Directory

Retired Rick                                           Mar 21, 2024

DNR SEEKING PUBLIC COMMENT ON ELK MANAGEMENT PLAN

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking public input on updates to the state�s Elk Management Plan now through April 20, 2024.

Updates to the 2024-2034 Elk Management Plan include changes based on recommendations from the Natural Resources Board, Wisconsin Elk Advisory Committee and feedback from private landowners in the elk management zones.

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Retired Rick                                           Mar 17, 2024

Airguns for big game hunting are among six outdoors-related bills signed into Wisconsin law

Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday signed 15 bills into law, including six related to hunting, fishing or outdoor recreation.

Arguably the most notable was Senate Bill 586, now Wisconsin Act 115, which will allow hunters in the state to use airguns during any season open to firearms.

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Retired Rick                                           Mar 15, 2024

DNR RECOGNIZES CONSERVATION PARTNERS AND FRIENDS GROUPS FOR STEWARDSHIP OF FISH AND WILDLIFE AREAS

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) awarded the first ever Adopt a Fish or Wildlife Area and Friends Group of the Year awards to conservation partners.

The Adopt a Fish or Wildlife Area program was created in 2015 to engage local communities and organizations in public land management and build the state�s conservation community. Program participants must dedicate 100 hours of volunteer efforts during at least three events or donate $3,000 annually. Volunteer work typically includes brush and invasive species management, stream restoration, tree planting and property maintenance.

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Retired Rick                                           Mar 14, 2024

DNR PUBLISHES NEW FISHING REGULATIONS FOR THE 2024 � 2025 SEASON

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today announced that the 2024 � 2025 Guide To Wisconsin�s Fishing Regulations is now available online.

These regulations, which include changes to walleye/sauger bag limits on inland waters and new registration rules for small tournaments, will go into effect on April 1, 2024.

With a few weeks still to go before these regulations kick in and over a month until the general inland opener, now is the perfect time for anglers to review the season dates, any special regulations and the daily bag and size limits for their favorite fishing spots around the state. All license requirements apply.

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Retired Rick                                           Mar 9, 2024

2024 OJIBWE SPRING FISHING SEASON STARTING SOON WISCONSINITES REMINDED OF PROTECTED TRIBAL RIGHT TO FISH

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds Wisconsinites of the protected tribal right to fish in certain Wisconsin waterways and the legal consequences they could face if found interfering with that right during the upcoming Ojibwe spring fishing season.

�The Wisconsin DNR fully supports Ojibwe sovereignty and treaty rights,� said DNR Deputy Secretary Steven Little. �We encourage tribal citizens to get out and exercise their treaty rights. Likewise, we remind the public that it is illegal to interfere with this right and have zero tolerance for harassment.�

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DuWayne Gebken                                           Mar 4, 2024

WISCONSIN CONSERVATION HALL OF FAME 2024
INDUCTION CEREMONIES
OF
Walt Bresette and Lewis Posekany
You're invited to celebrate our 2024 Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame inductees through a series of two free virtual induction ceremony events.

VIRTUAL INDUCTION CEREMONY EVENTS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2024
AT 5 PM & 6:30PM
Each event will be 45 minutes to one hour as we share inductee(s) life work through images, stories, speakers and interviews.

More information and free registration at www.wchf.org. Event recordings posted a week after ceremonies.

WALT BRESETTE @ 5:00PM CST
AND
LEWIS POSEKANY @ 6:30P M CST

Retired Rick                                           Mar 1, 2024

WISCONSIN DNR ANNOUNCES NONRESIDENT HUNTING LICENSE FEE INCREASE

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today announced a fee increase for nonresident archer and crossbow hunting licenses. This change is the result of Governor Tony Evers signing Senate Bill 780, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 99. New 2024 licenses are now available for purchase.

The nonresident archer and crossbow licenses fees increased $35, from $165 to $200 per customer. New buyers of nonresident archer licenses fees increased $17, from $82.75 to $99.75 per customer. This change brings the cost of archer and crossbow licenses in alignment with the cost of a firearm license.

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Retired Rick                                           Mar 1, 2024

From: margaret beaumier
Date: Thu, Feb 29, 2024 at 2:52 PM
Subject: Next meeting Thursday April 18 and sad news about Steve Penning, Mike's brother

Our next NER retiree luncheon meeting will be Thursday, April 18, at 1951 Rock Garden. Details will follow.

