Legislation to drastically change Wis. Spring turkey season structure and zoning is pending. Changes would take effect spring of 2023.
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2021/related/proposals/sb610
Interesting... curious if you have to stay in your zone or if you can buy a tag for the other zone. Looks like it's going to be an early season tag, and then the rest, mid-late season. Probably going to be limited to your zone.
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Perhaps some of you guys that hunt Wisconsin can comment on what your perception is of how these changes are going to affect turkey hunters. Do you think this is a positive change...or a negative one? Why do you suppose that these changes were proposed and/or necessary?
From what I've read lawmakers just want to simplify the season structure. I'll hold my thoughts until see more info on what's actually going to take place. Pretty vague right now.
Been spring turkey hunting Wis since 2006. As a non-resident.
One thing I don't like about it is the legislature is managing the hunting season. I wish they would let the DNR do it's job and just stay the heck out!! Politicians...arrrgh!
It is rather vague.
I would think that of course the tags need to be used in the zone (North or South) that it is designated for. Why else have zone specific tags.
The 2nd 4-week season is sold as first come first serve. How will that work? Maybe like the leftover tag sales work now?? On those you start at a certain day & time on the computer and everyone is assigned a place in line and you wait your turn...sometimes as long as 20 minutes or more. Sometimes all the tags are gone by the time you are up. Depends on how many are available.
Depending on how many tags are available it could be difficult to get a tag. Do the guys that have a 1st season tag get to buy a 2nd season tag also...right with everyone else??
Are Non-residents right in there with the residents on the 2nd season?? I would think the 1st season draw would give preference to residents as the initial drawing does now.
Is there a limit on how many 2nd season tags a person can buy?? Or can a person keep on buying until they are all gone?? They do limit purchase of tags to 1 a day now and I am sure that would carry over.
Lumping the far northern zones in with the middle northern zones could have a negative affect. Those far north zones usually sold out (at least the first 4 seasons but now the 5th & 6th too) as there were less tag available for the far north zones. Turkeys had a harder time in the far north and populations were not as robust. Lumping together limits opportunity in the middle north and could stress the far north population if more guys hunt up there.
Not sure how I feel about it. Wis has had the current system in place most of the time they had a turkey season and it seems to work pretty well. One reason may be to simplify things for the hunter and give them more time to hunt/opportunity. As it is now, a tag is only good for a week (Wednesday to Tuesday), but someone can purchase additional tags at a reasonable price if they are available in the same season or other seasons for the zone one hunts.
I personally believe this is a step in the wrong direction. Opening it up will add stress to land access and cause issues. By having 6 week long seasons you spread the pressure out. This is due to people complaining that they got a tag in January not knowing their plans and can't hunt due to work/family/poor weather. Again, this is not a positive in my mind and will hurt the hunt in many ways.
If WI wants to do something, it needs to look at the price of non-res tags and make changes there. We are giving away our resources for nothing. (sorry non-residents but extra tags for $15 is a joke)
One of the main questions I have is are they just combining the 1 week seasons into a 2 week season and a 4 week season? Will they be using a similar structure for selling tags as the current one? The wording of the of the law seems to suggest a application process for the 2nd season. Will there be a limits on tags sold during the second season? Will the limit for each season be 1 bird? Lots of questions need to be answered before I can voice an opinion.
Quote from: wisconsinteacher on January 14, 2022, 03:10:14 PM
If WI wants to do something, it needs to look at the price of non-res tags and make changes there. We are giving away our resources for nothing. (sorry non-residents but extra tags for $15 is a joke)
Non resident pay 4x as much as residents for the right to hunt turkeys in Wis under the same regs as residents. Harvest authorizations are $15 dollars. Each harvest authorization allows you to take one Gobbler per state guidelines. Unwanted Surplus authorizations are sold 1st come first serve until they are gone per regulations. After purchasing a turkey license the regulations should apply equally between res and non res alike.
I think your argument should be non res turkey license should cost more not the harvest authorization. Probably a mute point after this year anyways.
I killed my first gobbler in Wisconsin in 1984 and I've been chasing them ever since. Wisconsin held it's first season in 1983, and for many years there were three five day seasons. It was very hard to draw a tag. As the flock spread out and grew, the format changed to allow more opportunity. We currently have six, seven day seasons. For obvious and some not so obvious reasons the first season is a hard tag, or authorization, as it is now called to draw.
One reason is because landowners receive preference over non-landowners. Over 80% of Wisconsin Turkey hunting is done on private land. Landowners have a history of being very generous in allowing people to hunt on their land. That is very different from deer hunting. As a result, a large percentage of hunting landowners choose the first season, as the ones who farm are very busy later on. Landowners have been able to control hunter numbers on their land quite easily, and that makes for better quality hunting with low hunter interference.
