Resolution: 130406
Ban Bear HoundingFail 33 to 133
The Problem:
Bears are endangered all over the world. Six of the eight species of bears are on the Endangered species list because of the use of bear gallbladders as an Asian cure-all medicine. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one to two black bears are killed illegally for every legal kill. Bear poaching is very prevalent in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, bears are hounded by packs of radio-collared dogs and men who converge on the bear when he or she climbs a tree in order to shoot a trapped animal at close range. Two thirds of the bears killed are yearlings, killed easily over bait piles. Although 2800 people wrote in to support a ban on bear hounding, they have been ignored by the DNR/hunter lobby. Northern citizens cite incidents of death threats, pets and livestock killed by dogs, and drinking and chaos four months of the year during bear hounding and killing season. This bully killing has been expanded across the entire northern half of the state, so that bears are harassed and killed 4 months out of the six that they are out of hibernation, and all wildlife and citizens subjected to this cruel chaos. Trespass is widespread with hounding of any sort. Science tells us that without natural predators in natural numbers, all of biodiversity collapses. Since bear populations are scientifically impossible to estimate, and whereas northern residents are harassed on their own land and cannot speak out without fear of retribution from armed men and women, Be it Resolved, the Conservation Congress, at its annual meeting held in every county in Wisconsin on April 10,2006, recommends that the Dept. of Natural Resources take actions to correct the situation by banning the baiting and hounding of bears and other wildlife statewide.
Submitted by Anneliese Emerson
RESOLUTION: 130706
Reforming Conservation Congress Voting FormatFail 24 to 141
The Problem:
Voting on nature is a citizen right. The current process co-sponsored by the hunting lobby (self-named the "Conservation Congress") and the Department of Natural Resources is flagrantly undemocratic and cumbersome. Citizens have only a several hour time frame to appear in person to elect candidates and vote on important nature and wildlife issues. Elderly individuals and those who cannot attend are left out of the process. Candidates do not debate the issues publicly and the issues are only those proposed by the hunting lobby. Further, issues are not published to the public at large before the vote. Hunters run the vote and count the vote. Non-hunters are not allowed to place literature at the voting site, but hunters design and create all of the literature having to do with the vote and election. Whereas non-hunters have not been a part of the voting process, and are unaware of the process or the issues, and whereas the non-hunting environmentalist is reviled and made to feel unwelcome and uncomfortable, Be it Resolved, the Conservation Congress at its annual meeting, held April 10, 2006, recommends that the Dept. of Natural Resources take action to correct this situation by creating a traditional structure of voting with non-partisan candidates running and counting the vote, and use a traditional format of walk-in secret ballot voting after extensive public debates between candidates on the issues so that the public is informed.
Submitted by Paul O’Leary
RESOLUTION: 130906
Stop destroying beaver habitat for introduced troutFailed 26 to 141
The Problem:
Beavers create beaver dams across creeks and streams in WI. As they harvest out an area of trees, in time the dams deteriorate, creating ideal habitat for many other species. However, beavers are not beneficial to one fish species, and that is trout. They warm the water too much for trout habitat. Therefore, in conjunction with the powerful fishing lobby, Trout Unlimited, the DNR has a policy of dynamiting out beaver dams, completely eradicating them and keeping them out, for the past 20 years, on over a thousand miles of rivers in WI to create "Class A" trout streams. Streams are complex ecosystems. Destroying the balance of nature repeatedly to favor an exotic species of trout species preferred by humans is a policy that destroys the diverse to favor the few. Beavers, a native species, provide habitat for a wide variety of related species. Whereas beavers play a valuable role in an ecosystem our global scientific community warns us is poorly understood, and whereas science has discovered that human destruction of mid-range and top predators is wreaking havoc on natural ecosystems and destroying biodiversity, be it Resolved, the Conservation Congress at its annual meeting, held in every county in Wisconsin on April 10, 2006, recommends that the Dept. of Natural Resources take action to correct this situation by stopping the trapping of beavers and destruction of beaver dams with dynamite or any other method.
