If you missed the Wisconsin Spring Hearing you can still vote on line by clicking the link.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2019WISpringHearingInput

I believe voting ends today at 7 pm. Get your vote in!

Thanks. I recommend next year folks go to the meeting though.

I thought the point of the CC was citizen interaction. On line is incomplete with the absence of interaction. My opinion

That's an interesting theory. What drives that thought process?

Theory?

Status quo I suppose.

I am interested in the reasons that people stand on issues. Especially those of which I have little knowledge and opinion.

Not trying to say on line can’t be successful only incomplete

Common sense drives that thought process.

You should have seen my county. Sportsmen stayed home this year. Anti's showed up. An anti got elected.

For those supporting the online vote, I'm curious how you think the congress will continue finding people to serve on the committees. Serious question. It's possible I'm overlooking something.

OK, I have been thinking this for some time but didn't want to say it. I have lived in a half a dozen states and each of them had trapping regulations that made more sense than those in Wisconsin based on the numbers of wildlife and the habitat. As far as I know, those states did not have anything like the WCC. Now it appears that special interest groups will have an easier way through the WCC to direct future regulation changes in a way that will likely hurt trappers, hunters and fishermen. I am not a fan.

I've been wondering that myself. Maybe CC should just fold up.

Please share

Bobcat regulations in WI are not compatible with the numbers of bobcats we have. 30 miles to the west of me in MN trappers can keep 5 bobcats in a year. I can keep one every 8 years if the current tag allotment continues. That is 40 cats to one. Currently beaver trappers in WI can not set traps on a dam. Neighboring states allow it. Landowners can set traps on the dam but their agents can not. (Unless they use APHIS, in that case they can set on the dam) Does that make sense? Up until this past year, nuisance groundhogs caught could not be killed or released in the wild. Crazy. Colony trap regulations for muskrat are way too restrictive as far as size and placement. That's just a few off the top of my head.

There's talk of loosening the rules pertaining to colony traps and beaver trapping on a dam.

Well, let's start with the bobcat regs. I seriously doubt if the CC had anything to do with the present permit system. Perhaps the fella that served as the furbearer biologist had more to do with our present regulations then did citizen input. He's gone, and maybe that will change.

Traps on the dam. Again, regulations that have been in place for way too long to protect the supposedly few otter we have in this state. And guess what? we, the citizens, had an opportunity to voice our opinion on that issue at the conservation Congress hearings.

Woodchucks. Protected for some bizarre reason. I doubt if the conservation Congress had anything to do with their protective status over the years. Perhaps this was a control issue, again by a furbearer biologist who is not there anymore.

Colony trap restrictions. The fellow that originally specified all of the parameters for colony traps in Wisconsin had none of those restrictions in his Conservation Congress resolution. Guess who added all of the restrictions that we have suffered under since we have gone legal? Again, our former furbearer biologist.

Really?

You think we would be using colony traps if we did not have the Conservation Congress?

The Conservation Congress has been a tool for many sportsmen and women to use to introduce resolutions that have become law. Want some examples?

Four resolutions I introduced that have become law:

Mandatory trapper education. Some will say it was not necessary. But they were not serving as the statewide coordinator in the late 80s. We just about lost the program. Today, even with low fur prices, we graduate over a thousand students a year. The class we held here last weekend had 47 students.

Choice of name and address or DNR customer ID number on your trap tag. A resolution I introduced and has become law. Who knows how long we would have gone with the antiquated name / address system.

Legalizing the cutting of Willow along the lower Wisconsin River valley for the purposes of making trap stakes or duck blind material. Prior to my resolution, it was illegal to cut living willow along this river corridor.

Another resolution I submitted and I believe has become law. The choice of name and address on your ice-fishing shanty or your DNR customer ID number. Now I could be wrong on that, since I use a portable shanty and just hang the number on the outside when I am using it. I do not know about permanent shanties.

I try to submit at least one resolution a year at the hearings. I am a strong believer in citizen involvement in the hearings.

We shall see how online participation affects the desired outcomes by trappers, hunters, and fishermen. It is a shame that so many do not participate.

Ok, but it seems like the CC was helpless to stop him. The point I was trying to make is we can have good regulations without the CC. Other states seem to do ok without it. And, if outside interests continue to gain footholds in the CC it might be time to look at other options.

Without a means of citizen input, we are at the mercy of rogue wildlife "experts" and legislators who apparently think they know better.

I share your passion for CC Muskrat. I haven't missed a meeting in probably 20 years. I also can't figure out why a sportsmen wouldn't go the meeting.
Now that less sportsmen seem interested in going to the meeting, I wonder how the CC is going survive if anti's show up and try to take it over. I wonder who will be present to propose & vote on citizen resolutions. Online votes are of no help when I attended Monday's meeting dreadfully watching the anti finally win election in a rural county only because she brings her 'posse' every year and this year the sportsmen largely decided to stay home.
I'll be curious if the CC can survive this new online vote. If adjustments are going to be made, someone probably better be thinking quickly for solution(s). I bet attendance at meetings will continue to drop.

Perhaps true Mike.
I wonder if it's true that a state like Mn does fine without a CC. I don't know the answer, or if Mn's regs are ultra favorable as some make it sound. Steve may have brainstormed a valid question. If someone can answer it I'd be curious to hear. I'm a happy Wisconsinite, but I was just curious if anyone has thoughts on Steve's question.

Since I like CC, my focus is primarily on finding ways to get people to show up and vote for delagates, rather than to discuss how beneficial CC may or may not be.

Muskrat , just curious, what did the furbearer biologist think of mandatory trapper ed?