News Release
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
DNR Central Office - Madison
PO Box 7921
Madison WI 53707
Phone: (608) 266-6790 Fax: (608) 264-6293
For Release: April 18, 2007
Contact(s): Kurt Thiede - (608) 266-0580
MADISON – Approximately 3,400 people attended the 2007 Spring Fisheries and Wildlife Rules Hearings and Wisconsin Conservation Congress county meetings that were held in every county statewide on Monday, April 16. The hearings allow citizens to comment and vote on proposed fish and wildlife rule changes, Conservation Congress and Natural Resources Board advisory questions, and to submit resolutions for rule changes they would like to see in the future.
Statewide hearing results of the votes, which will be presented to the state Natural Resources Board in May, are available on the Department of Natural Resources Web site. County by county results, along with a precise attendance figures, will be available at a later date.
“Hearing results, along with written comments on proposed rules, and DNR recommendations are used to advise the state Natural Resources Board. This year’s results will be reviewed at the board’s May 23 meeting in Menomonie,” said Kurt Thiede, DNR liaison to the Conservation Congress. “Votes are non-binding and are presented to the Natural Resources Board to reflect public sentiment on proposed DNR rule changes.”
DNR fish and wildlife managers will spend the next several weeks analyzing the vote tallies and developing recommendations they will present to the board in May.
The hearings are held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Conservation Congress county meetings. DNR related proposals are presented to attendees by DNR staff. Following DNR business, the meeting is reconvened as a Conservation Congress meeting and congress advisory questions are presented and county congress delegates elected. The congress is an advisory body to the Natural Resources Board. During the congress’ portion of the hearing, citizens may introduce resolutions for consideration and vote by those attending the hearings.
Among proposed rules discussed at the spring hearings, attendees voted 2,479 to 1,048 in favor of reducing the number of turkey management zones from 46 to seven. This would, according to wildlife managers, give hunters more options for hunting locations and simplify the permit application process.
Other hunting-related proposals that proved popular with attendees were requiring portable ground blinds placed on public lands to display blaze orange on all four sides (passed 2,626 to 886) and that ground blinds display customer ID or name and address of the owner if left unattended on public lands (passed 2,174 to 1,057).
Seven separate proposals regarding changes to boundaries of open and closed waterfowl hunting areas on the Upper Mississippi River National Fish and Wildlife Refuge were rejected by hearing attendees. DNR wildlife managers and conservation law enforcement officials had proposed changing state boundaries to match recent federal closed area changes in order to avoid confusion among hunters. Department officials indicated that they will consider the proposals and the vote as they prepare a recommendation for the Natural Resources Board.
A proposal to eliminate maximum size restrictions for landing nets proved popular with voters and passed 2,769 to 717, and another fishery proposal to increase the minimum length limit for musky caught on the St. Louis River and St. Louis Bay to 50 inches passed 2,101 to 895.
Two advisory questions asked by the Natural Resources Board on regulating use of lead shot for upland hunting had mixed results. Voters approved 1,740 to 1,591 a proposal to require use of non-toxic shot for dove hunting on DNR managed lands but voted disapproval of requiring use of non-toxic shot for all bird hunting other than turkey on DNR managed lands by a vote of 1,506 to 1,850.
Hearing results
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/nrboard/congress/springhearings/2007/results/statewide.pdf
