Wisconsin Conservation Congress meets next Monday
Let me say at the outset that I am not and never have been opposed to hunting. Deer hunting, that is. In a well-regulated manner and in proper locations.
In recent years the State of Wisconsin, influenced heavily by hunters and trappers, has expanded the types of hunting and trapping allowed, the locations and times these activities can take place, and the age at which young people can participate, among many other things. To give just one example, although the population is still tenuous, as soon as the Gray Wolf was delisted as an endangered species a proposal to allow hunting was passed. |
The fate of Wisconsin’s natural resources is indeed left up
to hunters and trappers, for the most part. This is because hunters and
trappers make up the overwhelming majority of participants in the annual Conservation Congress, which is the most influential public hearing on DNR policies and
regulations.
DNR policies affect everyone who enjoys the natural
resources of Wisconsin: hikers, birders, canoeists, kayakers, skiers, etc. The
hunters and trappers are always well represented at the Conservation Congress
and they have a right to be there. But other voices need to be heard as well.
How about yours?
I plan to be there, but it will take a lot of voices to
balance those who represent hunting and fishing interests.
Please attend:
Wisconsin Conservation Congress
When:
Monday, April 14, 2014 @ 7:00 p.m.
Where:
Nathan Hale High
School Auditorium, 11601 W Lincoln Avenue, West Allis
(This location is for
residents of Milwaukee County. If you live in another county, please attend the
appropriate meeting: DNR spring hearings locations.
Among the questions
on this year’s ballot are the following:
· Question
#48: Do you support legislation to
allow hunters to enter private property without asking permission, to
follow their packs of dogs?
· # 36: Do
you support the legislature authorizing the DNR to start a tundra swan hunt?
· # 35: Do
you support the legislature authorizing the DNR to kill our 75 rare white deer statewide?
· # 45: Do
you support the DNR dropping any hour
restrictions for trapping statewide in state parks and all publicly
purchased lands, so trappers can be out trapping all night?
· # 43:
Children of any age can trap. Do you
support the DNR making it easier for
children of any age to trap by allowing them to trap mentored by an adult present, since
they are not old enough to understand or attend a trapping course?
Thank you to Patricia
Randolph, who blogs at Madravenspeak, for the above information.
I encourage you to read the fair and balanced article about
the upcoming Conservation Congress from
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Have your say on state's natural resources.”
