I
have been hearing the occasional gobble up on the ridge on the frosty
mornings lately. Ellen and I have seen a few birds about - emphasize
few, after not seeing any all winter. This weekend, is the annual
Youth Turkey Hunt. I know my young friend Jake Sikora and his dad
will be out chasing the wily meleagris gallopavo. I plan on getting
out next week when my season opens. I won't have to wrap up so I can
get to work on time this year, so I hope I have a story to tell.
Can't hardly wait.
Anyway,
on Monday next, (April 14) the Wisconsin Conservation Congress and
DNR will hold their annual county by county fish and wildlife rules
hearings and delegate and advisory votes. The Vernon County meeting
is at 7 PM at Viroqua High School. I thought some of you might be
enticed to attend if I did a summary of the highlights of the
proposals. Here it is:
One
proposal will surely be controversial, at least in lake country. The
question has to do with whether or not to allow statewide trolling
on inland waters. There will be much gnashing of teeth over this one
I think. The trolling rule change is the only proposed specific rule
change to be voted on at the 2014 hearings. Although, according to
the website, “However, people interested in natural resources
management have an opportunity to provide their input by advisory
vote and testimony to the Department of Natural Resources and the
Conservation Congress on many other advisory
questions that may affect future fish and wildlife regulation.”
What
goes on is basically covering three major areas: elections for county
Conservation Congress delegates, DNR proposed wildlife and fisheries
rule changes, and Congress proposals for possible future rule
development.
The
delegate part is basically electing or reelecting someone from Vernon
County (or whichever you might attend) to represent the county on the
Wisconsin Conservation Congress. As a hunter and fisherman, I think
those of my ilk should be there to help make sure the delegates
elected are not anti hunting types. There is one 2-year term and
one 3-year term available for each county. Attendees at the annual
county meeting have the opportunity to nominate themselves or another
resident. Citizens of that county in attendance at the meetings then
have the opportunity to vote on the nominees.
New
at the spring hearings for 2014, are the annual spring deer herd
status meetings. The powers that be say that the herd status
meetings are intended to provide an early opportunity for hunters and
other interested individuals to discuss the current status of the
deer herd and ask other deer management questions. Accordingly,
local wildlife biologists will present information about new deer
hunting rules and regulations that were recently adopted as part of
the deer trustee report's two-year management review. After all the
rumors and negative press new rules have received it should be
interesting to hear what the facts are, from the horse's mouth
so-to-speak.
The
Congress and DNR says that “attendees at the hearings and meetings
will also get the chance to help shape future panfish, trout and bass
fishing management in Wisconsin. Reviews of panfish and trout
management and regulations are underway, and DNR will soon be
launching a review of bass management.”
"The
spring hearings provide another vital avenue to gauge desires from
our angling partners attending the hearings," says Jon Hansen, a
DNR fish biologist involved in an ongoing panfish management planning
effort and a leader of a coming effort to review bass management and
regulations quoted on the web page. "Public input has thus far
revealed a mixed bag of interest regarding how we manage panfish, but
most of the attention has been on statewide regulation changes. The
upcoming spring hearing questions build off what we have learned so
far by asking attendees whether they want to attempt to manage for
larger panfish on individual lakes that are currently not meeting
management goals," he says.
Bass
questions focus on an increasing interest in using regulations that
liberalize harvest but protect larger bass, with one of the questions
attempting to get an updated perspective on what anglers consider a
"trophy bass," Hansen says. "Responses from the
hearings will help inform our coming effort to review what bass
regulations we have in Wisconsin and how they are applied to the
diverse array of lakes we manage."
Finally,
there will be a number of advisory questions allowing anglers to
weigh in on ideas for expanding fishing opportunities by extending
trout seasons.
The
DNR wildlife advisory questions include whether people who fail to
apply for limited draw hunting or trapping permits for three or more
years to maintain preference points they have previously acquired and
whether people who have missed a limited draw permit application
should still be allowed to apply for a preference-point-only. Other
questions include whether Wisconsin should allow the use of foot
cable restraints during the latter potion of the furbearer harvest
seasons, beginning on December 1.
I
like the idea of establishing a single hunting stamp which would be
purchased by all hunters but would be less expensive, earmarking
funds for waterfowl/wetland, pheasants/grassland, and turkey
management purposes as in the past and allowing any additional funds
to be available for forest management and hunter recruitment. This
idea put forth by the Natural Resources board would replace the
separate stamps for turkey, pheasant, waterfowl, inland trout and
Great Lakes trout and salmon. For me it is a no brainer; however,
the Natural Resources advisory question related to restricting deer
baiting and feeding 10 days before and during the traditional
nine-day firearm season and legalizing the harvest of white and
albino deer statewide is going to cause some angst, up north anyway.
The
Conservation Congress has a large number of advisory questions
including whether to ask the Wisconsin Legislature to give the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources authority to develop a
hunting season for tundra swans, offering additional deer
registration opportunities to include in-person, phone in, or online,
and allowing the owner of a hunting dog the ability to retrieve their
hunting dog without landowner's permission.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION: on the fisheries questions Tim Simonson,
608-266-5222; on wildlife questions - Scott Loomans, 608-267-2452; on
Conservation Congress - Kari Lee-Zimmermann at (608) 266-0580. My
source for all this is the Wisconsin DNR Website at
http://dnr.wi.gov/news/Weekly/Article_Lookup.asp?id=2873.
Until
next time, get out - we saw a robin pulling a worm out of some brown
but muddy grass this week. I talked to a young Amish boy about
ordering night crawlers when he starts getting them and he said some
of his neighbors had their signs up already. On Sunday, I observed
that the river has risen sharply at Genoa from Thursday last. Let us
hope the mighty Mississippi takes it easy on us; Ma Nature has been
nasty enough for the both of them. I have to add that last year at
this time, the neighbors were finding morels. Anyway, time to get
Wilma out and cleaned up for the hunt. Spring has sprung, I guess.
Enjoy.
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