There were few fireworks or discussions April 14 during the Shawano County spring hearing hosted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and state Conservation Congress.
A total of 13 people attended the annual hearing at Shawano Community Middle School, according to Duane Beyer of Shawano, who was re-elected to a two-year term as chairman of the county’s five-member Conservation Congress. Mark Conradt of Shawano was re-elected to a three-year term as vice chairman.
Beyer and Conradt hold the same posts on Shawano County’s Deer Advisory Council, which will hold its next meeting at 7 p.m. April 29 in Shawano Community Middle School. Other county delegates are Andrew Heinz and Bob Bohardt of Shawano and Mark Heidemann of Marion.
The council determines how many free antlerless deer tags are issued for each paid archery and gun deer tag. They also determine whether they want the county to maintain, increase or decrease the deer population. In virtually all Central Farmland Zones, because of continually growing herds, most CDACs choose to maintain or decrease the herd.
Those attending the 72 hearings (one in each county) were allowed to vote in person on ballots that covered a variety of DNR hunting and fishing management questions, as well as topics for the Natural Resources Board and Conservation Congress. None of the votes (other than delegate votes) are binding but serve to advise the state and Conservation Congress about the views of sportsmen and other wildlife lovers. Residents also could vote online for three days.
Results will appear at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/about/wcc/springhearing.
Topics that probably most interest Shawano County and surrounding residents include a plan to reduce the overall daily panfish limit from 25 to 10 on Shawano Lake and dozens of other lakes in the state, allowing CDACs to extend the archery season to Jan. 31 even if they do not authorize a Holiday Hunt (antlerless only hunt during the Christmas holiday), using technology like cellular trail cameras to monitor traps, allowing fall turkey hunting in northern Zones 6 and 7 and requiring bear baits on public land to be labeled with a person’s name and address or DNR number.
Beyer said he welcomes the chance to offer an extended bow season without necessarily offering a Holiday Hunt. Some landowners who hunt their own property may not welcome a Holiday Hunt, because they can’t shoot bucks during their last few days of bow or crossbow season. Beyer noted that several snowmobile clubs have fought against the Holiday Hunt, because they need to log trail maintenance hours to obtain state funds but may be doing so during the last week in December. He added that although some snowmobilers didn’t want hunters in the woods while they rode trails, poor snowfall during most of the past 10 winters doesn’t support that argument.
He encouraged those of all interests to attend the April 29 CDAC meeting and share their thoughts.
One topic not on the spring questionnaire is the state’s process of distributing spring turkey tags. This is one of my hot-button topics for several reasons. First, with today’s computerized processing that can do thousands or even millions of data computations in seconds, why are we still applying for turkey tags by Dec. 10? Since I buy a patron license every year, I am applying for my 2026 tags in March or April of the previous year. That’s the way it works. But most of us are not thinking about turkey hunting in December, and it’s easy to forget to apply.
What boggles my mind is the number of surplus tags left for the bonus tag sales in mid-March. This apparently got the attention of DNR conservation warden Jake Donar, who is also a member of the DNR Turkey Advisory Committee.
According to a Milwaukee newspaper, Donar told the committee April 2 that many hunters were having trouble drawing their first or second choice.
Donar’s questions prompted the DNR to analyze license data from 2022 to 2024, which revealed an astounding fact: an average of 26% of those drawing a tag never purchased them. The DNR has speculated that some hunters may not be able to hunt on the season dates they originally drew, but the long lag between notification of getting drawn (usually in December or January) and the turkey season is likely a factor, too. Some hunters may simply forget they drew a tag and just buy one during the bonus tag sales. Or some patron license holders may apply for a turkey tag even if they aren’t sure they will hunt (because the application fee is included in their licenses).
The DNR is now considering a complete revision of the process.
Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com.
DNR spring hearing in Shawano re-elects CDAC delegates
