By Bruce Ross, Executive Director
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s August, 2020 Newsletter edition.
The WWA Policy world has been pretty active in July, with meetings on Duck Stamp fees and exploring the possibility of a Sandhill Crane season.
$5 fee increase sought: On the stamp front, a broad coalition of duck hunting groups has been communicating with DNR Secretary Cole. Last month I included our letter advocating for a $5 fee increase (to adjust for the loss of purchasing power that twenty-three years since the last increase has wrought). He has responded with a generally supportive, but noncommittal letter.
Even though it will take the state legislature to act on the fee increase we desire, it is important for the DNR and Administration to include it in their upcoming biennial budget. Our experience last year with the legislature showed that it was an easy rejection by House and Senate leaders when they said “look, the Governor doesn’t even support it.” We want to remove that excuse by ensuring the fee increase is included in the Governor’s budget request to the legislature, then working closely with the Senate and Assembly so they support this investment need in the future of waterfowling.
It seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? The people who will pay the fee increase (waterfowlers), are the ones who are advocating for it. But we’ve been at it for ten years without getting it across the finish line. What should be a non-political issue seems to be caught up in the red versus blue politics of the capitol. Here’s a recent issue paper that shows waterfowler support for this increase—and why.
We find ourselves making old arguments to new faces in the Administration. Here’s another issue paper that explains the importance of private wetlands to Wisconsin’s breeding population of ducks, and why devoting a portion of duck stamp fees to this purpose is critical to our success in the fall: “Waterfowl Stamp supports critical breeding habitat”.
We will need your help to close this deal that is important to the future of waterfowling. Want to play a role? A simple phone call or email to your state legislator carries a lot of weight. Take the time now to ask them to support a Waterfowl Stamp increase of $5.
Sandhill Cranes: I was walking my black lab, Callie, the other day and we passed a field in which a couple of sandhills were grazing. We stopped to admire the leggy, almost prehistoric creatures. They looked up from their feeding to admire us (I’d like to think), and began making their distinctive creaking-door call. Eerily spectacular.
With the local population of sandhills far exceeding their management goals (by nearly 200%), farmers have raised concerns about the expense incurred through crop damage caused by sandhills. One component of mitigating this damage may be to establish a hunting season; but there are many factors to consider in such a possibility. So we are starting to better understand the issues.
As I personally “get smarter” on sandhill factoids, I’ll share some with you so we can all get smarter together. Did you know, for example, that a pair of sandhills can eat 1,600 corn shoots a day? While depredation permits are available to affected farmers, and Wisconsin is averaging nearly 900 sandhills removed through those permits, their population continues to soar. And a fact that must cause natural resource harvesters (like waterfowlers) to cringe when they read it: each of those 900 cranes removed through the permitting process must be burned or buried, wasting what is reputed to be a culinary delicacy.
Do you have an opinion? Please share it. In our last survey on the matter, nearly 600 respondents had an opinion – and 91% of those said we should pursue a season. Let me know you are thinking. Email me at [email]bruceross@wi.rr.com[/email].