Sad new about Mike Penning's brother Steve who passed away a few weeks ago. Many of you may have known Steve. I sent a sympathy card from our retiree group. If you wish to contact him, here is his address: Mike Penning, 1534 River Pines Dr., Green Bay 54311.

https://www.wietingfuneralhome.com/obituaries/steven-j-penning/

                                          Feb 24, 2024

Statement of Todd Ambs Following the Wisconsin State Senate Vote to Reject His Nomination to the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board
February 20, 2024

I would like to first of all thank the members of the State Senate who supported my nomination.

Unfortunately, a majority of the Senators did not support my nomination and as a result I now join a growing list of very qualified nominees to a variety of positions in state government who have been rejected for no legitimate reason. Brad Pfaff, Tyler Huebner, Melissa Baldauff, Jim VandenBrook, Sandy Nass, Sharon Adams, Dylan Jennings, Joseph Czarnezki, Dr. Sheldon Wasserman, Jerry Halvorsen, among others, have all been dismissed from their appointments, for purely partisan, petty reasons.

It appears that my transgression is that I �can�t work with Republicans�. That allegation is patently false. They cannot cite a single instance where that has been the case, On the contrary, I have spent more than four decades working in Wisconsin, Ohio and across the nation with members of both parties on a variety of important conservation policy issues. As I mentioned at my last NRB meeting in January, I was honored to have been one of the lead negotiators for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, better known as the Great Lakes Compact at the beginning of this century.

Working with both Democratic and Republican appointees from across the Great Lakes region, we succeeded in developing what many consider to be the greatest conservation agreement in North America in this century.

And that bipartisan work continues to this day. I just completed a two-year term as Chair of the Great Lakes Commission, an international compact commission created by Congress nearly seventy years ago. I succeeded the Deputy General Counsel for the Republican Governor of Indiana and I was succeeded by the Director of the Ohio DNR, appointed by Governor Dewine.

I know how to work in a bipartisan manner. The majority party in the Wisconsin State Legislature does not. In fact, they seem to think that bipartisan is some sort of lethal virus because they avoid it like the plague. The most significant action taken by the majority part in the legislature in the last five years was when they left town entirely in 2020. Instead of digging in to help Wisconsinites cope with the most significant health crisis on the planet in the last one hundred years, they repeatedly refused to convene special sessions called by the Governor to respond to the COVID crisis and instead simply left town. Since that time, the Wisconsin Legislature has repeatedly refused to even come to the table to discuss critical issues like health care, education and workforce development, when Governor Evers has requested a special session to address these important topics.

In regard to conservation issues, as the Assistant and Deputy Secretary for the WDNR prior to my retirement at the end of 2021, I had the task of working closely with several of Governor Walker�s appointees to the Natural Resources Board. I have never spoken publicly about those interactions since former board members Fred Prehn and Greg Kazmierski took the unprecedented step of registering in opposition to my appointment to the NRB, I will now break that silence.

Can�t work with members of the other party? Prehn and Kazmierski were posterchildren for that cause. While serving as chair and vice chair for the NRB, Prehn and Kazmierski presided over a circus like atmosphere as the Board careened from one embarrassing meeting to another.

During my three years working with them I watched as they:

Regularly shilled for the Republican Party and the state�s largest business lobby;
Were openly hostile to career state civil servants and belittled average citizens testifying before the board;
Were both patronizing and condescending to women, tribal members and DNR staff;
and, Prehn openly squatted in his position for months after his term expired to prevent a Democratically appointed woman from taking her seat on the Board.

Meanwhile, some people are now trying to build a narrative around my �inability to work with others� because they can�t challenge my qualifications. And they don�t like the fact that I have spent my career working on behalf of our natural resources -- enforcing the laws that protect those natural resources and zealously guarding against efforts to weaken protections for our land, air and water.

In short, the majority party in the Wisconsin State Senate has made a mockery of the confirmation process and in turn diminishes the institution that purport to serve.

Despite the vote today, I will continue my public service work. It is what I do. I have devoted my life to public service, as did my father and his father before him.

I am proud of the many shining examples of bipartisan success that I have been able to play a small part in over the past four decades.

I will not allow that record to be tarnished by the actions of the State Senate today.

Retired Rick                                           Feb 23, 2024

VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT TO MONITOR EAGLE NESTS IN WISCONSIN

Bald Eagles are the national bird of the United States of America and for a time they were endangered.

Thanks to conservation efforts, their population has been stabilized.

Even so agencies like the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance want to monitor them to keep track of their numbers, their habits and the challenges they face.

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