Patrick Durkin | For the State Journal | Posted: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 8:44 pm | No Comments Posted
Once a Wisconsinite spends a Monday night in April at an annual fish and wildlife hearing, never again can a routine, pleasant evening be taken for granted.
I say that with newfound appreciation for these often-tortuous events, a joint production of the Department of Natural Resources and Wisconsin Conservation Congress. For as agonizing as the statewide hearings can be, our Legislature proved the past three months that its gong show is worse.
Lawmakers merely prolonged our suffering by pushing half-baked ideas on bear hunting, spring turkey hunting and transporting uncased firearms during deer season. This showed they lacked the wisdom of the late English writer G.K. Chesterton. To paraphrase: Don't tear down a fence until you understand why it was built.
Remember that Monday night, April 12 as you attend -- or avoid -- the hearing in your county seat. Consider the likelihood that our Wisconsin forebears were wise for making these hearings part of our heritage. They knew the value of root canals.
A refresher: The State Conservation Commission created the Conservation Congress in 1934. (The Commission was the forerunner to our Natural Resources Board, the seven citizens who set DNR policy.) The Congress' mission was to provide local input on conservation issues and then make recommendations to the Commission.
This system allowed the Legislature in 1937 to remove itself from setting fees, seasons, regulations and bag limits on fishing, hunting and trapping matters. It entrusted those tasks to the Conservation Commission and its citizen-advisers in the Congress.
Let's realize lawmakers of 1937 were not idealistic dreamers. They weathered deer wars of their own with grouchy hunters. They even closed deer seasons every other year from 1925 to 1935. Such experiences taught them that danger lurks when hugging tar babies. So, they freed themselves of further sticky frustrations to focus on less irksome problems like, say, the Great Depression.
In 1972, Gov. Patrick Lucy signed legislation officially sanctioning the Congress as citizen liaisons to the DNR's governing board. The Legislature retained the right of final review, but trusted the DNR, its Board and the Congress to staff the complaint desk. Lawmakers basically told them: "You'll be fine. Don't press the alarm unless someone's about to get hurt."
Forty years later, let's hope lawmakers are realizing their moms and grandfathers knew something they didn't. That is, for all the warts, moles and shortcomings of our spring hearings and Conservation Congress, they provide a process for filtering out weak ideas.
Just because someone claims the DNR and Congress aren't listening, it doesn't mean their plans are worth repeating, especially in the Capitol. For example:
The Legislature's plan for a six-week continuous turkey season? It's in formaldehyde.
Its plan to let deer hunters carry uncased guns in cars and trucks? Picture two flat tires, no jack and a rusty bicycle pump.
And the bear bill? It's alive only because the Conservation Congress broke it into five parts and printed them as advisory questions Nos. 62 to 66 for Monday's statewide hearings. Sen. Jim Holperin, D-Conover, said Monday the bear bill is going nowhere until the hearing's votes are counted.
In the meantime, we can still debate whether 6,000 people voting on 97 questions at statewide hearings is a truer test of public sentiment than a Capitol hearing drawing 400 people on one question. But this much is certain: The backlash that halted the Legislature's hunting bills carried the scorn of a thrice-jilted lover.
Folks resented Sen. Russ Decker, D-Weston, helping the Hunters Rights Coalition, Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association and the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation dodge the Congress and hurdle its checkpoints.
If the Congress and our spring hearings have problems, let's address them. After all, the hunting and fishing public pays the Congress' annual $62,300 budget to represent our interests. But legislators weren't questioning the Congress, its priorities or its procedures.
Worse, they have acted as if the Congress and its spring hearings are irrelevant.
Before continuing, lawmakers should either show the Congress where it jumped the tracks or tell its hijackers where to get off.
SPRING HEARING
WHAT: The Department of Natural Resources' spring wildlife and fisheries proposed rules hearing and annual Conservation Congress county meeting.
WHEN, WHERE: To be held simultaneously on Monday, April 12 at 7 p.m. in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties.
THE POINT: Residents interested in natural resources management have an opportunity for input by non-binding vote and testimony to the DNR, Natural Resources Board and the Conservation Congress on proposed hunting and fishing rule changes and advisory questions. The forum also can be used to highlight conservation issues of a statewide nature to the Congress.
ON THE BALLOT: The questionnaire has 97 questions (60 are proposed rule changes from the DNR and the rest are advisory questions proposed by the Congress or the NRB).
TO WIT: Residents can run for election to the Congress and/or elect delegates from their county.
NEAR HERE: Locations by county in and around Madison include: Adams: Adams County Courthouse, Board Room, 402 Main St. in Friendship; Columbia: Portage Junior High School, 2505 New Pinery Road in Portage; Crawford: Crawford County Courthouse, Court Room, 220 N. Beaumont Road in Prairie du Chien; Dane: Schwan Performing Arts Center, Monona Grove High School, 4400 Monona Drive in Monona; Dodge: Horicon City Hall, 404 E. Lake St. in Horicon; Grant: Lancaster High School, Hillary Auditorium, 806 East Elm St. in Lancaster; Green: Monroe Middle School, 1220 16th Ave. in Monroe; Iowa: Dodgeville High School, Gymnasium, 912 West Chapel St. in Dodgeville; Jefferson: Jefferson County Fair Park Activity Center, 503 N. Jackson Ave. in Jefferson; Juneau: Olson Middle School, Auditorium, 508 Grayside Ave. in Mauston; Lafayette: Darlington High School, 11838 Center Hill Road in Darlington;
Marquette: Montello High School, Community Room, 222 Forest Lane in Montello; Richland: Richland County Courthouse, 181 West Seminary in Richland Center; Rock: Pontiac Convention Center, 2809 N. Pontiac Drive in Janesville; Sauk: UW Baraboo Campus, A4 Lecture Hall, 1006 Connie Road in Baraboo; Vernon: Viroqua High School, 100 Blackhawk Drive in Viroqua; Walworth: Delavan-Darien High School, 150 Cummings St. in Delavan.
GO TO: For information, including a look at the evening's agenda/questionnaire, go to http://dnr.wi.gov.
Contact Patrick Durkin, a free-lance columnist, at patrickdurkin@charter.net or write to 721 Wesley St., Waupaca, WI 54981.
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