Introduction by Bruce Ross, WWA Executive Director: I first met Peter in Madison two years ago, after a Madison duck stamp meeting with legislators, staffers, and other conservation groups. I had been in the executive director position only a few months, and a mutual friend introduced us with the thought that Peter’s perspective and experience might yield insights for my new duties. Sitting down with Peter, we traded sea stories and histories (he served as DNR Secretary for a short period, amongst many other influential positions in and around Madison). Peter is a lawyer by education and a scholar by nature, and I left impressed with his logic, knowledge and insights. I also left with a “homework assignment”! He tasked me to brush up on the history and scientific basis for the changed waterfowl migratory patterns we now see in Lake Michigan – including a book and several articles – which were pretty helpful in understanding how this unusual hunting opportunity developed. But in turn, I’ve relished the opportunity to “task” Peter – first, to condense my original homework assignment into a short article for you, in June of last year. And second, today, a guest editorial with a conceptual framework for the Big Water season structure. Agree or not, it’s worth taking the time to internalize what Peter is advocating.
By Peter Peshek
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s February, 2021 Newsletter edition.
Bruce Ross loves to hand out impossible assignments. “Peter, write an essay describing the core need of the many constituencies of Big Water Zone hunters and then outline some of the factors to be considered in establishing the rules for the Big Water Zone from the perspective of a non-regulator.” Assignment accepted, but first, we need to start with a philosophical thought.
2021-2025 Open Water Zone
Your Duck Hunting Dream Fulfilled
The Big Water Zone during the next five years will provide a spiritual mecca for Wisconsin hunters. Remember two of your memorable experiences while shore hunting. Mine were 1) the mountain lion walking up to me and my decoy spread at the marshes edge; and 2) the seven sunrise deer frolicking in my Door County decoys as if it were recess. Lake Michigan will provide double such unforgettable moments. It is pure, unique duck hunting.
The Core Values
There are two words – “fairness” and “flexibility” – that should control our thinking about establishing the Big Water Zone season. Let’s start with “fairness”. There will be diver ducks in the waters at Oconto weeks before a similar hunting opportunity exists between Milwaukee and Port Washington. My favorite hunting spot is 24 water miles from Oconto. I don’t see diver ducks in meaningful numbers until ten days to two weeks after hunting is in full gear north of Green Bay. At the same time, ice will diminish hunting opportunities in Brown County much earlier than between Racine and Kenosha.
Our geopolitical debates in the last year have focused on globalization versus nationalism. We need to think globally about this massive hunting zone. Our favorite hunting harbor (think nationalism) does not constitute the Big Water Zone. Ethicists would use big words like “integrity” and “equality”. I simply urge all of us to develop a season framework which is fair to the different groups of hunters up and down the many miles of Big Water. We will need to sacrifice some of our own self-interest. We want to be fair to the hunter in Milwaukee as well as the hunter in Marinette.
“The Need for Flexibility”
WWA members, Eric & Jax Urben, hunting the open waters of Green Bay. Photo: Bruce Urben
One has to appreciate the geographic breadth of the Big Water Zone. Off of Oconto County you will harvest bluebills, at Sturgeon Bay you will find white-winged surf scoters and the occasional duck that had been banded in Alaska, while in Baileys Harbor you will find the goldeneyes, and if you head down to Algoma you will find plenty of buffleheads, and then you can head to Two Rivers – Point Beach and find the world’s best long-tail hunting, or you can go to Sheboygan and find your favorite reef where the species will provided real variety, and of course off of Port Washington, Milwaukee and Kenosha you will find a smorgasbord of diver duck populations.
Instead of thinking of the years 2021 through 2025 as five separate seasons, think in terms of one 300-day season. The goal is not to waste days when the ducks are still in Canada. Every hunter should dream of being able to have eight or nine days of big water hunting between the 12th and 15th of December during those five years. We should be prepared to have to go to five or six different harbors before we can launch a boat. Maybe we start scouting in the lower part of the bay of Green Bay but actually end up hunting in Sheboygan because of ice conditions. We will need to be prepared to have a traffic jam at the mouth of the Fox River at 5:00 am the Friday after Thanksgiving. We need to be prepared that the ice may not let us out onto the big water until early afternoon.
Times Are Changing
Outdoor writer Tim Eisele recently interviewed warden Mike Neil, an original iconic Big Water duck hunter. The warden reminded us that much has changed on the Big Water since the diver ducks arrived. Twenty years ago, three core goals could still be met; 1) true solitude; 2) the view shed empty of other manmade objects; and 3) little or no competition.
Today, Big Water hunters face the reality of lots of hunter presence. The food base for our favorite ducks has already changed. Finally, fall recreational fishing has rapidly increased in the last two decades. Observing 30 or 40 boats fishing for perch in a given harbor is now common. No wonder we don’t see our raft of 500 redheads in the mouth of the harbor. Walleye fishermen wander far and wide. And in southern Green Bay, the musky fishermen will share November with the duck hunters. My favorite multiple-use conflict is watching the paddle board enthusiast casting for fish in the same waters where I am hunting.
What has happened to Lake Michigan will ultimately not last. All one needs to do is to read Dan Egan’s book to appreciate how people have altered the ecosystem as a result of what sounded like good decisions. Someday the mainstream environmental groups will have the courage to say that the St. Lawrence Sea Way needs to be closed and the Chicago locks re-engineered. And then, of course, there is climate change. So, let us take advantage of those decades we have for Big Water duck hunting before things change again. And, always remember “fairness” and “flexibility”.
FOOTNOTES
LET US GIVE THANKS to those that laid the foundation: the advocates who successfully had the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 applied to duck hunting; the UWGB scientists who documented the duck hunting explosion; the duck hunters who travelled to the state of Maine to observe ocean duck hunting and brought back equipment and techniques; THE WWA volunteers who constructed boat launches at the Big Water; and finally the hunters who have, and will in the future, come to the aid of their fellow hunters when things go very bad on the Big Water.
About the author: Peter grew up on the east side of Two Rivers with the sand dunes of Point Beach State Forest as his playground. He was introduced to duck hunting by a DNR seasonal warden and a retired FWS warden while serving as head of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Criminal Protection Unit. He went on to serve as Wisconsin Public Intervenor. He is a self-taught big water hunter after he and his wife, Sharon brought a Door County cottage in 1975.