Invasive species threaten Michigan
ESCANABA -- Some sportsmen say wild boar and Asian carp have no business in Michigan. Thursday morning, the Natural Resources Commission Policy Committee on Wildlife and Fisheries heard the latest on the two invasive species.
According to Russ Mason, Chief of the DNRE Wildlife Division, wild boar--also known as feral swine--can devastate crops and destroy wetlands. And they hunt many of the same animals as us, things like deer, grouse, and turkey.
"Pigs are a nightmare, an environmental disaster wherever the occur. You can think of them as four-legged Asian carp, in my perspective. And once you've got them, you've got them forever, because they are coyote smart," says Mason.
Hunters are now allowed to kill the destructive animal, and as soon as October, the DNRE could prohibit the wild boar statewide.
"If a species is not indigenous to the state of Michigan and is a harm to either agriculture or the environment, and that's or...then the director must ban that species," Mason explains.
The much discussed, equally harmful Asian carp also swam into Thursday's conference. The Attorney General filed a suit last month in U.S. District Court that could one day separate the Mississippi Basin from the Great Lakes Basin, literally closing the door on the fish. On August 23, the court will consider requests from Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota to speed up this process.
"An immediate action to enhance the current barriers that are in place and to order the Corp of Engineers to expedite a study about this long-term solution, which we claim, which we want, as being the separation of the systems," says Assistant Attorney General, Jim Riley.
Riley says that the current barriers aren't enough. Carp have been spotted in Lake Calumet, six miles inland of Lake Michigan.
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