Trolling rules, deer management changes and other issues were discussed Monday night at Shawano Community Middle School as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources held its annual spring fish and wildlife public hearing and the Wisconsin Conservation Congress held its county conservation meeting.
The meetings, which took place in each county Monday night, allow the public to voice concerns and bring up issues concerning wildlife and fish management. The DNR put one rule change and 34 advisory questions to the 90 attendees. The Conservation Congress had 23 questions on the survey.
The results aren’t binding on the DNR but they do offer a way to gauge public support for potential moves.
One question asked whether the state should ban deer baiting and feeding statewide 10 days before and during the 9-day November gun season. Results the DNR released late Tuesday afternoon show, statewide, 3,639 people voted yes and 2,180 voted no. In Shawano County, 43 voted yes, 36 voted no.
Another question asked whether the attendee would support a tundra swan season. According to results the DNR released, 3,199 people voted no and 2,439 voted yes. Shawano County voted in favor of a season 43-29.
“These meetings are very important,” said John Hoeffs, who is the Shawano County delegate chair to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. “We’re really the beginning of the law changes for the state.”
Much of the discussion was about deer hunting rule changes for 2014 that were developed as a result of the Deer Trustee Report.
“There’s quite a few changes with the deer hunt this year,” DNR Conservation Warden Jim Horne said. “That came out of the trustee report the governor campaigned on, the promise that he would hire someone who would review the Wisconsin deer season and how they manage everything.”
The first major changes will be to the deer management units, which will now be divided into 72 units that follow county lines. These units are placed into four deer management zones: the Northern Forest Zone, the Southern Farmland Zone, the Central Forest Zone and the Central Farmland Zone, which includes Shawano County.
As part of the meeting, a 12-minute video was played with descriptions of all of the changes.
“Usually, there is a separate deer meeting, but they included it with this one this year,” Horne said.
The one rule change put to attendees this year dealt with trolling.
“Last year we had a question about trolling,” Horne said. “They wanted to open trolling up statewide with three lines. It passed several counties, but overall it was voted against. The majority voted against it, but because a lot of counties passed it, this was a compromise. Now we’re going to try to go with one or three lines and break it up by counties.”
The rule, developed by the Conservation Congress following last year’s spring meetings, would allow one-line trolling in 17 counties and three-line trolling in the rest of the state, including Shawano County.
The change passed statewide with 3,646 voting yes and 2,250 voting no. In Shawano County, 66 voted yes and 18 voted no.
Attendees also voted to lengthen the trout fishing season and consolidate hunting stamps into a single stamp and fishing stamps into a single stamp.
The DNR had fish and wildlife biologists on hand to answer questions about rule changes.
The DNR asked 10 advisory questions on the management of panfish. Those questions prompted some discussion at the Shawano County meeting.
Conservation Congress questions on the retrieval of hunting dogs on private lands, the transfer of hunting licenses and rules about access to waterways also drew comments at the Shawano meeting. Shawano attendees voted against allowing hunters to retrieve hunting dogs on private land, but for making it easier to transfer a license and allowing more access to waterways.
The meeting began with the election of Kevin Marquette, of Shawano, to a two-year term on the five-member county delegation to the Conservation Congress. Bob Bohardt, of Shawano, was elected to a three-year term.
Categories
