?? Outside groups do not know what's good for us, but if you vote NO, the door opens widely for exactly that. Please vote YES August 27th for the scientific fish and wildlife management act.


Your thoughts always welcome, do not hesitate to call me back on my cell phone. I would love to speak with you on this important topic, as your constituent, you as my representative".

[Genie]

Now I feel like an idiot ... how do I find my representative?

Idiot again ... I found it!  DUH!

[djkimmel]

I will still love you if you make the call! Thanks!

[djkimmel]

I'll add it again down here so no one else feels bad!

Go here: http://www.house.mi.gov/mhrpublic/ and use Find a Representative if you don't already know who your elected person in the State House is. You can still call. It will not hurt and as hard as the anti's are pushing it may make THE difference yet! We need it!

[Waterfoul]

Shared a couple of texts with my Rep. Tom Hooker today.  He's voting in favor of the bill because he likes that it brings and keeps money IN the state.  He also believes there is pretty good support for the bill in the House.  But, keep it up... talk to your reps!

[djkimmel]

Thanks for a positive update that includes some good reasoning thought. This should be an easy call in a state built for the outdoors but not everyone keeps that in their mind apparently.

Yes, keep sending email. You can even call your state Reps office tomorrow morning.

We are having a rally on the Capitol steps at 11AM tomorrow to show our elected officials we are serious and this is important! Anyone who can make it is welcome and will be MUCH APPRECIATED!!

Keep wolves protected is holding their own rally to keep people confused about what this is really about. There's no way a small, scattered wolf hunt in the Upper Peninsula (backed by actual science) is worth trashing our whole public outdoor scientific management system. The NRC has worked well since it was formed in 1922!

Keep wolves protected got almost half their money from out-of-state. Their biggest 'supporter' is the Humane Society of the U.S. The biggest anti-hunting, anti-fishing radical animal rights group in the country. Keep wolves protected has 10 times the amount of money to spend that we do. Literally. We need to beat them TOMORROW!

Thanks for all of your help!

[t-bone]

It passed!!!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 27, 2014

Contact: Drew YoungeDyke, Grassroots & Public Relations | 734-272-2584 | dyoungedyke@mucc.org

House Passes Pro-Hunting Citizen Initiative into Law

Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act now law, renders anti-hunting referendums moot

LANSING, MI – The Michigan House of Representatives passed the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act today with a bipartisan vote of 65-43 . The citizen initiative, which passed the Senate on August 13 and was supported by the signatures of almost 300,000 registered voters, allows the Natural Resources Commission to name game species and issue fisheries orders using sound science, creates a $1 million rapid response fund to prevent Asian carp, and provides free hunting and fishing licenses for active military members.

"We are very thankful to the legislators who voted for sound science, the voters who signed the petition, the organizations who supported it, and the tireless volunteers who collected the signatures of almost 300,000 registered Michigan voters," said Dan Eichinger, executive director for Michigan United Conservation Clubs. "This is an important step to protecting the rights to hunt, fish and trap in Michigan from radical animal rights organizations."

The initiative also renders moot two referendums sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), a Washington, D.C.-based anti-hunting organization, which sought to repeal two bills that would allow a regulated hunting season for wolves in certain areas of the Upper Peninsula where they have killed pets, dogs and livestock. Because the initiative contains an appropriation, it is not subject to a third referendum by HSUS or its front group, Keep Michigan Wolves Protected.

"We thought it was important to listen to the will of the 300,000 registered voters who brought this initiative to us," said Representative Jon Bumbstead (R-Newago). "This is about more than wolves. It's about protecting the rights of our constituents to hunt and fish by managing our fish and wildlife with sound science."

Passage of the citizen initiative settles the wolf hunt controversy, which has moved back and forth over the past two years, providing the certainty that Department of Natural Resources biologists need to move forward with wolf management.

