New DNR Report: Who Should Pay to Protect & Encourage Fish & Wildlife

By Kathleen Vinehout 

Wisconsin is number one in hunting! Don’t take it from me. The Department of Natural Resources has studies to back it up.

A new DNR report noted Wisconsin had the number one Boone and Crockett Trophy whitetail entries from 2005-2010 and the number one black beer harvest of all states.

Wisconsinites hunt deer at nearly three times the US rate and fist at twice the US rate. We lead the nation in world record musky caught and are the reigning world record holder of brown trout.

According to the DNR report, which included options to fund wildlife management, Wisconsin is number one in annual revenue from hunting - $2,833 per hunter or $2.5 billion.

Yet funds to manage Wisconsin’s fish, wildlife and habitat have not kept up with needs. In fact, revenue dropped by nearly four million dollars in the past five years. Officials estimate the gap between authorized expenses and revenue is $4 - $6 million a year. Anticipating less revenue, the DNR looked for ways to spend less, which resulted in staff reductions and cuts to programs.

For example, with a 15% vacancy in fisheries management, there are fewer fish surveys and less accurate information for anglers. There was a significant reduction in the stocking of larger walleye.

With a 12% vacancy in wildlife management, there is less assistance provided to landowners for habitat development. The DNR reduced collaboration with conservation groups on habitat development and reduced trout improvement work. Pheasant restocking was cut in half. Two thousand acres of wetland impoundments were left unmanaged.

With 10% fewer conservation wardens, there are fewer patrols and less enforcement of hunting and fishing rules.

Our state leans on hunters and anglers to fund wildlife programs. Wisconsin ranks in the top ten states for tapping license fees to fund wildlife management.

The DNR reports, “Nearly ninety percent of revenue to manage the state’s fish and wildlife resources comes from hunting, fishing and trapping license fees and the federal excise tax on the sale of hunting and fishing equipment including firearms and ammunition and a portion of the gas tax attributable to motor boats and small engines.”

There is no similar fee to protect non-hunted species. The report quotes federal sources describing funds needed to protect the 12,000 or so species in State Wildlife Action Plans that are “in greatest conservation need”.

The heavy reliance on license fees is concerning as the number of hunters and anglers decrease. For instance, gun deer hunting has dropped by 12% from its peak in 1999. Several efforts by lawmakers to increase the number of hunters and anglers failed and left bigger holes in the DNR budget.

For example, in 2011 lawmakers passed a bill that included a reduction in fees for first-time hunting and fishing license purchases. Surveys later found reduced fees had little impact on increasing the number of licenses sold. Eighty percent of first-time-license-buyers did not even know about the discount until they paid for the license and most did not continue buying in successive years.

The DNR report stated the need to sell “four times as many resident first-time-buyer licenses and two times as many nonresident first-time-buyer licenses to break even”.

The report details several options for lawmakers in the upcoming budget debate. Ideas include raising fees, standardizing license discounts, eliminating the failed “first-time-buyer” program. In addition, the report suggests new ways to encourage and better serve hunters and anglers with automatic license renewal, gift cards, loyalty discounts and increased flexibility for combination license buyers.

Does rehabbing a trout stream benefit you if you don’t fish? You bet it does.

The report reviews a great deal of economic data related to our natural resources. The upshot? Businesses locate and new businesses start where people want to live and people value a high level of scenic and natural amenities.

The report documented that people want to share in the protection of our natural resources. Maybe it’s time to spread the cost of protection over more than just the hunters and anglers, as Minnesota did with their legacy fund to benefit natural resources.

Thank you to the authors of this well-written report. I encourage you to read it and let me know what action you would like to see taken.

Quack Walker

By Jeff Simpson 

Scott Walker has proven, four years into being Governor, that he likes to take Wisconsin backwards.   Walker, being ever the opportunist, and master campaigner, has decided to cash in on his regressive policies!   

Annual fall, play duck hunt with Gov. Scott Walker

W9489 Affeldt Road,
New London.

$1000 per person to play duck hunt
$250/$500 for just a hot dog and a jolly good.

Please make checks payable to: Friends of Scott Walker

To express your dismay, please contact
Laura Gralton at 414-881-1005 / Laura@Graltonconsulting.com or
Colleen Coyle at 608-239-5601 or Colleen@ScottWalker.com

In our depressed Walker economy, its amazing that people still have $1000 of disposable income to play a thirty year old video game!   It does make sense though, over the years Atari has been owned by several different entities and so has Scott Walker.

As always, we at CogDis are on the cutting edge and are able to bring you a picture from last years astounding play duck hunt event! 

Also rumor has it that Dick Cheney will be in attendance(unconfirmed), so make sure all of your affairs are in order before attending!  

Quack Quack

        

Wisconsin's Wolf Kill - Rancid Policy

Humans have yet to find a peaceful, equal coexistence with animals. But that doesn't mean that while we are trying to find it, we have the right to cast a cruel gaze on those who are on four legs because we don't think they matter, or that we're more important. That idea is wrong and dangerous. It can change the future of animals on earth as we know it.

