Tell DNR not to privatize State Parks

Kohler Andrae State Park

Sweeping changes to public lands in Wisconsin may come from a request before the Natural Resources Board to change its rules and allow State Parks Master Plans to be ignored. This would open the door to private development within parks and public lands. Please read my letter below and feel free to use it as a model for your own. Letters should be sent to the two officials listed below. To read more about the issue read James Rowen’s article in Urban Milwaukee.

Dear Ms. Laurie J Ross, Natural Resources Board Liaison,

I am writing in opposition to the request for a rule change that would allow State Parks Master Plans written before 1996 to be dismissed.

As you know, this request is on the agenda for the January 24 meeting of the Natural Resources Board. Please register my opposition to the request.

Furthermore, I understand that there is an effort to close public commentary after January 19. I also oppose the rule change that would allow this to happen. Decisions like this one must remain transparent and open to public debate and input. The public has a right to a hearing on this rule change and a right to have enough time to learn the issues and to prepare responses.

The rule change that would allow a park’s master plan to be ignored would enable a private company to use State Park land. The request seems to specifically target the Kohler Andre State Park’s Master Plan, written in 1989, in order to permit a controversial golf course proposed by the Kohler Company to encroach on public park land. No part of this beautiful, ecologically important and popular park should be sacrificed to any private development.

However, a rule change as sweeping as this one would have consequences far beyond Kohler Andre State Park. It would open the door to further loss to private interests of treasured public state lands.

The Department of Natural Resources and the Natural Resources Board ought to be the guardians of Wisconsin’s parks and public lands, protectors of the both the public interest and the natural environment. I urge you to reject this and any other request that would diminish or degrade public lands.

Send your emails promptly to Laurie Ross and Daniel Meyer. Time is of the essence.

Laurie J Ross, Natural Resources Board Liaison
Laurie.Ross@wisconsin.gov

Daniel Meyer, DNR Secretary
Daniel.Meyer@wisconsin.gov

Should the fate our natural resources be up to hunters and trappers?

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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.”

Wisconsin's Conservation Congress needs you!

The Conservation Congress is a citizens' advisory body to the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources and the Natural Resources Board. Anyone can attend and vote on delegates who will act as advisors to the DNR and NRB. These delegates represent whatever interests them and lobby for and against proposed policies, including natural resources, fish and wildlife management. Wisconsin is the ONLY state that does this.

Historically the Congress has been attended mostly by hunters and fishermen and those interests are extremely well represented as a consequence. Lately hunting and fishing policies have been expanded, including controversial policies on wolf hunting and hunting in state parks.

The Conservation Congress needs to hear from a more diverse selection of the population, especially the majority of state citizens who do not hunt and who value the natural environment. I have attended the Congress and the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of the hunters, who attend in force. Balance is needed. (For the record, I am not opposed to all hunting, although I do oppose wolf hunting, among other policies. I delight in hiking our excellent state parks and I worry about the proposed expansion of hunting in the parks, which is on the agenda for this Congress.)

Here's the scoop:

Wisconsin Conservation Congress Election and Spring Hearing

When: Monday, April 8, 2013 at 7:00 pm.

Where: For Milwaukee County residents: Nathan Hale High School, 11601 W. Lincoln Ave. West Allis, WI

This is an annual election that takes place in EVERY county in Wisconsin. If you're not in Milwaukee county, find out where YOUR vote is at  DNR.gov  then click on 2013 Spring Hearing Locations.

Candidates are nominated to run on the spot and the vote follows. To win a delegate must get a majority of the votes cast. Candidates sometimes win by only a few votes, so this is a case where every vote really counts! Two delegates are elected every year and there are five representing each county. The Wisconsin legislature often looks to this body to support bills relating to natural resources and sometimes the Congress begins the process that leads to creation of a new law - lets make sure it represents all Milwaukee County residents.

In addition to voting for delegates, you can vote on natural resource questions such as, #70"Should we expand hunting in Wisconsin state parks?" #68"Should we prohibit the use of dogs for hunting?". Click on the link above and then on 2013 questionnaire to read all the questions before you vote. You can also submit your own resolution to be voted on such as - "Should we end the wolf hunt in Wisconsin?" 

photo courtesy Kewl

Thanks go to Barbara Eisenberg for providing some of the information above--and for her tireless advocacy!

For more information, go to DNR.gov.

Patricia Randolph is another passionate advocate on these issues. To read her column on the subject go to Madravenspeak.

Wisconsin’s wildlife more endangered than ever!

Vote April 5 and at a Conservation Congress on April 11 – Please!

As everyone knows, Governor Walker has made national headlines over controversial proposals. He seems to relish the publicity as well as the fight he provoked. Much of the ire has been directed, appropriately, at his attempts to bust unions and gut public education. But much more is also at stake, including wildlife and peaceful recreation in our state parks. Tomorrow’s voting is widely viewed as a referendum on Walker’s proposals. Let’s make it so. But there’s another important opportunity to vote next week.

The Wisconsin DNR is holding a Conservation Congress next Monday, April 11 to determine the fate of 85 proposals for changes that could have a dramatic effect on our state parks.

Here are just five of the proposals to be voted on:

1.     To allow widespread hunting and trapping in state parks.

2.     To kill 350 of the state’s 700 wild wolves.

3.     To allow shooting within 100 feet of a human-occupied building.

4.     To allow hunting of the 200 elk in the state.

5.     To allow bears to be killed with dog packs.

With some exceptions for the annual hunting of deer, turkey, and other designated animals in designated sections of the parks, none of these things currently are legal in Wisconsin state parks.

You can make a difference by voting no on these and other ballot questions! But here’s the kicker: the rules stipulate that no public comments will be accepted. You must vote in person, you must vote on April 11, and you must vote in the one location designated for your county.

If you live in Milwaukee County, please vote at Nathan Hale High School in West Allis at 7 pm on April 11.

If you live in another county, click here to find the location.

To read ballot questions 52-53, which proposes to allow hunting and trapping, click here.

For more information, click here.

For the record, I have never opposed hunting deer on private lands in Wisconsin. Please join me in voting no on April 11 to opening our parks to widespread hunting. Who thinks 200 elk are too many for the state of Wisconsin, anyway?!!

Here's another thought: why is this voting so restrictive? It seems as if it's deliberately designed to reduce participation. Let's tell our legislators that our parks and the people of Wisconsin who use them deserve more respect.