"Dundee Sportsman's Club Mission Statement"  

Statement of Conservation Policy of the Dundee Sportsmen's Clubs, Inc.

The Conservation Policy of the Michigan's Own Dundee Sportsman's Club has these objectives:

 

• To foster in the people of Michigan a keen awareness of the many priceless riches upon it's soils, waters, forests, minerals, plants, wildlife, and natural geographic features.
   

• To build and encourage in these same people a commitment to the wise use and proper management of those resources for the benefit of all Michigan, present and future.

To reach these objectives, we adhere to the following policies:

Conservation Education
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club believes that conservation education is the principal tool available to enable Michigan's people to competently appraise and understand the values and importance of all natural, resources, and to learn to husband and wisely manage them in perpetuity. It is the policy of the Dundee Sportsman's Club to support the development and promotion of improved educational programs that will disseminate ecologically sound knowledge to further wise management and conservation of natural resources; to provide useful education materials to schools, youth groups and adult organizations to advance these principles; and to promote increased cooperation and communication among all agencies and groups concerned with conservation education.

Cooperation
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club recognizes the essential interrelationship of the various elements of the natural world and of society, and the need for our structure of government, our social philosophies, and the husbandry of our natural resources to be one and inseparable if we are to achieve and continue an enlightened civilization. For these reasons, the Dundee Sportsman's Club aligns itself with other agencies and organizations, public or private, that concern themselves with the sound management and wise use of our natural resources. We recognize that the depletion of the natural resources of another state, or even of another nation or continent, may adversely affect the welfare of Michigan by placing a drain upon our resources or by damaging contiguous areas. For this reason the Dundee Sportsman's Club pledges its cooperation and assistance to agencies and organizations of other states, our nation, and other nations toward our common objectives.

Partisan Influence in Resource Management
 

• Intelligent and successful resource management requires not only understanding and respect for the natural environment and its resources, plants, animals, soils, and water, and their relationship to one another, but also an accurate appraisal of the needs of society and mankind, economic, esthetic, legal, social and intellectual. The Dundee Sportsman's Club firmly believes that the management of the State's resources should neither be directed nor influenced on the basis of partisan politics or special user interests which conflict with the over-all public good. It follows that agencies charged with the administration of resources cannot perform their responsibilities with the highest degree of honesty, objectivity, and in the best interests of the people when subjected to and hampered by partisan considerations or special interest associations. For these reasons the Michigan's Own Dundee Sportsman's Club will call for and encourage public recognition of:
   

  1. The legal protection of individuals on policymaking boards and commissions, and of officials from political pressures or special interest group pressures, leaving them Free to discharge their duties objectively and in the best interests.
      

  2. The selection and appointment of policymaking groups for overlapping terms, selected on the basis of their ability to carry out long-range planning and programs so vital to conservation, that may take decades to accomplish; and who possess the proper qualifications, abilities and commitment to recognize the need for, to plan and carry out the best possible long-range programs designed for wise use of our resources.
      

  3. The selection of fully qualified personnel in all state and local agencies on a non-partisan basis.
      

  4. The continuous improvement of personnel standards in state and local agencies.

Resource Conservation
Multiple Use
 

• To meet the increasing and broadening demands of an expanding technology and human population the Dundee Sportsman's Club believes the state and nation must adopt and apply the multiple use principle in the management of all natural resources. In this respect, 'multiple use" means the harmonious and coordinated utilization of resources in the combination of purposes best suited to meet the needs of the people of the state and nation, and not necessarily all purposes, or those giving the greatest monetary return or unit output. These values, therefore, should be adequately provided for by governmental agencies in planning and development at local, state and federal levels, and any educational program on resource management planning should include an understanding of this concept. Application of the multiple use concept should include the establishment of these priorities:
   

  1. When esthetic and recreational values and needs come into conflict on public lands with commercial demands, the issue should be resolved in favor of esthetic and recreational use to meet the public need and demand.
      

