Dry conditions and annual spring hearings

The DNR issued a burning ban due to the unseasonably dry conditions. They desire that we limit fires to small cooking fires or campfires. Normally we still see snow on the ground, but not this year. The idea is, well it’s common sense, but we all know that common sense is less prevalent today than what it was a couple decades ago. At least according to us aged folk.

I recall a couple decades ago driving just after dark seeing a fire raging across a grassy field towards a house about 30 acres away. If you never saw an out of control grass fire, the event makes the list of impressive things you might see in your life. For that home owner it made the impressively scary list for their life.

Bottom line, we could use some water.

With these dry conditions beginning so early this year, it begs the question: Will Wisconsin see a large wildfire in our timber region this year? Our forested areas hold many more roads for fighting fires than that of the Western states where wild fires rage each summer. Many reasons for this exist; fire suppression ranks high on the list. We suppress fires for many reasons, valid reasons. Our state currently does a good job at this. In 1871 the state didn’t possess the ability to suppress wildfires - the Peshtigo Fire is proof of that. Over 1,200 lives lost, 800 in the city of Peshtigo, which burned down in about an hour. 16 other towns burned in the 11 counties affected. More than 1.2 million and up to 1.5 million acres burned so hot that the fire jumped the waters of Green Bay to ignite fires in Door and Kewaunee counties. $169 million in damage in 1871 dollars. So significant of an event that a Peshtigo Fire Museum exists. The fire originated from the burning of a brush pile.

Switching gears from wildfires. The state will hold the Annual Spring Hearings on Monday, April 8 this year in person for the first time since 2019. The meetings start at 6:00 p.m. in each county in Wisconsin.

The location for the in person meeting for every county, the entire list of questions, and meeting agenda can be found on the DNR website.

The locations of those meetings for the three counties in our area are: Clark County – the Greenwood High School cafeteria; Marathon County – the Junior High School auditorium in Schofield; and Taylor County – Medford High School library.

An online option for voting starts Wednesday, April 10 at noon and goes until Saturday, April 13 at noon. The votes from both methods will be weighted equally. Prior to the pandemic, when the meetings moved to online only, that was not the case.

I’m not going through the questions individually. For those that feel that the results don’t mean anything, many DNR biologists and wardens told me over many years that the votes play a good sized role in policy making from the DNR questions. The Conservation Congress questions are advisory only. They do however have a way of making their way onto the DNR questions the following year if they pass. So, if the Conservation Congress’s advisory question to prohibit the use of lead ammunition for hunting statewide by 2030 passes this year, it most likely will be a DNR question next year.

Of the 49 total questions, 12 come from the DNR, seven pertaining to fishing. Of the five pertaining to hunting, one pertains to how we can remove deer from the field, one on woodcock hunting, two on turkey hunting, and one on raccoon hunting.

One of the turkey hunting questions pertains to eliminating the landowner preference for tag allocation. The reasoning and background for each question is spelled out on the questionnaire.

I intend to vote online. Putting one’s eggs in a basket carried by someone else seems risky. I’ve used nontoxic ammunition while deer hunting for over ten years. The reasons for using it when hunting are sound, but first off, you need to be able to find it. Isn’t allowing us to come to our own conclusions after being given information better than another rule? And lastly, nontoxic shotshells cost like $36 a box.

How will I vote? How will hunters from Milwaukee vote? How will the opponents of hunting vote?

We each get a vote? Few use it. Possibly a big reason we get taken for granted a bit by our elected representatives.

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