FeedsOfficials mull next move on hunting
Canton Township officials are weighing their options after the Michigan Supreme Court upheld the right of a city to regulate the discharge of firearms.
Such a law could be one possible way to ban hunting in the township, where officials site public safety concerns—but first they want to determine if the decision also protects townships.
“We’re having our attorney examine that right now,” said John Santomauro, executive director of public safety and operations for Canton.
Last Wednesday, the court, in a 4-3 decision, sided with the city of Saginaw, which in 1999 banned the discharge of firearms and in 2002 outlawed the firing bows and arrows within city limits. The law made no exception for hunters. In 2003, Michael Czymbor sued the city after the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) denied him a permit because the department “understood that hunting was not allowed” on his property, according to Czymbor’s affidavit. Later in the proceedings, the DNR supported Czymbor’s suit, arguing the ordinance interfered with the power of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources under state law to regulate hunting.
The majority’s decision did not center on conflicting powers, though. The court ruled that the plaintiff failed to show his land was a hunting area governed by Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act. Even if it was, the court said, the rules created by the DNR to administer the hunting regulation law pertained only to townships, not cities.
Still, it added, “there is no indication that the legislative grant of authority to regulate the taking of game is superior to or supersedes the specific legislative grant of authority at issue here—the authority to regulate the discharge of weaponry.”
That left the question open this week as to whether the township should try to enact a own law against firing weapons.
“It really shouldn’t matter whether it’s a city or a township,” said Santomauro. He added that the DNR has told Canton in the past that a township wouldn’t have the authority to regulate the discharge of firearms.
“I don’t know if that’s correct or not,” said Santomauro. “If it’s not correct we will certainly move in that direction, in a similar type ordinance in Canton.”
Areas east of Canton Center Road are closed to hunting, but the DNR ruled earlier this year that hunters in 14 of the 36 square-mile sections in the township can use shotguns, rimfire rifles, handguns smaller than .22 caliber and muzzle-loading rifles. Hunters can’t fire weapons within 150 yards of a house or building, though.
The DNR conducted several months of investigation into safety and also hosted a public hearing in January before handing down recommendations, said Lt. Sherry Chandler of the DNR Law Enforcement Division.
“We follow the procedures set forth by law,” she said.
Santomauro said he understands that the state wants to preserve as many areas open to hunters as possible, but that Canton is no longer truly rural anywhere.
“When you have moms and families and they’re looking out their back doors and seeing people with shotguns or whatever they’re using” to hunt, he said, “that’s a perception problem. Whether it’s real or not, we can debate.”
He also criticized the DNR process.
“The process that has to be utilized to close areas to hunting is very time consuming and cumbersome and does not lend itself to a rapid growing community like Canton,” said Santomauro. “The reality is, on any given day you can look at a field in Canton and in a short period of time that field can become a subdivision.”
Chandler said the division was shorthanded a year ago and that investigations are being completed much faster now. She also countered the claim that the department only considers past accidents in determining hunting controls.
“We consider anything that has to do with safety,” she said.
The township could try to petition the DNR to conduct another round of study next year, but Chandler said the area would have to show “substantial changes” in regard to safety issues to produce a different outcome.
For that reason, Yack isn’t optimistic the department will see it his way.
“It’s going to take major development in the southwest portion to get those areas closed.”
