SCI BADGERLAND CHAPTER PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
From the President’s Cluttered Desk:
– By David J. Ekkebus, SCI Badgerland President
DNR SPRING HEARINGS David J. Ekkebus
I know the media makes a living off bad news. Kids dealing drugs is more perversely exciting than a kid taking a Blue Ribbon hog at the State Fair. I also know that 1000’s of hunters are unhappy about the number of deer they are killing even if it is 5 times as many as 40 years ago and 3 times as many as 30 years ago too. Younger hunters don’t know what it’s like to go 5, 6, 10 years without punching a tag or wearing an arm band and needing 3 other guys to toss in 5 bucks each in hopes of tagging a doe to share four ways. Archery hunters are killing 1/3 of the bucks not the handful of the past. I’m as guilty as the next guy. We don’t talk about IF we got a deer but how big and how many we killed. Many of us are just spoiled. I am.
Well, we read the herd is down but still too big. We read that hunters hate the DNR and will not go hunting because there are no deer. We hear of private land being closed to those who ask permission and hunters losing land they have hunted for years because the farms were sold and the new owners are being selfish. Duh? We read of politicians considering laws to require you to open your private land to public hunting. We read of “back door” attempts by the DNR to “outlaw” food plots on privately owned land. We read the DNR wants to “waste” money on deer research. Most of us don’t know what is real and what is not. Who do we believe? Who is right, the professional managers or the guy in the tavern? Does he really hunt or just stay in the tavern? What habitat changes have altered the deer behavior or what hunting changes have altered your own behavior? Where there used to be woodlots now there are rural homes. Where there was corn is now pine trees or a golf course. So?
Each year, the DNR holds hearings to elect the Conservation Congress and to present proposed rules and rule changes to the sportsmen and sportswomen of the state. The status of hunting can pretty well be assessed by the attendance at these meetings and the furor they do or do not create. 2010, in spite of the rhetoric and the hoopla, was a pretty quiet year as it turned out.
If you research the 640,000 gun deer hunters, 1.4 million adult fishing licenses sold, subtract 380,000 non-resident fishing permits and factor in the duplication of archery, gun, small game, Patron, Sportsman’s and assorted youth and mentoring programs one might think using a casual 1 million resident sportsmen and women would be a low to modest estimation. Slightly less than 5000 of said residents showed up for the 2010 meetings. Thus, I would come to the conclusion that any advice/hatred directed to the Department of Natural Resources was given by the 1/2 of 1% or less of the statewide sporting public. I might, or might not, agree these are the truly dedicated individuals, or, if you prefer, “hardcore fanatics”. Hardly a throng of disgruntled DNR haters.
This year there were 97 questions presented to those who bothered to show-up. Out of those 97 questions the DNR got a YES or agreement with all but 7, a very respectable passing grade of 93%. (That’s an A- if you are scoring along with me.)
Where was the animosity? Where was the DNR hatred? Where was the “backlash from hunters”? The only close questions were on raising the age for youth tags on turkey and deer. Turkey hunting for 16 & 17 passed, barely, and for deer failed by an even closer margin. Most of the NO votes were on bear hunting advisory questions, 4 of the 7. Antler restrictions, popular in some places, hated in others, went down soundly. On the other hand crossbow deer hunting for 55 and older, pistols in shotgun counties as well as rifle use for deer in Waupaca county passed handily.
Maybe the Wisconsin sportsman has a lot more common sense than some are willing to admit? Maybe the DNR does too? Maybe not. However, for now, all is quiet on the front.