MADISON — The public will have an opportunity to vote on a wide range of fish and wildlife rule proposals, as well as introduce suggestions for rule changes they would like to see in the future or that pertain specifically to a certain part of the state when the 2006 Spring Wildlife and Fisheries Rules Hearings are held beginning at 7 p.m. on April 10.
The hearings are held annually in every county of the state on the second Monday of April to gauge public opinion on proposed changes to state fishing and hunting rules. The hearings are held in conjunction with the annual Wisconsin Conservation Congress county meetings, where county residents can elect delegates to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, which was established by the Wisconsin Legislature in 1934 as a citizen body to advise the Natural Resources Board on fish and wildlife management issues and policy.
New this year is an electronic balloting system to improve accuracy, maintain voting privacy and reduce the time and workload of tallying the statewide votes.
A complete questionnaire describing proposed rules for the 2006 Department of Natural Resources Spring Wildlife and Fish Rules Hearings is available on the DNR Web site.
To better accommodate citizen participation, business of the greatest importance to the most participants is addressed early in the meeting agendas. The first item of business will be the election of county delegates to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. Election of delegates will be done on ballots provided to residents of the county in which the hearing is being held. To vote for Congress delegates, people must be 18 years old and provide identification along with proof of residency in the county. Current DNR employees are not eligible for election as a delegate.
The second part of the hearing will be the DNR’s proposed fish and wildlife rule changes affecting the management of fish and wildlife in Wisconsin. There is no age or residency requirement to vote on any of the questions in the spring hearing questionnaire.
Some of the rule proposals to be voted on this April 10 include:
extending the fall turkey hunting season;
extending hunting hours during the spring turkey hunting season from a 5 p.m. daily closure to sunset;
creating a youth turkey hunt similar to existing deer and waterfowl youth hunting weekends;
requiring a pheasant stamp statewide for anyone who wishes to hunt pheasants;
prohibiting harvest of live clams from inland waters; and
banning the use of devices that intentionally release lead weights when a fish strikes.
The Natural Resources Board has also placed a question seeking the public’s level of support for banning baiting and feeding of deer, Currently it is legal in some counties to bait deer for a period of 10 days before and during the nine-day gun deer season.
As part of the evening’s agenda, the Wisconsin Conservation Congress will present advisory questions created by Congress committees. Results of those votes are presented to the state Natural Resources Board in the form of advisories indicating the support that a resolution may or may not have among the people attending the meeting. Secondly, the public has the opportunity to introduce resolutions from the floor at the meeting. Frequently, but not always, a successful resolution may appear as a proposed rule presented in the DNR portion of the meeting a year or two later. Anyone submitting resolutions must submit two copies of their resolution on typed or printed 8 ½; by 11 white paper.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: AnnMarie Kutzke - 266-2952