** FILE ** This July 16, 2004 file photo shows a gray wolf at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has filed a formal rule to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered list in Montana and Idaho while leaving them on the list in Wyoming. The agency filed the rule Wednesday, April 1, 2009, a day ahead of Thursday's publication of the delisting in the Federal Register. (AP Photo/Dawn Villella, file) (Photo: Dawn Villella, AP) Story Highlights Current Michigan law would allow for a wolf hunt in 2015.

Proposals 14-1 and 14-2 will have no authority unless current law overturned via legal challenges.

There will be no Michigan wolf hunt in 2014.

Michigan voters who care whether the state should allow wolf hunting can have their say next week on the general election ballot.

Sort of.

Two proposals are on the Nov. 4 ballot that would either allow or prohibit state officials from holding another public hunting season for wolves. However, both proposals are essentially null and void -- regardless of how Michiganders vote on them -- because of action taken by the Legislature over the summer.

Advocates on both sides of the issue want voters to have their say because the proposals could become important in the future.

The proposals are the result of a complicated political chess match between those who oppose public wolf hunting and those who think it's an important tool for managing the former endangered species.

To help you understand what you're voting on, we talked to the non-partisan Citizens Research Council to put together a primer on both proposals and why they may not matter until the future.

The history

First, Wolves are native to Michigan but were nearly wiped out in the 19th and early 20th centuries by hunting and state-sanctioned bounties.

In 1973, when Congress created the federal endangered species list, only six wolves were known to still exist in the Michigan wild.

Under federal protection, wolf recovery was slow. But starting in 1989, the numbers began to rise in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, along with the hope that one day the animals would rebound enough to return to state control.

To prepare for that possibility, the state convened a task force in 2005 to create a wolf management plan. Members of the task force included all stakeholders in wolf management, including biologists, representatives of Michigan's Indian tribes, sporting groups and wolf advocates.

An overview of wolves in Michigan

By 2007, the wolf population in the Upper Peninsula topped 500 -- far exceeding the recovery benchmark of 100 set by the federal government, making the Great Lakes gray wolf one of the most successful recovery stories in the history of the endangered species list.

At the same time, however, some Upper Peninsula residents began to complain that wolves were edging too close for comfort. Some farmers reported that wolves were killing livestock, and U.P. citizens reported wolves encroaching on towns and yards.

In 2007, U.S. Fish and Wildlife sought to remove Great Lakes gray wolves from federal protection, but the Humane Society of the United States sued to delay the move. A federal court ruled in favor of the Humane Society, and wolves remained under endangered species protection for several more years.

Finally, in 2012, Great Lakes gray wolves were removed from the endangered species list, putting the state of Michigan back in control of its wolf population.

The conversation - or the debate

Michigan's wolf management plan highlighted several methods for controlling the wolf population once they were removed from the endangered species list, including a potential public wolf hunt.

Read the wolf management plan

In December 2012, less than a year after wolves were removed from the list, the Legislature passed a bill designating wolves game animals. It was signed by Gov. Rick Snyder and became Public Act 520.

The new law cleared the way for the Natural Resources Commission -- a seven-member body appointed by the governor -- to establish a hunting season for wolves.

Proponents, including the state Department of Natural Resources, cited several reasons for backing wolf hunts. The DNR told lawmakers at a hearing that hunting would be one of many tools used by wildlife officials to control the wolf population.

"While the wolf population offers benefits, it also poses significant costs and concerns to some Michigan residents," Trevor VanDyke, the DNR's legislative liaison, told a Senate committee. "This would be another tool that would allow for proper management and implementation of the wolf management plan, and we think we'd use this as a tool to reduce those negative impacts and conflicts with livestock and humans."

Opponents believed it was too soon to talk about a hunt. At the same hearing, wolf advocate Nancy Warren of the National Wolfwatcher Coalition questioned the scientific need for hunting as a management tool.

"There is no scientific evidence or research to support the need for