At one time in Wisconsin, the timber wolf population was extremely dire, even being listed as an endangered species. By 2004 (although the timber wolf has faced problems for many years before 2004) it was put on the list of "protected wild animals." From 2004 until 2011, the timber wolf went on and off different endangered and protected animal lists. I want to make this clear - I'm not too opposed to hunting deer (not that I personally would do it.) Deer hunting is great for our state's economy and it brings in money we desperately need, since King Walker has no plans to raise taxes on the 1% or create jobs. But I think when it comes to animals that were once state and federally endangered, I can't believe hunting is even in the picture. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. The Humane Society of the United States and other animal groups are threatening legal action if these wolf hunts do not stop. Act 169, the law Walker signed legalizing the hunting of timber wolves, is the worst thing to happen to them since being endangered. If these hunts continue, no matter what DNR secretary and Walker sheep Cathy Stepp says, the wolf will go right back to where it started. Its numbers will dwindle until it's almost gone. There is an entire delicate ecosystem that gets disrupted when one animal dies out. A food chain wrecked. It reeks havoc on our earth. 

Thankfully, Native American tribes here in the state helped keep 85 out of the designated-for-slaughter 116 wolves from being killed during this years hunt. As we saw with the whole mining fiasco, Scott Walker and his ilk are very disrespectful to the wishes of our states many tribes. Stepp essentially told the Chippewa tribe "too bad, so sad" when they argued that they have rights to many of the wolf packs in Northern Wisconsin. In fact, she has been fighting tribes every step of the way over this and other issues pertaining to hunting in the state. Here is her DNR all upset that the Chippewa were granted permission to hunt deer at night, regardless that the DNR has permitted legal wolf hunting at night to Wisconsin hunters.

But this is what I find most ironic about this entire thing. Act 169 also lays the groundwork for the use of dogs to track down wolves. Now, we're not talking about taking your dog pheasant or duck hunting. We're talking about ON PURPOSE using your dog to go find wolves. One of the main complaints against wolves is that they are attacking dogs. A small number of pets are killed each year by them. If the fear that wolves will eat your dog is so great that it requires slaughtering them, why are you using them to track and bait the wolves? Not to mention, that seems like animal cruelty to both the dog and the wolf. The law allows for up to 6 dogs per licensed hunter. Here's a tip - if you don't want wolves eating your dog, then don't use your dog to bait them. It's like waving a pork chop in their face and not expecting it to bite your hand.

The reality is is that wolves, bears, coyotes, hawks, fish, even the raccoon who eats your garbage, were all here first. We kicked them off their land. Because urban sprawl and climate change are growing at rates that seem to be faster than the speed of sound, animals are becoming more and more displaced. They are losing their natural homes in large numbers. We have no right to punish them for it. We need to learn to coexist now more than ever. If we're going to survive together, we need to learn respect our wild counterparts.

"The Earth does not belong to man; Man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

-Chief Seattle

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated…I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by people from the cruelty of human kind" -Mahatma Gandhi

 "A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is a bad as an act of cruelty to a human being."

-Prophet Mohammed

 "If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." 

 -Francis of Assisi

It's Good Work If You Can Get It

Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch -  $76,261/yr + per diems, with Cadillac taxpayer funded health care
Assemblyman Joel Kleefisch - $ 49,943/yr + per diems with Cadillac taxpayer funded health care

Total amount of money that the Kleefisch family takes from the taxpayers = $126,204 + per diems and taxpayer funded Cadillac health care.   

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The Wisconsin State legislature adjourned on March 16th 2012, and have no plans on to meet until well after the November 2012 elections. 

For those of you scoring at home, that is a minimum of 8 months off, along with weekends and all holidays, while collecting full salary and benefits from the Wisconsin taxpayer.  As you can see the Kleefisch family is using their time well to serve their constituents.  Except of course when they had a chance to actually help their constituents and harmed them instead.  

Voters get to decide if their money is being well spent or if they want to elect someone serious about the job in Scott Michalak.   Maybe its time we stopped funding hunting trips and tried to get the people of Wisconsin back to work!   

Big Bird Will Be Next

"Is that Big Bird on that grill?!"

State Representative Joel Kleefisch (R-Back of the minivan) apparently missed the news that Wisconsin is still leaking jobs like a sieve, has a stagnant economy and that people are really suffering.

Otherwise, Kleefisch wouldn't be wasting time and taxpayer money to come up with the bird-brained idea of having a hunting season for sandhill cranes.  Kleefisch said that his concern is that the cranes are doing to much damage to farmers' crops, but then reveals his real reason:

"They not only make great table fare, often they are called 'the ribeye of the sky,'" said Rep. Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc. "With our hunting heritage in this state, we thought we'd look at a sandhill crane hunting season."

Apparently those mourning doves just don't fill him up enough, or maybe their just too much of a challenge for a poor marksman.

Whatever the reason Kleefisch feels that he needs to pass this moronic bill, it's not going to do anything but feed him, according to the experts:

The International Crane Foundation hasn't taken a position on the bill, but Barzen said science shows hunting is not the answer.

"In order to control crop damage by removing cranes from the population, you'd probably have to remove a significant portion of the crane population, and nobody is really proposing to do that," said Barzen.

Instead, Barzen said treating crop seeds can keep cranes away. More than 76,000 acres were treated by Wisconsin farmers last year. Some farmers said that only pushes cranes to other fields, and doesn't control the population. But wildlife experts said cranes won't migrate far and instead will find other food sources.

I think the real reason that Kleefisch wants to do this is to help appeal to the wingnut base in order to save his wife's job. Because if she loses her job, she'll be home all day and all night, lecturing the furniture about abstinence.