Submitted by Lori Nitzel
Resolution 13806
Changing Conservation Congress to include not just hunters, but also pro-animal personsFailed 28 to 135
The Problem:
The Department of Natural Resources and the hunting and trapping lobby have set up wildlife management as a killing business to be funded by killing licenses. Aldo Leopold. in helping to establish the Conservation Congress advocated that the non-hunting environmentalist and the landowner be as valued a part of the decision-making process in the Congress as the hunter. He cautioned that the money to manage Nature and wildlife similarly come from the general public funds. Although a lot of money does come from general public funds, there is not a mandated license for the non-killing majority (83%) that gives voice to the concerns of the majority of citizens who would like to walk in the woods and see living wildlife. Nature is being managed by farming the wild for over-production of "game" species. thereby simplifying nature to the detriment of the rest of the species. This creates an imbalance of too many turkey, deer, ground-nesting birds, and trout. Additionally the omission of a focus on nurturing biodiversity; restoring the balance of all species; establishing large core areas of refuge connected by corridors for migration; and returning large carnivores to the landscape in natural numbers is irrevocably destroying Wisconsin's ecosystem. Whereas Nature is under pressure as never before, and our world community of scientists have warned us that the degradation of the web of life is such that it may not sustain future generations of humans or animals as we have known, and whereas, non-killing citizens have a right to pay, and fully participate in the decisions being made about Nature and the wildlife that cohabits our mutual environment, Be it resolved. the Conservation Congress in its annual meeting, held in every county in Wisconsin. April 10,2006. recommend that the Department of Natural Resources take action to correct this situation by creating a Living Wildlife Appreciation Fee to be levied on all citizens 18 and over who do not kill wildlife and a forum for delegate representation in every county to vote the usage of that money for re-wilding the state, with a focus on issues pertaining to biodiversity. Bringing in money from the other 83% of the public will help our state immensely and it is the duty of the Natural Resources Board and DNR to serve all citizens of Wisconsin and involve all citizens in decisions about nature and wildlife.
Submitted by Rick Bogle
Resolution 130206
Taking Deer management out of hands of Wisconsin legislators and under control solely of huntersPass 149 to 21
The problem: Wisconsin legislators ignored the recommendations of a stakeholder group and the state Natural Resources Board earlier this year, causing hunters to lose an opportunity for a two-year trial season structure that included the elimination of the October Zone T hunt while maintaining advanced earn-a-buck opportunities for units that needed extra herd control. This proposal had been forged by a year's worth of planning, and won the approval of deer hunting and conservation organizations, forestry interests, wildlife professionals, ecologists, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. Wisconsin hunters killed fewer than 900,000 deer in the 1960s. The total climbed to 1.1 million in the 1970s, 2.66 million in the 1980s and an amazing 4 million deer in the 1990s. In the first six seasons of the new century, hunters have killed nearly 2.9 million deer. That's an average of more than 483,000 per year, or more than four times as many deer as were killed on average per season in the 1970s.The current decade featured a national record of more than 615,000 whitetails in the year 2000. That total included a state record of more than 212,000 antlered bucks that had nothing to do with two free antlerless tags that were awarded with each license. In fact, 7 of the top 10 antlered buck harvests of all time have taken place in the past decade, despite frequent Zone T hunts and even earn-a-buck in some deer management units. The buck kill is a true barometer of the health of the herd, yet some hunters continue to complain to politicians that the Department of Natural Resources is mismanaging the state's whitetails. Whereas, allowing legislators to determine deer hunting seasons while ignoring the advice of wildlife professionals and stakeholder groups sets a dangerous precedent for the future; Whereas, recent actions by legislators have resulted in a shameful waste of countless man hours and tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money; Be it resolved, that the Conservation Congress, at its annual meeting held in County on April 10, 2006, recommends that hunting season frameworks should be set by wildlife professionals using their best science-based judgment, not by politicians lobbied by special interest groups or individuals.
Submitted by George-Meyer
Resolution 130506
DNR ban steel traps and end practice of teaching children on how to use steel traps.Fail 144 to 23
Trapping is used to destroy natural mid-range predators and to overproduce waterfowl for hunter targets. The steel jaw trap was invented in the early 1800s by a 17- year old trapper, and has never been modified. It is one of the cruelest and most indiscriminate weapons of torture ever devised by humans.
Trapping education is organized and promoted by the Department of Natural Resources in partnership with The Trapping Association. About 1/20th of one percent of Wisconsin's population participates in this cruelty. Statistics prove that trappers spend more on their hobby than they earn from the fur commodity.
Whereas the steel jaw trap has been banned in 88 countries because of its extreme cruelty,
And whereas trapping education encourages children to bludgeon or suffocate trapped animals and is clearly a cruelty, and since the government should not be in the business of encouraging children to be cruel,
Be it Resolved, the Conservation Congress at its annual meeting, held April 10, 2006, recommends that the Dept of Natural Resources take action to correct this situation by banning the steel jaw trap and stopping its participation in teaching children that the atrocity of trapping is commendable.
Be it Resolved that the DNR get out of the trapping business, and put the trapping business out of business. The destruction of wildlife held in the public trust for a minority is not acceptable.
Submitted by Anneliese Emerson