  2. When multiple esthetic and recreational uses come into conflict on public lands, the issue should be resolved in favor of the broadest possible use consistent with the general health of the resource and its permanent preservation for present and future generations, and the high quality of each user's experience.

Wildlife
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club recognizes the esthetic and recreational values of both game and non-game species of wildlife to the public welfare, and the obligation of man as earth's most powerful and destructive animal to maintain a reverence for all life.
   

• In the management of wildlife the Dundee Sportsman's Club strives by educational means to protect and enhance the esthetic and recreational values through a sensible and scientific approach. Chief in the esthetic values to be protected are a reasonable balance in the ecological community, the quality of wildness in game, and, in man, the principles of sportsmanship. These qualities, we believe, add to the recreational benefits accruing to man in the utilization of wildlife resources.

Sport Hunting
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club believes strongly that both sport hunting of game species and lawful trapping under proper regulation are important and valuable tools in the management and preservation of a healthy and high quality wildlife population, and the control of less desirable species.
   

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club holds the position that wildlife management, seasons and bag limits should be set by the D.N.R., under the guidance of their game managers and game biologists, with input from concerned citizens.

Firearms
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club supports the right of citizens to own and bear arms as specified in the Constitution of the United States.
   

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club feels that gun control can best be served by complete enforcement of existing laws, already on the books, but is specifically opposed to gun registration and individual licensing.

Animal Damage Control
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club supports only those animal control programs that are justified biologically, socially and economically and closely regulated by State DNR or Federal laws.

Endangered Species
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club favors legislation that would protect any rare and endangered species, either plant or animal.
   

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club supports research on the biology of endangered species and promotes public support to provide a basis for their restoration, management or protection.

Introduction of Exotic Species
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club recognizes the dangers and effects developed by the introduction of exotic species. We support a broad educational program to make the public aware of the problems that can be brought on by their introduction.

Wetlands
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club is highly concerned with our wetlands. We feel that all our wetlands must be protected:
   

  1. To preserve them.
      

  2. To prevent despoliation and destruction.
      

  3. To accommodate necessary economic development in a manner consistent with wetland.
      

  4. To make the public aware of the wetlands primary ecological significance.
      

  5. To provide that only necessary alterations should occur to wetlands of lesser values.

Rivers and Streams
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club believes the presence of clear, unpolluted, free-flowing streams in our environment indicates the environment's general good health. In addition, we recognize that certain streams are uniquely rich in scenery, productive of wildlife and valuable for human recreation and esthetic enjoyment. In such streams the natural values outweigh in social importance the artificial values and the products to be attained through engineering structures or modification of the natural stream bed. The Dundee Sportsman's Club therefore believes:
   

  1. The rivers and streams should be retained in their natural and free-flowing state wherever possible.
      

  2. The single source as well as general pollution must be identified and reduced.
      

  3. The optimum use principle must be applied to certain uniquely rich rivers and streams so as to classify them and see that they are not altered by dams, diversions, channelization or river corridor destruction and development, but are preserved in a natural state.
      

  4. The designation of certain natural streams and rivers as Scenic or Wild through State DNR or Federal programs must be in the best interest for their protection and encouraged where appropriate.

Lakes and Impoundments
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club recognizes the natural lakes and man-made impoundments as major esthetic and recreational resources having unique management and environmental requirements, and of increasing importance to the well-being of our people. A complete understanding of these unique problems is vital to the environment and the Dundee Sportsman's Club therefore believes:
   

  1. Both point and non-point pollution of these resources must be identified and reduced.
      

  2. The multiple use concept should be applied to these resources, allowing full sport and recreation use where ever consistent with the health of the resource.
      

  3. Programs of research and education should be encouraged and supported which will lead to a fuller understanding of the management needs and problems of these resources for the benefit of all the people.

Stream and Wetlands Alteration
 

1. The Dundee Sportsman's Club opposes alteration programs that cause permanent damage to the physical and biological resources of wetlands and streams.
    

2. The Dundee Sportsman's Club supports programs and practices that promote the wise management of our wetlands and streams, including the retention of surface water at its watershed of origin, conserving natural reservoirs of underground water and maintaining a high standard of water quality.

