If you’d like your views considered on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources spring hearing questions but either can’t or don’t want to attend a hearing in one of the state’s 72 counties, you are in luck this year.
Residents for the first time will have three days to go online and vote on the hearing questionnaire. Residents attending the April 8 hearings will have two options: use the paper ballots there or receive a special verifiable number so that they also may complete the ballot online. Those who attend the hearings but choose to receive the verifiable number and vote online will have their votes counted with the in-person results. The other online results will be kept separate.
Voting for Conservation Congress delegates and citizen-input issues can only be done in person, according to the DNR.
The DNR and Wisconsin Conservation Congress wanted to allow those unable to attend the annual hearings — whether because of other commitments, health issues or other conflicts — to share their input. The online survey, administered through SurveyMonkey, will go live at 7 p.m. April 8 and remain open for exactly three days, closing at 7 p.m. April 11.
The DNR has safeguards in place to detect intentional duplication of answers by the same person completing the 88-question ballot online, according the the DNR website. If you do not complete the full survey and want to return to it, you must use the same device (computer, smart phone or tablet) or your input may not be recorded. The ballot takes about 45 minutes to complete, but you do not need to complete all the questions for your ballot to count.
Some of the key questions on this year’s ballot include:
• Banning baiting and feeding of deer statewide to prevent the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease. New research from University of Wisconsin-Madison confirmed that the prions that spread CWD accumulate on mineral licks and feeding/baiting areas. This would require legislation.
• Banning lead ammunition and fishing tackle (Conservation Congress proposal).
• Paying landowners and hunters cash awards of $750 to $1,250 for harvesting CWD-positive deer in the Southern Farmland Deer Zone where most CWD-positive deer were detected in 2018. The proposed pilot program, called CWD Payments for Positives, would be a volunteer program that would cost $900,000 to $1.4 million annually and would be paid for through tax revenue generated by the $1.3 billion deer hunting economy, according to the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies proposal. The idea also would require state legislation for approval.
• Moving the daily pheasant season closure on public properties stocked with pheasants from 2 p.m. to noon on weekdays from the third day of pheasant season through Nov. 3 to give state workers more time to stock birds and give the birds less hunting pressure until the next day.
• Eliminate the minimum barrel length for handguns used for hunting (currently at 5½ inches for breech loading handguns and 7 inches for muzzleloading handguns used for deer hunting, and 4 inches for all handguns used for other kinds of hunting). The current regulations “have little or no purpose related to safety or game conservation,” and most handguns carried by the state’s more than 300,000 concealed carry holders have short barrels.
• Establishing a continuous open season for largemouth and smallmouth bass, but allowing harvest only during the current traditional season (first Saturday in May through the first Saturday in March, with a catch-and-release season in March and April).
• Reduce the daily walleye limit from five to three fish in the Lake Winnebago system (including Shawano, Waupaca, Calumet, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Outagamie, Waushara and Winnebago counties). One sauger or saugeye hybrid would be allowed in the daily bag, as before. The reason is to prevent exploitation of the population from April-June when the walleyes are concentrated and spawning, making them more vulnerable to fishing pressure.
• Reduce the daily walleye limit from five to three fish and increase the minimum length from 15 to 18 inches in Shawano and Waupaca counties (outside the Lake Winnebago system).There is little evidence of natural reproduction in these lakes and the changes would enhance fishing opportunities, the DNR said.
• Ban the use of underwater cameras, electronic fish finders and similar devices for spearing sturgeon on the Lake Winnebago system.
• Define a sturgeon spear used on the Lake Winnebago system to include only those with a maximum 18-inch width and one row of tines. Some spearers have used “non-traditional spears” in recent years and some stakeholders are concerned, although the DNR said the spear design does not affect the fishery because of harvest quotas.
• Remove the 36-inch minimum limit on speared lake sturgeon.
• Restore deer carcass tags for deer hunting.
• Require pheasant, quail and grouse hunters to wear some blaze orange or fluorescent pink clothing.
• Raising non-resident application fees for bear and bobcat hunting to $40.