Leaders of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, Hunters Rights Coalition and Wisconsin Wildlife Association urge citizens to contact their representatives regarding the proposed changes to the Stewardship Fund requirement allowing recreation-based access to public lands. They want Item No. 18 of Motion No. 454 deleted from the budget bill.
Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan: 266-7503, Rep.Sheridan@legis.wisconsin.gov
Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker: 266-2502, Sen.Decker@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep. Steve Hilgenberg: 266-7502, Rep.Hilgenberg@legis.wisconsin.gov
Rep. Brett Davis: 266-1192, Rep.Davis@legis.wisconsin.gov
Sen. Jon Erpenbach: 266-6670, Sen.Erpenbach@legis.wisconsin.gov
There are many issues I would rather address in this column - the Free Fishing Weekend coming up Saturday and Sunday, the expanded fall turkey season or the Earn-a-Buck Alternative Committee now being formed.
Our recent Wisconsin Conservation Congress Executive Council meeting at Devil's Lake State Park included a broad range of discussion items, and our dinner and informal discussions with members of the Natural Resources Board offered some interesting insights.
Unfortunately, we have a biennial budget battle going on in Madison, and the Legislature continues to gut the hunting and fishing rights written into the reauthorization of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund in the last state budget.
Here is the background: During the 2007-2009 state budget debate, Wisconsin sportsmen and women supported the reauthorization of the Stewardship Fund to the tune of $85 million per year for the next 10 years, but only if the measure contained provisions protecting the right to hunt, fish and trap on those lands.
As reported earlier, members of the Citizens Advisory Council on proposed rules governing access have raised one red flag after another during the ongoing debate. One in particular, a motion by Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, would delete directory requirements and annual reports identifying lands where public access has been restricted on Stewardship Fund land purchases.
Now, another amendment would repeal the requirement to permit public access for hunting, fishing, trapping, hiking, cross-country skiing and other nature-based outdoor recreation on lands purchased by land trusts and local governments unless the Natural Resources board determines a closure is necessary.
At first glance, it appears the proposal applies only to lands withdrawn from the Managed Forest Law Program, or MFL. The connection here is that the first 25-year contracts under MFL are set to expire soon, and as these lands come out of the program they become prime targets for purchase via Stewardship funding.
The proposal goes even further, according to former DNR Secretary George Meyer, now executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. He and others claim the proposal would deny access to any Stewardship lands purchased by other than the Department of Natural Resources, e.g., land trusts or local governments (just less than $25 million is designated annually for these entities).
"The Legislature's Joint Finance Club has done it again," Meyer said. "In the middle of the night last Friday, while they were finalizing their work on the state budget bill, the committee inserted a provision which takes away your right for public access on thousands of acres of lands in Wisconsin for hunting, fishing and trapping."
Executive Director Jeff Nania of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association agrees.
"The most blatant attempt yet to limit uses and access to land purchased with public funds," he declared.
Here is what Assembly Bill 75, Motion No. 454, Item 18, submitted by Representative Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, says:
"Stewardship Public Access Requirements - Nondepartmental Land. Repeal the requirement that any person receiving a stewardship grant to acquire land in fee simple, or acquire land by an easement or other conveyance that was withdrawn from the managed forest law program, must permit public access to the land for hunting, fishing, trapping, hiking, cross-country skiing and other nature-based recreation."
The clause regarding MFL land is reason enough for concern. But both Nania and Meyer argue that the "or" clause takes the proposal beyond MFL lands.
The WWA and WWF, along with the Wisconsin Conservation Congress and the Hunters Rights Coalition, have issued a news release asking that concerned sportsmen and women contact their state representatives to delete Item 18, thus protecting the right to hunt, fish and trap on public lands.
"(We) call on the Wisconsin Legislature to keep its commitments to Wisconsin's sportsmen and women and remove the Stewardship amendments that have been added to the current state budget bill."
- Lee Fahrney is the Times outdoors writer. Contact him at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
Our recent Wisconsin Conservation Congress Executive Council meeting at Devil's Lake State Park included a broad range of discussion items, and our dinner and informal discussions with members of the Natural Resources Board offered some interesting insights.
Unfortunately, we have a biennial budget battle going on in Madison, and the Legislature continues to gut the hunting and fishing rights written into the reauthorization of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund in the last state budget.
Here is the background: During the 2007-2009 state budget debate, Wisconsin sportsmen and women supported the reauthorization of the Stewardship Fund to the tune of $85 million per year for the next 10 years, but only if the measure contained provisions protecting the right to hunt, fish and trap on those lands.
As reported earlier, members of the Citizens Advisory Council on proposed rules governing access have raised one red flag after another during the ongoing debate. One in particular, a motion by Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, would delete directory requirements and annual reports identifying lands where public access has been restricted on Stewardship Fund land purchases.
Now, another amendment would repeal the requirement to permit public access for hunting, fishing, trapping, hiking, cross-country skiing and other nature-based outdoor recreation on lands purchased by land trusts and local governments unless the Natural Resources board determines a closure is necessary.
At first glance, it appears the proposal applies only to lands withdrawn from the Managed Forest Law Program, or MFL. The connection here is that the first 25-year contracts under MFL are set to expire soon, and as these lands come out of the program they become prime targets for purchase via Stewardship funding.
The proposal goes even further, according to former DNR Secretary George Meyer, now executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. He and others claim the proposal would deny access to any Stewardship lands purchased by other than the Department of Natural Resources, e.g., land trusts or local governments (just less than $25 million is designated annually for these entities).
"The Legislature's Joint Finance Club has done it again," Meyer said. "In the middle of the night last Friday, while they were finalizing their work on the state budget bill, the committee inserted a provision which takes away your right for public access on thousands of acres of lands in Wisconsin for hunting, fishing and trapping."
Executive Director Jeff Nania of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association agrees.
"The most blatant attempt yet to limit uses and access to land purchased with public funds," he declared.
Here is what Assembly Bill 75, Motion No. 454, Item 18, submitted by Representative Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, says:
"Stewardship Public Access Requirements - Nondepartmental Land. Repeal the requirement that any person receiving a stewardship grant to acquire land in fee simple, or acquire land by an easement or other conveyance that was withdrawn from the managed forest law program, must permit public access to the land for hunting, fishing, trapping, hiking, cross-country skiing and other nature-based recreation."
The clause regarding MFL land is reason enough for concern. But both Nania and Meyer argue that the "or" clause takes the proposal beyond MFL lands.
The WWA and WWF, along with the Wisconsin Conservation Congress and the Hunters Rights Coalition, have issued a news release asking that concerned sportsmen and women contact their state representatives to delete Item 18, thus protecting the right to hunt, fish and trap on public lands.
"(We) call on the Wisconsin Legislature to keep its commitments to Wisconsin's sportsmen and women and remove the Stewardship amendments that have been added to the current state budget bill."
- Lee Fahrney is the Times outdoors writer. Contact him at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
