LANSING, MICH. — Today the Michigan Senate voted 20-16 to reject nominee Anna Mitterling for the state's Natural Resources Commission along mostly party lines despite support for Mitterling within the state's hunting community. Mitterling is an adjunct biology professor at Lansing Community College, an avid hunter and formerly the manager of the Michigan Wildlife Cooperatives program for Michigan United Conservation Clubs in partnership with the Quality Deer Management Association and Pheasants Forever. The Natural Resources Commission sets hunting and fishing regulations. 

Mike Shriberg, Great Lakes executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, issued the following statement in response: 

“Today’s unfortunate action by the Michigan Senate to reject a well-qualified nominee to the Natural Resources Commission is an affront to the hunters, anglers and outdoor recreationists of the state. Anna Mitterling has extensive professional experience working with hunters, earned advanced degrees in wildlife biology and the human dimensions of wildlife management and is herself an avid hunter and angler. The Natural Resources Commission was created almost 90 years ago to provide a buffer between politics and the management of our state’s natural resources. This system uses a science-based decision-making process and has helped recover myriad species of wildlife that we now take for granted like deer and turkey. Today’s partisan politics may have been aimed at the governor, but its victims are the fish and wildlife of our state and the hunters and anglers who pursue them.”