Citizens for Professional Wildlife Management is a coalition of conservation, hunting, fishing and trapping groups and individuals including the Michigan chapters of Safari Club International, the Michigan Bear Hunters Association, Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association, the Michigan Hunting Dog Federation, the Upper Peninsula Sportsmen's Alliance, U.P. Whitetails, Inc., the U.P. Bear Houndsmen, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited and the United States Sportsmen's Alliance. The act has also received the endorsement of the National Wildlife Federation, the Michigan Salmon and Steelhead Fishermen's Association, the Lake St. Clair Walleye Association, the Lake St. Clair chapter of Muskies, Inc., and numerous local conservation groups throughout Michigan.

[Mojo]

The email request and response speaks for itself. I am so proud of these guys to see through the BS. Please enjoy:

From: Rep. Klint Kesto (District 39) [mailto:KlintKesto@house.mi.gov]
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 9:46 AM
To: Michael Schoemann
Subject: RE: Please respond to this email pertaining to today's vote.

Michael,

I voted yes for the following reasons:

  The right to petition state government to adopt a law via signature collection is a process enshrined in our state's Constitution.  It is not designed to put something on the ballot. It's designed to initiate a law, just as an elected legislator does by introducing a bill.

  This constitutional process has not been altered by this Legislature, nor any other in recent years. It has stayed much the same over time. Therefore, cries of circumventing the constitutional process are inaccurate and meant to distract voters from the actual issue.

  The certified petitions were signed by nearly 300,000 registered Michigan voters, representing a broad spectrum of voters from the entire state.

  In 1996, a statewide vote on the ballot asked Michigan residents whether the NRC should have the exclusive authority to decide game species, and was approved with nearly 70 percent of the vote.

  Voting to approve this citizen-initiated law does not create new public policy, rather it reaffirms the authority of the Natural Resources Commission to name new game species and establish hunts.  There is a reason that we have a Natural Resources Commission, and that is to make these types of decisions based on sound science, not politics or emotions.

  An abundance of wolves in northern Michigan as of late has caused an uptick in attacks on livestock, family pets and even people.  Due to these safety concerns that present a real threat to Northern Michigan families and their livelihoods, the NRC established a limited wolf hunt to contain this type of aggressive behavior and temporarily reduce the wolf population in this region.

  An out-of-state organization paying out-of-state people to collect signatures and decide public policy for the state of Michigan is not democratic.  What is democratic is having a commission made up of residents from across the state with varying backgrounds, but all of whom have knowledge of our natural resources, making decisions based on sound science. 

  As representatives, we are elected to study an issue, take feedback from constituents, weigh all of the information and vote in the best interest of the people of our districts and the state. I met this burden before casting my vote on the Conservation Act.

  The right of citizens to petition their government to change a law is intact.  The citizens have had their voices heard, and the government has acted. 


Klint Kesto, State Representative
Michigan House of Representatives
Proudly representing Commerce Township, West Bloomfield, Wixom and the Village of Wolverine Lake!
517.373.1799 – Office

From: Michael Schoemann [mailto:michael.schoemann@chrysler.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 4:28 PM
To: Rep. Klint Kesto (District 39); Rep. Eileen Kowall (District 44); Rep. Tim Greimel (District 29); Rep. Gail Haines (District 43)
Subject: Please respond to this email pertaining to today's vote.

I wanted to take a moment, regardless of how you voted, for considering your citizens with this vote. It shows that not all issues can be bought or sold, and that citizen action can help change. From my heart, thank you. Could you write back, and with a simple sentence, let me know how you voted and why ?

Mike

[t-bone]

Awesome - leave it to a politician to answer with an entire page when asked for a sentence!

[oldjigger]

so now when does he season open for bass tournaments next year?

[Kal-Kevin]

oldjigger if all goes well we should be able to start tournaments around the first of April. This is what I understand the DNR has stated in the past to the question of when it will open. Part of the push to get it passed was to get it opened up for us next year, if we waited for November it would not happen till 2017.