Program Notes from Apr 27, 2010 Meeting of LKWA

Program Notes from the Apr 27, 2010 Meeting of LKWA

April 27, 2010 at 6:00 pm

Milton Town Hall

Call to order and welcome – Susan Yates, Vice-Chair. In attendance were 13 persons.
Minutes of March 30, 2010 meeting as Emailed were approved.
Treasurer's report approved
Sightings around the lake: The first goslings (Canada geese) were seen this week. Several Osprey, Bald eagles, Harriers, cormorants, White pelicans, and Great blue herons remain in the area. Pine warblers have been spotted.
Old Business
1. No news on the legal proceedings regarding lake levels.
2. Linn Duesterbeck has been in touch with Robert Montgomery, engineer for the RKLD. He notified Linn that the first public workshop regarding plans for improving Lake Koshkonong will convene May 13 at the Fort Atkinson High School. The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM. There will be introductions of those from the Army Corps of Engineers, the DNR and the RKLD who have been working on this project during the past year. They will review the current issues and opportunities and then seek public input on projects or activities that could improve the lake. There will be breakout sessions to address specific issues in more detail.
3. Penny updated us on the Purple Loosestrife project. There is a meeting this Friday, April 30 with Brock Woods, the state coordinator. The goal is to select the best areas for beetle release.
New business - none

The meeting adjourned at 6:30 pm

Program: Kent Van Horn, DNR Migratory Waterfowl Specialist spoke about "Wisconsin's Program to monitor and manage migratory waterfowl".

Kent began by listing his primary job responsibilities: 1) to monitor and manage migratory waterfowl, 2) to represent Wisconsin re management of these birds at the regional and national levels, and 3) to work with hunters.

He reviewed some data re waterfowl in Wisconsin:

WI has 80,000 hunters usually ranking 2nd or 3rd in the country. The numbers peaked at 100,000 then dropped and have remained steady since 1980. The age distribution of hunters is about the same as that of the general population. They are split 50/50 from rural and urban areas.
The land used for hunting is 59% owner and friends, 47% state lands, 22% federal, 21% public water. Most hunters hunt the same site every year, perhaps explaining the variability of their hunting experience since birds tend to use different sites for migration from year to year.
WI "produces" mallards, wood ducks, blue-winged teal and Canada geese. Production was slightly above average in 2009 and is definitely increased from 30 years ago. Our mallards and wood ducks migrate primarily up and down the Mississippi, but some go southeast into the south Atlantic area.
Harvests in WI are 75% mallards, wood ducks, blue-winged teal and green-winged teal. Data from banding show that 70% of the birds harvested in WI are raised in WI or nearby states. Blue-winged teal come from WI and nearby prairie states and green-winged teal come from Canada.
Harvest of Canada geese is 50/50 Giant Canada geese (that breed in WI) and Canada geese that breed in northern Ontario. Last year's harvest of geese was decreased because of the late agricultural harvest. This held the geese in the fields. Because of hunter preference for good weather, most geese are harvested in early fall.
Breeding numbers (2009) are up for blue-winged teal, green-winged teal and canvasback. Pintail and scaup numbers are down.

A "Strategic Plan for Migratory Waterfowl" was completed in 2007 and the DNR follows this plan. Included in the plan were items such as, 1) conduct annual hunter surveys, 2) acquire new properties for public hunting, 3) appoint an ad hoc group to study open water hunting, 4) coordinate maintenance and management of hunting areas, etc..

Impacts on bird populations include:

Loss of CRP lands. These lands were "set-aside" from production and provide vital nesting habitat, especially for blue-winged teal. In 1993 WI had 710,000 CRP acres. Now there are 460,650 acres. The contracts expired and not as much funding is available for re-enrollment. New programs require more active habitat management. There is also pressure for more production for ethanol.
In 2009 a parasitic disease was found to be killing coots and some ducks. It is spread by an exotic snail species introduced into water bodies by boats.
Blue-winged teal need grasslands to reproduce. Mortality studies show that 46% of losses are caused by mammalian predators (fox, raccoon, coyotes), 21% by raptors (especially owls that kill the brooding hens) and 2% by hay cutting.

Regulations for waterfowl hunting are determined for each flyway. When the results of the annual breeding survey are available, proposals for hunting are drafted in late June and have to be finalized by September 1st in time for the fall season. Many factors are involved. For example, an early season for teal only was attempted, but WI hunters were shooting other ducks (since in WI other ducks breed later and the young are just learning to get around in early fall). So the early teal season was abandoned. Each year there is a lot of public involvement in the regulations.

There followed a discussion about details of setting the season, including split seasons. Wisconsin's situation is complicated by the fact that we have 4 separate situations: Mississippi flyway, Lake Michigan flyway, northern WI and southern WI.

Finally, Kent reviewed the question of open-water hunting, i.e. hunting from a boat in the middle of the lake. Currently, this type of hunting is allowed on the Mississippi River, Big Green Lake, the Great Lakes, Lake Winnebago and the Petenwell Flowage. In 2006, a citizen (Richard Diaz) presented a resolution to the Conservation Congress to expand this type of hunting to other lakes in WI. As happens with the usual process, the Conservation Congress deliberates such citizen resolutions. In this case, the Conservation Congress put this to a statewide question at the annual county meetings of citizens in 2007. The vote was 2573 yes and 430 no to ask the DNR to "look at" this option. The Conservation Congress formed an ad hoc committee to study the issue. The committee had representatives from the Conservation Congress, law enforcement officials, biologists, waterfowl specialists, a lake association member and hunters. Criteria were established that the committee believed would characterize lakes where open water hunting would be possible. Characteristics included size ( > 1000 acres), density of population, shape, depth, etc.. Based on these criteria, 13 lakes were suggested including Lake Koshkonong.

The next step will be to conduct local meetings to get feedback to the Conservation Congress before making a recommendation to the Natural Resources Board. Then it can be voted on at the spring meetings in 2011. The earliest that it would go into effect would be fall 2011. It was agreed that the present rule to require a buffer of 1000 feet from shore for open water hunting should apply to these additional lakes.

NOTE: The Conservation Congress was established to ensure citizen input into environmental and hunting issues. At the annual spring county meetings held in April, citizens elect five representatives from each county. The Congress advises the Natural Resources Board (NRB) about issues pertaining to hunting and the environment. The NRB can use the Congress to ask citizens for their opinion on an issue by asking to vote on a question (advisory role) or the NRB can set a rule and ask the Congress to approve it. Also, the Conservation Congress can request the NRB to look at an issue. This is what happened with open water hunting.

Q. Will this type of hunting be detrimental to the ducks that need to rest on Lake Koshkonong?

A. Not in the big picture. They will find other places. Notably though, John Berquist, former migratory waterfowl specialist, opposes expanding open water hunting for just this reason.

Q. How about restricting this to "layout" boats and only after November 1st. (Since this is really targeted for diving ducks)?

A. This is a possible consideration and should be brought up at the local meetings. Suggest that we call people on the larger lakes where this in now allowed and see what their concerns are.

Q. Who will benefit from this change?

A. The 3-5% of hunters who do this special type of "layout" hunting who want more places to do this type of hunting.

NOTE: The group requested that there be an ad hoc committee for each of the 13 lakes proposed to study the pros and cons in detail for each lake.

Q. Could the change be temporary?

A. Yes. There could be a sunset rule, but Kent would favor at least a 5-year trial.

Respectfully submitted,

Penny Shackelford, Secretary-Treasurer