Petroleum Development Off Shore
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club supports those petroleum developments deemed to be in the public interest, provided that alternatives to such developments have been thoroughly studied and determined to be environmentally and socioeconomically unfeasible. We also urge that practical measures be taken to reduce or mitigate all environmental and biotic damage resulting from petroleum development.

Toxic Substances and Pollutants
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club asserts the principle that the producer of toxic chemicals and substances and the generator of contaminating wastes, whether citizen, industry or government, has a social responsibility and a moral obligation voluntarily to prevent the fouling of the environment. At the same time we recognize that regulations and enforcement are necessary to preserve and to restore clean waters, clean air, rich soil and a clean and healthy environment. In recognition of the growing threat to public health, esthetic and recreational values, the Dundee Sportsman's Club declares the following objective policies:
   

  1. To promote encouragement and development of public education programs on the combat of pollution.
      

  2. To keep sound, adequate and effective pollution control programs and laws throughout the State of Michigan.
      

  3. To use investigative studies designed to ascertain the sources, distribution and accumulation of toxic chemicals and other pollutants.
      

  4. To help adequate authority and funding at the local, state and federal levels to clean up pollution in cases where the producer or generator cannot or will not do the job.
      

  5. To promote adequate sewage and solid waste treatment facilities in every industry; application of land and water management techniques to curtail siltation and eliminate pollution of surface and subsurface water supplies by dangerous chemicals or radioactive wastes or debris.
      

  6. To advise use of short-lived, organic and biodegradable chemicals and of environmentally responsible methods of pest control.

Private Lands
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club recognizes that the living standards of this State will be conditioned in major part by the land management practices and philosophies of her private landholders; that the water resources of this state are dependent on the proper management of private as well as public lands; that much of the recreational opportunity in the state today involves either access through or actual use of private property; and that private land tenure implies and a custodial responsibility of all resource values for present as well as future generations, not only to the landowner's family, but to all the family of man.
   

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club, therefore, wishes to aid in developing a proper public attitude and sense of responsibility toward the use of private lands. Only through mutual and intelligent respect and understanding between the public desiring to use private lands for recreation the occupants and/or owners of such land will this goal be accomplished.
   

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club support and encourage research and educational programs, public and private, that tend to develop a fundamental understanding of the ecological relationships necessary to the management of land in Michigan and all its products.

State and National Parks, Monuments and Historical Sites
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club endorses the principle of preservation of all natural values upon which the Michigan Park and State Forest System is founded. As a matter of policy eve stand ready to defend National and State Parks, Monuments and Historical Sites against unseemly commercialization or engineering developments which would alter or destroy the natural, scenic, scientific and recreational values for which any particular area was established or set aside.
   

• We recognize the problems inherent in maintaining the ecological balances of nature on such limited areas in the face of pressure for overuse by man, and that special measures may be necessary at times to control them for the health and quality of the resource.

Natural Areas
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club recognizes that natural areas provide important public benefits including uses for wildlife, recreation, hunting, fishing, trapping, boating, watershed protection, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical purposes. We believe the values of natural areas will grow in importance as increases in human population and the demands of economic development continue to take their toll on the Nation's stock of wildlife and recreational lands. The Dundee Sportsman's Club is committed to working for management of natural areas that will leave their unique natural values unimpaired for future use and enjoyment. We pledge ourselves to educate and inform the public on the necessity of protecting the Nation's dwindling wilderness resources.

Soil Conservation
 

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club holds that the conservation of soil resources, including the restoration of depleted term and forest lands, is vital to the economy and security of the State and to the health of her people. Good land use also is basic to wildlife management and to the protection of water resources through run-oft control and prevention of siltation and eutrophication.
   

• The Dundee Sportsman's Club will continue in an attempt to educate the Public on the need for more effective soil conservation practices and programs, both on public lands and in cooperation with private landowners and operators, and will cooperate with and contribute to educational efforts aimed at making all users of the land familiar with soil conservation principles and techniques.