To the Journal editor:

In his opinion piece, “Deer herd drop: Wolf management badly needed in the Upper Peninsula” published in The Mining Journal on June 5, Gary Gorniak makes allegations not supported by scientific data.

Gorniak even made the wolf the scapegoat for hunting camps being sold, resulting in hardships for local businesses.

Gorniak is vice president of the Upper Peninsula Sportsmen’s Alliance, an organization with a seat on the U.P. Habitat Workgroup, which developed detailed deer winter range habitat strategies, including management plans for individual deer wintering complexes.

This group was established by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to address the degradation of deer habitat destroyed during the mid-1990s due to the overpopulation of deer.

To survive a typical U.P. winter, deer need conifer shelter in sufficient quantity, quality and spatial arrangement. Without adequate winter habitat, the deer population crashed following back to back severe winters, and not because of wolves.

Gorniak has refused to accept scientific facts:

≤ The wolf population has remained stable for the past 10 years and it has taken more than 20 years to reach the current population of less than 700 animals. Consistent with research, wolves self-regulate their population based on available prey and other factors including disease, pack stability and territoriality.

≤ Nationwide, hunting participation peaked in 1982, with nearly 17 million hunters; now only 11.5 million people hunt. The decline is attributed to urbanization and the increasing use of technology by young adults. Research shows the shifts are trending away from the core hunting demographic of rural, white, males, not wolves.

≤ Wolves are not decimating deer populations. Wolves provide many ecological benefits and potentially limit the spread of diseases such as CWD.

≤ Wolf predation on livestock and hunting hounds is extremely low.

≤ In the 2014 Michigan general election, Michigan citizens demonstrated strong opposition to the trophy hunting and trapping of wolves. The vote is a much better indicator of public sentiment than the anecdotal comments promoted by Gorniak.

≤ Decisions regarding wolves must be made based on science, research and facts, not embellished tales, myths and fears promoted by those who simply want to kill wolves.