There are only 25 known species of chipmunks. They have plump cheeks that they love to store food in and take back to their “house.” Chipmunks are omnivorous as they eat both plants and animals. The Natural Resources Commission is expected to take up the issue at its next meeting on May 11 at Lansing Community College.Chipmunks belong to the squirrel family. In fact they’re going in the opposite direction they should be going,” he said. “We suggested that they take a step back and reconsider this. Thomas Gilpin with the Anishinaabek Caucus said the proposal to add rabbits, squirrels, and beavers - among others, goes too far. If you live trap an animal, it must be either let loose at that spot immediately or it must be killed. State law does not allow that unless it’s by a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. The solution for some people has been to live trap animals and then release them in the woods far away. Norton said homeowners need to be able to deal with critters gnawing holes in their homes to make nests in their attics and other kinds of damage. The populations of some of the animals have exploded in cities and suburbs as they’ve adapted to those landscapes. So instead of “they're about to do damage,” it's (proposed to be) “doing or physically present where it could imminently cause damage,” he said.
“So we're basically trying to change that language to be a little bit more specific in what we're intending and when this would apply. So, it can be killed.Ī photo of the kind of damage wildlife can do was included in the DNR presentation to the NRC. Some people have decided if there’s a raccoon somewhere on their property, it might cause damage to their chicken coop, and that makes it a nuisance. But if they're chewing into your house or, you know, cutting through electrical lines or they're causing actual damage to your property, then if somebody came to us right now and asked for a written permit, we aren't going to say no,” Norton said.Ĭhanging the nuisance animals regulations would mean the agency wouldn’t spend as much staff time writing out permits for something it’s not going to refuse anyway.īut, the language describing whether an animal is causing or could cause damage is vague and people interpret it differently. “Just them eating out of a bird feeder or breaking your bird feeder is not going to be damage that would justify taking them. So, if one of the animals is on the nuisance list and they’re about to do that kind of damage, a private landowner can - in wildlife management terms - “take” that animal by shooting or trapping it, depending on the species. “Damage to forest products, roads, dams, buildings, orchards, apiaries, livestock and horticultural or agricultural crops,” he explained. The DNR's Cody Norton said the proposal is limited to animals causing certain kinds of damage.
Quite disturbing, actually,” he said.Ī ground squirrel -also called a chipmunk- is proposed to be added to the list of animals that can be killed under nuisance regulations. Rabbits, squirrels, woodchucks, I think were already on that list. “If you have private property, you can kill them all year long. Gilpin is against what he sees as allowing an open season without limit on these animals. You can see an example of this in the Ojibwe Seven Grandfather Teachings. They're a part of the living community around us,” he said, adding, “The life stories come from lessons from many of the animals.” “And we definitely oppose the terminology of nuisance applied to them. Gilpin said these animals are sacred to tribal culture and some clans are named after the animals. It works on behalf of the interests of Native American tribes in the state.
Thomas Gilpin is with the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Democratic Party. The proposal alarmed some of the people who attended the meeting. The NRC is an appointed board which makes decisions about wildlife management. He presented the proposal to the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) last month. And so that's why they were chosen,” said Cody Norton, a large carnivore specialist with the DNR.
“The species that we chose are relatively very common on the landscape and contribute to the vast majority of nuisance issues with the public. Cody Norton, MI DNR Additional species that DNR proposes to be added to regulations on furbearing and small game nuisance regulations.
0 kommentar(er)
