Attended and presented my resolution tonight.

https://widnr.widen.net/s/xkhjbdjcvn/2024-_spring_hearing_questionnaire

this years questions

some of you likely know the people behind those resolutions

what resolutions questions interest you , what is your opinion on them?

there are some interesting ones.

what are your thoughts on 27

27. Change opening time of muskrat trapping on opening day of muskrat season (220123, 330123, 540123,
680223)
Muskrat trapping can occur on any body of water in Wisconsin. However, rats are most concentrated on and
trapping is therefore most focused on, large marshes and backwaters. On publicly owned properties, reaching
the best sites before they are occupied is often very competitive.
Currently, trappers can tend traps any time of the day or night. As a result, trappers begin trapping at midnight
on opening day. The rush for the best trap sites is competitive and the most competitive trappers are set out
before daylight.
Some feel that this poses an undesirable disadvantage for young trappers. They feel that opening the season
at 6:00AM on opening day would allow a fairer opportunity for trappers who prefer not to set out in the dark
and especially for young trappers.
27. Do you favor changing the muskrat and mink season opening �me to 6:00 AM on opening day for each
zone on both private and public lands for uniformity and fairness to all trappers?
Environmental Committee


used to be 4am tp 8pm was the only acceptable trap check time , with now being able to set or check 24/7 you can start setting at 00:00

other seasons have daylight starts

what are your thoughts.

Personally don’t night trap much, daylight is enough for me. But not a fan of over regulation either or limiting someone with different circumstances. Some of these issues are better solved with common sense and ethics.

Not a fan of this one ... Any time is an arbitrary pick, as such, why not noon ... at least there is a precedent.

the author apparently though 6am would be light and a fair start to season with people able to see, that gave youth a chance to get traps in.


from the safety side of things some seasons start after light the first day

having seen things from the Fire department side , sometimes it is about avoiding the drain on resources , a bunch of trappers heading out in the dark at 11:30pm with boats loaded down with steel trying to set everything they can by day break.

2 capsize but the FD has 1 small boat and limited resources for water trained staff

the 04:00-20:00 trap check/set forced it to 04:00 for years so historically until they dropped the no check from 20:00 to 04:00 the season started at 04:00

I see they are back at it again with the lead ban, not just lead shot from
A shotgun but all lead shot be illegal to use by 2030

So trappers can trap from October through March but the first 6 hours discourage young trappers? If you can catch a muskrat 6 months after opener you can catch em 6 hours after.

Banning live scope? Not a fan of that. I have one but havnt used it much yet. Definitely makes finding fish easier. At $2,000 there would be a lot of angry anglers Seems fish limits should do the job. Crappie limits of 25 here are too high and people are wiping out lakes with or without livescope.

the guy who wrote it is D10 I think from Jefferson county , other D10 are Dane , Green , Rock , Walworth.

so probably written for for a lot of pressure on busy public lands.

I Marked No Opinion on this one but I though it would be of interest here.

I know I am not a fan I brought up if I am fully removing the carcass and I got a pass through with my rifle why does it matter.

the warden said when you see an xray of the a deer shot with a high velocity rifle bullet there is lots of fragmentation. lead scattered in the carcass.


another guy brought up what are we supposed to load our traditional muzzle loaders with , not wanting to pound a copper ball down the muzzle
that got a response of well there are other things sabots and such , but then said , lower velocity lead doesn't fragment and you can eat practically up to the hole.
so they understand not everything is a high velocity round but my fear is it will be a blanket ban because that is simple and the DNR is out of money , that was the theme of the night , license sales down , reduced harvests , average age of hunters in the 50s now.
how to generate revenue.

we have many states now with a lead ban , are they seeing a miraculous recovery of raptors?
I would like to see that data point. how do raptors test in Cali , 5 years into their led ban?
we already have a hawk on every 3rd electric pole not sure we need one on every electric pole.

2030 seems too close it probably didn't 3-4 years ago for the lack of answers
2040 and figure out some exceptions not a blanket all lead ban.

as some others pointed out finding ammo at all can be difficult lead free makes for some really expensive stuff and will it even be available

what about 22lr rounds would those be banned from lead

lots of questions and that need to be addressed and the question just asks for permission to do it.

I havent trapped the opener in years still manage to pick up a few scraps

I'd like to know if the raptors are dying of lead poisoning, or are they finding traces of lead in dead raptors. Two different data points there.

Did they include fishing tackle this time in the ban wording?

I agree entirely on the data points.

no entirely pointed at hunting ammunition.

actually everything on the slide was a shot shell , in the past they went after just deer hunting ammo and I think the deer hunters said rightfully , really they have lead year round and we hunt deer for 9 days

Having been a trapper for many decades a lot of opening days have come and gone. The anticipation and preparation for opening day has never been lessened by bad weather forecast or lower prices. A big part of opening day for me has always been to visually experience the plate mother nature has
set before me whether it be marshland, Creek, or river bottoms. For years the opener for mink and rats started at 6 AM and in recent years was changed to 4 AM. Even more recently, opening day became opening night with a 12 AM opening.
I have never been a fan of using headlamps and flashlights for setting traps. As I approach my 75 birthday, navigating a swamp or river channel in a boat or wading in the black of night is not conducive to a safe and enjoyable trapping experience. Let's level the playing field on opening morning for all trappers young and old. A 6am start is a sensible solution. The rest of the season would be continuous with no daily time limits.

I can certainly see good logic for 6am from the safety standpoint.
navigating in the dark is a pain.

I don’t see one mention on deer decline or wolves. Are you kidding me or are my eyes going bad.

basically they explained
first, not a rule change year so none of this is a rule change all advisory

second , they just formed a new wolf advisory committee and are starting new research

the DNR , warden and biologists definitely understood there was NO shortage of wolves
I believe he used the term "EXTREEMLY HEALTHY WOLF POPULATION" but until the feds change some things they are stuck in the management model of DNR kills around 80-110 as needed each year for problem wolves the population grows more.

so until the fed makes a change we are stuck in this limbo of DNR can kill them as issues are reported.


they also acknowledged we are getting an awful lot of bobcats in southern WI but who knows about any increase in bobcat tags.

if lead is banned then alot of ammo hoards will be up for sale in other states.

I would venture 95% or more of ammo goes at targets not game.

even a very busy hunter shoots 20 rounds of deer ammo a year.

100 is just getting warmed up for a day at the range.

dispatch with lead based ammo should always be allowed as long as the carcass is fully removed

there was the question about leaving parts of the carcass in the field basically allowing you to bone out the deer and leave entrails and bones at the point of kill.
I am in favor of that as I was in-favor of the quartering
our very onw Patrice uses the quartering option to carry out deer in the currently allowed 5 pieces

if they wanted a transition option they could say , if you leave the non meat portion of the carcass in the field it the use of lead free ammo is required. Get people interested in the Deep walk in to have a reason to use lead free. then they solve the biggest complaint about lead in deer.
parts left would come from lead free deer.

hauled out in tact deer could use lead banning it outright while at the same time wanting more involvement seems like a way to get less involvement in farmland were we have a lot of deer , a lot of people drive the tractor right to the deer any way and bring it back for processing.

Did the DNR say they were killing wolves? I've always been under the impression USDA Wildlife Services was always employed to do any sort of lethal management because of the federal protections.