PROPOSED STATEWIDE FISHERIES MANAGEMENT RULE CHANGE (1)
and
DEPARTMENT FISHERIES ADVISORY QUESTIONS
We have posted the One Proposed Statewide Fisheries Management Rule Change regarding “Statewide Trolling” as well as the over 25 Department Fisheries Advisory questions for easy review.
In 2014, these meetings will be held in conjunction with DNR and Wisconsin Conservation Congress' annual spring fish and game hearings on Monday, April 14 at 7 p.m. in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties.
DNR wildlife staff schedule deer herd status meetings annually and will once again seek public input on a variety of deer-related issues. Herd status meetings provide an early opportunity for hunters and other interested individuals to discuss the current status of the deer herd and ask other deer management questions.
Local wildlife biologists will present information about new deer hunting rules and regulations that were recently adopted as part of the deer trustee report's two-year management review. Wildlife biologists will attend each meeting to listen to ideas and observations from the public and discuss possible strategies for managing Wisconsin's deer herd.
"We annually rely on hunter input to help inform our decisions, especially as they relate to antlerless permit levels," said Kevin Wallenfang, DNR big game ecologist.
"With all the changes as to how we approach deer management now, plus a tough winter and the impacts it will have on the herd, we hope that by holding the meeting jointly with the spring hearings, we will see an increase in public participation."
The spring fish and game hearings present an opportunity for anyone interested in natural resources management to share their input through non-binding vote and testimony to the DNR, State Natural Resources Board and the Conservation Congress on proposed hunting and fishing rule changes and advisory questions.
Those unable to attend a local meeting are encouraged to provide their personal input using an online herd status summary and survey, which will be active from March 25 to April 18. To participate, search the DNR website dnr.wi.gov for keywords "Deer Hunter Forum." Comments and survey results will be compiled and provided to the wildlife biologist responsible for each county before final permit levels are set for the 2014 deer season.
To find a meeting location [PDF] search the DNR website dnr.wi.gov for keywords "spring hearings."
MADISON - Moving the start of the early trout season to January 1 and expanding the early season to all inland waters to provide more fishing opportunities are among the options Wisconsin anglers can weigh in on during the 2014 Spring Fish and Wildlife Hearings held April 14 at sites in all Wisconsin counties.
This hardy angler braved harsh weather to enjoy opening weekend of the 2014 early catch and release season --and was rewarded for his efforts. WDNR Photo
The six advisory questions on trout topics, Spring hearings questionnaire questions 22-27 [PDF], are the latest step in a comprehensive review of trout fishing in Wisconsin launched in 2011. The questions are designed to help gauge support for possible season changes, one of many components under consideration as the Department of Natural Resources develops a rule package aimed at improving anglers' trout fishing experiences without jeopardizing the quality of the fishery.
"We are trying to provide more fishing opportunity for trout anglers," says Scot Stewart, the DNR fish supervisor leading the review effort. "At the same time we are trying to respect regional desires throughout the state. We are using the advisory questions to focus in on those desires."
Anglers also will get a chance to share their input during public informational meetings planned for summer 2014. Both will be used to shape a proposed trout regulation rule package for consideration at the 2015 Spring Fish & Wildlife Rule Hearings, Stewart says.
These public input opportunities are part of the statewide effort launched in 2011 to review inland trout fishing because it had been more than 25 years since DNR had collected angler input on a statewide basis, says Joanna Griffin, a fisheries specialist who leads DNR's trout team. Trout populations, trout streams, and trout angler habits and attitudes themselves had changed significantly over that time. Trout populations, for instance, increased overall on a statewide basis as has the number and mileage of trout streams, a story told in "A Trout Treasury" in the April 2011 Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine.
To get that initial input, DNR held public meetings in March 2011, conducted an online survey, and followed with a mail survey of former anglers to understand why they left the sport Results of the 2011 Survey of Lapsed Wisconsin Inland Trout Anglers [PDF, 341KB] .
Results from a mail survey of current inland trout anglers sent in February 2012 is now being finalized. That survey was sent to 1,000 randomly-selected purchasers of the 2011 inland trout stamp. In early 2013, DNR formed a Trout Management Task Force to review the survey results, provide input, and develop goals for the future of Wisconsin's trout fisheries. The group included 40 people from around Wisconsin who represent the Conservation Congress, conservation organizations, and businesses and fishing guides with an interest in trout fishing.
Based on the task force's input, DNR's trout team put together the advisory questions related to season changes, says Griffin.
The advisory questions, in addition to moving up the opening day of the early trout season, ask whether the season should be statewide. Right now, much of northeastern Wisconsin and selected waters elsewhere are closed during the early season. Other questions ask whether the early season should end the day before the regular season begins, eliminating the five-day closure now in place between the two seasons.
Anglers are also asked if they want to extend the regular season to Oct. 15 from Sept. 31, as it is now, with options of making the extra two weeks open to harvest or to catch and release only, Griffin says.
Finally, anglers are asked if they favor a uniform gamefish season for so-called put-and-take trout lakes and ponds, where catchable size fish are stocked every spring but where the lakes and ponds may not support survival over winter.
Anglers and others with question about the trout advisory questions or the surveys are invited to join DNR for an online chat at noon March 13. People who can't join at that time can read the transcript later at their convenience.
Griffin, Stewart, Matt Mitro, DNR trout researcher, and Marty Engel, longtime fish manager for Pierce, Dunn and St. Croix counties, and Jordan Petchenik, the DNR research scientist who conducted the surveys, will participate in the online chat.
To participate, visit dnr.wi.gov, and look for the box on the right to enter the chat, or search the phrase "ask the experts." Or join the conversation on the DNR Facebook page, www.facebook.com/WIDNR, by clicking the "Cover it Live Chat" box on the top of the page. The transcript will be available after the chat at that same link.
Joanna Griffin, a fisheries specialist for DNR since 2000, is taking over as statewide trout coordinator for the fisheries program, a role vacant since the 2011 retirement of Larry Claggett.
Joanna Griffin takes over as leader of DNR's trout team. WDNR Photo
"Joanna Griffin has been accomplishing great things for the trout program: organizing and writing the Trout Stamp Reports, coordinating the report database for trout habitat projects, and serving as the liaison to the trout team," says Steve Hewett, fisheries management section chief. "We look forward to her leadership and coordination skills to help us forge ahead with our trout review and continue to provide some of the best trout fishing in the country."
Griffin, who grew up in southern Vermont, graduated from Vassar College and completed her graduate studies in Woods Hole, Mass., through the Boston University Marine Program. She worked for two years at Marine Research, Inc., an environmental consulting firm in Falmouth, Mass., before joining DNR in 2000 as the assistant propagation coordinator.
Since 2001, Griffin has had multiple project positions with DNR fisheries management and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. In 2011, she became a staff specialist working on a panfish management plan, trout habitat reporting and trout stream classification. Griffin lives in Madison with her husband and two children, all accomplished anglers.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 9, 2012, the Wisconsin Conservation Congress will hold its election of county delegates in each county. Upon completion of the delegate elections, the joint Spring Department of Natural Resources Informational Hearing and Conservation Congress Meeting will convene to take comments on the department and Conservation Congress advisory questions.
Click Here – For the 2012 Spring Hearing Questionnaire
