Online spring hearings make it easy to participate

It’s annual spring hearing time again. Stop — just wait; I’m about as thrilled as you.

In fact, I was so fired up thinking about the whole thing and getting to write a column about it I could hardly sleep all weekend.

That was my sad attempt at an April Fool’s joke.

This does fall into the category of needing to be a bit more involved, though. And, because of the pandemic, the hearings will take place completely online again, which means you can sit by your computer or phone or tablet with an adult beverage next to you and complete the whole thing in less than a half hour.

Normally, it would take over a half hour just to drive to the location, and adult beverages definitely weren’t part of the game. So, participation is easy. If you don’t want a whole bunch of anti’s out-voicing you, that’s something to consider. We hate politics and meetings and they don’t — consider that.

The online input option will open on April 12 at 7 p.m. and will remain open for 72 hours for citizens to vote on the proposals. The DNR website states they will post a link to the questions proposed closer to the date.

There are 24 fisheries questions on the DNR proposal part. Only two are statewide, the rest are more local questions, but you are welcome to vote on any that you want. There are five wildlife management questions on the DNR part and one question put forth by the Natural Resource Board on CWD.

The Wisconsin Conservation Congress section has 27 questions ranging from global warming to trapping. Their questions are advisory questions put forth by their committees and also citizens with citizen proposals. How to make a citizens proposal in this time of pandemic is covered on the DNR website. If you have a pressing proposal you want on the ballot for next year, I’m sure one of your county’s Conservation Congress delegates would be happy to assist you. So would the DNR personnel, or they would get you in touch with who is best suited to do that.

For the fisheries part, it might shock you to hear that walleye, musky and trout proposals will be on the ballot — a shocker, I know. But it may interest you that there is a question about changing the bag limit of panfish on the Eau Pleine Flowage to 10 panfish total. The wildlife side of the real policy questions of the DNR is fairly benign. A question on falconry, a couple on trapping, and one on stopping people from target shooting on state land in Columbia County just down the road from the public shooting range. There have been ricochets, which is why the DNR built the public range in the first place. The Conservation Congress questions are advisory. If they pass without controversy, they often find themselves on the DNR’s ballot the following year, so you may not want to skip all of them. Personally, in this technology age, I feel the online option for participation should be continued even after the pandemic policies are done. The technology exists and I would much rather just complete the survey at home with an adult beverage. It beats the old system by a lot.

I just want to remind everyone that the registration meeting for hunters ed is this Thursday, April 8, at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. at the Abbotsford Sportsmen’s Club. We can only take 30 students this year and it is still first come, first serve.

I said a lot about the rules a couple weeks ago. Supreme Court ruling or not, as instructors we still have not been told that you do not need to wear a mask. That could change; it could change by Thursday evening. But I’m betting that no one in Madison is concerned about anyone’s feelings in Abbotsford on Thursday night. So, unless instructed otherwise, masks will still be required. It’s a fluid situation. I suspect we will say that a lot before the end of the class.

And, who knows, if we will need to wear mask the whole time, maybe we’ll have a best mask contest. Maybe there will be a rifle as the prize. Maybe that’s another bad attempt at an April Fool’s joke.

The turkeys are starting to gobble, and we are not too far away from that and fishing. So, hold strong, better days are ahead.

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CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL O UTDOORSMAN