New laboratory will study effects of consumer chemicals on aquatic life

(ON) The Hamilton Spectator –  A new $4.6-million, state-of-the-art research facility at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters will be used to try to better understand the environmental consequences of everyday chemicals and contaminants. Scientists at the Aquatic Life Research Facility, which opened yesterday, will look at the downstream implications of consumer products such as dyes and cosmetics on fish and aquatic life. More

U.S. officials investigate wolf killings

(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – The growing population of the gray wolf in Wisconsin represents a remarkable comeback for the animal.But the wolf’s robust population also has created problems and heightened tensions in some quarters. The latest example: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the killing of 16 gray wolves in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during November and December. More

Wolf killings in U.P., 2 other states probed

(MI) The Detroit News – Federal agents are investigating a recent rash of illegal wolf killings across northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday asked for the public’s help in finding suspects in 16 wolf killings across the three states in November and December. More

Reward: Information wanted on eagle poacher

(MI) Detroit Free Press – A reward is being offered for information about a bald eagle poaching case in the northern Lower Peninsula. Wildlife officials say the bird likely was killed sometime between Dec. 20 and Dec. 22 in Otsego County near Johannesburg, about 60 miles northeast of Traverse City. More

Wis. man sentenced in UP wolf poaching

(MI) The Detroit News – A Wisconsin man who poached a wolf in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula must pay more than $25,000 in fines and perform 20 days community service. Judge C. Joseph Schwedler on Monday also sentenced 37-year-old Stephen Popp Jr. of Green Bay to six months’ probation and banned him from hunting for two years. WLUC-TV says Popp’s community service will be performed in Green bay in lieu of serving 10 days in jail. More

Senator wants a moose hunt in Michigan

(MI) Detroit Free Press – Michigan hunters would be able to take aim at a new big-game species — moose — under legislation introduced in the state Senate on Wednesday. The bill sponsored by Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, would require the state to create a moose hunting advisory council and order the Natural Resources Commission to establish a moose hunting season for at least one year. More

Turtle and fish poacher nabbed at Shiawassee refuge

(MI) Bay City Times – A wildlife poacher from Saginaw was nabbed and ticketed after a two-month investigation by officials from the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge and Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Painted turtles, snapping turtles, largemouth bass and channel catfish were removed from the vicinity of the refuge’s Green Point Environmental Learning Center, refuge officials said. The turtles were kept in swimming pools in the basement of the poacher, identified as a man from Saginaw. More

More than $590,000 awarded for restoration in Great Lakes

(MI) Petosky News-Review – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced $590,190 in federal funding for fish and wildlife restoration projects in the Great Lakes Basin. The projects will be matched by $309,949 in partner contributions and will focus on the rehabilitation of sustainable populations of native fish and wildlife and their habitats. More

Wolf Hunt

(NY) New York Times – Not everyone was happy when the gray wolf population in the Northern Rockies, near extinction in the mid-1970’s, staged a remarkable comeback under the protections of the Endangered Species Act. By the end of last year there were about 1,650 in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Ranchers complained that the wolves were killing their sheep and cattle; hunters complained that they were devastating big game, mainly elk. So when protections were lifted earlier this year in Idaho and Montana the states immediately approved wolf hunting seasons. But what seemed to be an ordinary big-game hunt, with licenses and duly apportioned quotas (75 in Montana, 220 in Idaho), now looks like the opening of a new front in the age-old war on wolves.