UPDATE: LANSING - At the end of last year state lawmakers gave the ok for a wolf hunt in Michigan…but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.

Wolves were taken off the endangered species list in 2012.

Now, there are nearly 700 wolves in the Upper Peninsula.
Ed Golder, Public Information Officer for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said there are issues with wolves killing livestock.

"Sometimes wolves become very bold and they start encroaching on human populations,” he said. “There haven't been any attacks on human beings but just that proximity makes some people nervous."

Governor Snyder signed his name to the hunt but it’s the Natural Resources Commission that will decide if and when there will be a hunt.

"There are really two different types of hunts you can have,” Golder said. “One is sort of a recreational hunt that hunts wolves for the sport of it and the other centers around conflict."
Golder added the latter of the two options fits more with their wolf management plan.

A coalition called Keep Michigan Wolves Protected collected signatures on a petition to put the hunt on hold. Jill Fritz, director of the group, said "It's not right to spend decades bringing the wolf back from the brink of extinction only to turn around and allow them to be killed…It's unnecessary and reckless, given the decades spent trying to protect the wolf population in Michigan."

Keep Michigan Wolves Protected has collected over 250,000 signatures and delivered them to the State Board of Canvassers, which will review the signatures.

If there are enough valid signatures voters will get to decide the wolf’s fate in 2014.


ORIGINAL STORY: LANSING - At the end of last year state lawmakers gave the ok for a wolf hunt in Michigan…but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.