Spring Hearings Coming Up
The annual Spring Hearings for the Wisconsin DNR and Conservation Congress will be held on Monday April 9. This year is a bit unusual in that there are no rules changes being proposed. All questions are "Advisory" questions only. This means that the questions are intended to get a feeling for how the sporting public views different issues. Don't kid yourself though, my guess is that the responses to the questions will be fodder for upcoming rules changes so it's worthwhile to get to your local meeting and vote. I'll be throwing out some opinions on the various questions as regards our fishing resources. For now it would be good for folks to familiarize yourself with the questions that will appear on the ballot. Some tackle shops have actual print copies available but if you can't get your hands on one you can view the ballot and obtain more information on the DNR website here: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/nrboard/congress/spring_hearings/
One word of advice. When reading the questions it's easy to just think "well that seems like an ok plan". Read those questions carefully and think about what they really mean. How will it affect fishing in the long term and more importantly how will politicians manipulate those rules once they are in place. Hate to sound cynical but as we say up north, "it is what it is".