Must be a Canadian thing ^^^^….. for the federal government to charge state government officials for doing their job.

What is the federal offense?

Thousands of years our vegetation levels cycled up and down, yet we just can’t seem to figure it out.

Used to be if you wanted less vegetation, you raised the water levels. Wanted more, you lowered. Now we just lower for both.

Be glad ? Glad for what ? Less of everything there used to be plenty of and pay a higher price to participate in it ? They are raising the fees, but it doesn't seem like its benefiting the natural resources.

Farming practices here have changed little in the time period stated and there is no development in this area.

Just when ya think they are starting to figure it out.

So we lowered the water to repair a dam. Exposed some mudflats and got a cattail explosion. Hmmm
Now we drain it again to mow them?

I wonder what Mother Nature would do? They may want to review the Rush Lake timeline. Lower water prematurely promotes vegetation growth and densities, while lower water levels discourages muskrat activities. Muskrats are on site mowers.

If you build it they will come.

In our desire to control everything, we’ve lost our ability to see the forest through the trees or in this case, the marsh through the cattails.

All under the guise of user experience. And folks wonder why so many no longer trust the science.

I'm no big fan of the DNR.
I don't think that the biologist are the issue tho.

Its the higher ups that make the decisions.
examples right off the top of my head.
Deer in the southern 1/2, we need to harvest much more deer (does).
Fish stocking in Lake Mich., we need to stock much less Chinooks and much more rainbows and browns.
State land in the area, its all poorly managed, no comprehensive plan on what they are managing for and little to no management.

Above is what is causing the decline in quality wildlife experiences, far less hunters today than 40-60 years ago. So one would think the amount of available game to pursue would be much greater. As I have always said, no habitat = no game. That is why I believe the bounty program here is nothing more than a feel good ploy. We don’t have pheasants because we don’t have the habitat we once had. In areas with sloughs and cover, there has always been birds. Just those areas are few and far between so they take the brunt of pressure. Tough to hatch out chicks or survive winter here in tiled barren sections that at one time had a waterway or three…. Sad but reality today in big farming areas.

Sounds like a bunch of you guys should have gone into or still can get your schooling in and change the world of wildlife management. You burn when the conditions will allow, yep, nests will and can be lost. The overall health of the habitat is what is important. But heck, what do I know.

Easy to see cause all the wildlife is gone.

This^^^^

Yessir.

X3

I’m not opposed to lighting a match…frankly I can understand that most wildlife will nest again and the long term advantages outweigh the short term setbacks.

My issue is ignoring science because we tend to get tunnel vision.

Take the press release I posted.. What’s the issue? Cattails were they never had them before in deep water. They blame narrow leaf cattail. Well, what is causing it? Drawing down the water every summer. Mother Nature doesn’t draw down the water level every summer. Sure that is the natural pattern, but we also get wet years. Those wet years are there for a reason so we can’t ignore them.

Sure we can grow some extra food for the ducks by exposing mudflats. But if our only goal is feeding the birds, then we might as well go back to farming that ground and having farmers leave some crop behind for doing it and flooding the fields when they are done.

Wisconsin needs to ask themselves WHY do you need to APPLY for Turkey and Bear Tags and WHY are the licenses so high??? In WV if you are a land owner you do not need to buy ANYTHING if you are hunting on your own land nor do you have to APPLY for any BS tags. Landowners can harvest the same number as a legal hunter can and sometimes even more. Yet WV still has more Deer Turkey and game than Wisconsin does and we do not have near the Farmland that Wisconsin does but we have better practices than burning during a nesting season.

back in the 60's and 70's Ranchers out west did controled burns to promote grasslands that got stopped Now the gov. promotes it Ive seen in Michigan how the DNR controls their burns

Lots of counter productive policies and goals when dealing with multiple agencies SD is always promoting habitat then the weed board wants the weeds gone. CRP is often cut under “emergency” conditions but the term emergency seems abused at times it seems like. Like burning there in WI they allowed cattle to graze on game production areas during the nesting season that seemed counter productive in several ways.

Some poorly thought out issues I have dealt with over the years in multiple states

MI decided to blow up a beaver dam the second day of trapping season I lost a lot of gear when gear was tough to come by.

MO decided to burn off a large area of a public hunting area during the turkey hunting season.

USFS blocked off a huge area of National Forest to regular vehicles but installed ATV wide accessible gates. The only problem we ever has was from 4 wheeler going off road illegally that seemed ironic.

The constant desire for habitat seems wasted when huge burns on public ground takes place and trees are cleared in some places. I know burning has many benefits but it just looks counterproductive at times. Here cover is about nonexistent in the winter for miles so what little cover we have gets flattened by drifting so it’s less beneficial to most wildlife.

Farming here has gone more towards the Illinois practices of fence to fence farming the old buffer zones are a thing of the past now. I don’t have the answers but the problems are out there not blaming anyone just noticing the irony of it all.

I dont agree with everything Wis Dnr does, I know they have impacted my deer hunting style in the central forest. When I hunted Grand River In the early 1970s the were few if any cattails, duck food and ducks were abundant, great hunting. When the cattails came in duck hunting quality dropped immensely, havent hunted there since the 80s, can they make the the water deep enough to drown out the invasives?

Dont know about hunter numbers in West Virginia but Wisconsin kills about 3 times as many deer and 4 times as many turkeys

The WDNR wants far more deer harvested in southern half of state with numerous free tags available, seems like hunters just dont want to shoot more

As most of the good trappers know it is all about the HABITAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you're dealing with Government employees, they feel they are more educated regarding wildlife than the mere public. They make the mistake of confusing education with being smart. On top of that and even more repugnant, are the states that still allow the public to vote on wildlife management issues, that's even more stupid. The public ALWAYS votes with emotions, and you can't use emotion to manage wildlife. It's then that we lose the science that's brought back many species that were on the verge of disappearing 120 years ago, before forward thinking men like Teddy Roosevelt brought "The North American Model of Wildlife Management" forward and established state wildlife agencies, seasons and regulations. Let's not forget that it was the government following popular opinion of the time (manifest destiny) that wiped out the buffalo, grizzly bears, wolves, and subjugated the indigenous people of the time. Government has NOT changed the way they think or act.

One big problem I see is managing wildlife from the office off of statistics with little feedback from the field.

Wisconsin needs to ask themselves WHY do you need to APPLY for Turkey and Bear Tags and WHY are the licenses so high??? In WV if you are a land owner you do not need to buy ANYTHING if you are hunting on your own land nor do you have to APPLY for any BS tags. Landowners can harvest the same number as a legal hunter can and sometimes even more. Yet WV still has more Deer Turkey and game than Wisconsin does and we do not have near the Farmland that Wisconsin does but we have better practices than burning during a nesting season.[/quote]


Huh..? They must not be teaching numbers down in WV....you barely have half the deer that Wisconsin has. Whatever West Virginia has, Wisconsin has it better. Maybe Wisconsin can loan WV a couple of their drip torches to help them out.