If a hunter is flexible in which zone to hunt, there's a possibility of being able to hunt many different time periods. I hunted four last year. My friends from Texas and Arkansas certainly like the system and are welcomed every year to our turkey camp.
Luke Hilgeman of Hunter Nation apparently doesn't like the current system, and he got the ear of several legislators. He said the current format is too complicated and needed simplification. He brought in Ted Nugent for a grip and grin with state legislators to push this ill-conceived two season free for all. Not ONE hunting advocacy group in Wisconsin, including the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, the Wisconsin Chapter of NWTF, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, or the DNR was asked for input. This is all Luke Hilgeman and Hunter Nation .
Over the last 36 years I have hunted turkeys in nine states, and I can say that Wisconsin has the best format and most hunter opportunity of them all. To say that the Wisconsin system is too difficult to understand is an insult to Wisconsin hunters.
There is a political element to all this.
This legislation passed the State Senate on party lines, with all Republicans voting for, and all Democrats against. The bill currently waits in the Assembly, but will probably pass, again on straight party lines. You see, Wisconsin has a Democrat Governor, Tony Evers. Governor Evers will most likely veto this bill, along with many others proposed by Hunter Nation. Then, the Republicans can tell voters that the Governor is against sportsmen. The whole situation sucks.
I am a conservative, and it ticks me off that these conservatives got taken in by Hilgeman and Uncle Teddy. All the groups mentioned previously, except the DNR, have come out against this fiasco of a bill.
It's never a good idea when legislatures get involved in decisions that should be left up to the Natural Resources professionals.
I'm an out of state hunter who was fortunate to draw a tag ang kill a gobbler in Wisconsin last year- not sure I understand the need to simplify things when the state is leading or in the top 2-3 states in the United States for turkey harvest. Looks like the DNR and others have been managing it fairly well to me! Great state to hunt in and I hope it continues to be!!
i guess i don't understand the reasoning for the "necessity" of this bill and the changes it proposes.
if that's not clear it usually means some scumbag somewhere is going to profit in some way
would be interested in MK M GOBL to share his thoughts
Not enough information for me to make an informed decision but I'm not surprised to see a change being attempted considering the number of unsold leftover tags remaining each spring. I hunt WI every year and I personally like the current season structure but I'd have to have more details about this proposal to decide whether I am for or against it.
Quote from: simpzenith on January 17, 2022, 09:00:30 PM
Not enough information for me to make an informed decision but I'm not surprised to see a change being attempted considering the number of unsold leftover tags remaining each spring. I hunt WI every year and I personally like the current season structure but I'd have to have more details about this proposal to decide whether I am for or against it.
i agree.
concerning leftover tags.....the only ones that ever go unsold are season 5 and 6 when it's hot and muggy and buggy. i'm still hunting then, but that's bs if this is just about selling a few thousand more 'tags'
Meadow Valley nailed it!!! It is a political mess where the hunters and birds will be on the losing end.
In my original post regarding the pending Wisconsin Turkey season legislation, I referred to Luke Hilgeman OF HUNTER NATION once and HUNTER NATION twice. It appears my post has been altered to remove the NATION word in all three references. I have tried to modify my post to reinsert NATION but the format isn't letting me.
I don't believe I omitted the word NATION three times when I wrote the original post. But, never say never.
Anyway, it is HUNTER NATION that is pushing this legislation. And in this case, HUNTER NATION is doing anyone who hunts turkeys in Wisconsin a disservice.
I'll try again. Is the word nation not allowed on this forum?
Quote from: Meadow Valley Man on January 26, 2022, 10:27:12 AM
I'll try again. Is the word not allowed on this forum?
Yeah, for some reason nat-ion comes up as a unallowed word on this forum. I found that out several years ago on some posts. I suspect it is just an error in the system. Can't see why it would not be allowed...
I believe it was Hunter Nat-ion the forced the Wisconsin wolf hunt last February. How did that work out for the future wolf hunt this year?...2021/2022 wolf hunt canceled.
I went to their site and looked at some of the laws they want. These guys have some strange things they want done.
Here is just one example.
DNR Regulation Simplification Bill
Sponsored by Sen. Duey Stroebel and Rep. Calvin Callahan
This bill would require the DNR to eliminate three rules every time they propose adding another rule.
How does that make any sense?
I guess I'll just wait and see how this shapes up. I hunt public ground and already I've seen a huge increase in hunting pressure over the last couple of seasons. I think what I'd really like to see is a maximum of two tags per hunter and a moratorium on shooting bearded hens.
In a recent F&S article (https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/declining-turkey-populations), I read this regarding the proposed changes in Wisconsin.
"Conversely, other states deal with calls for season structure changes when they might not be appropriate. Alaina Gerrits, a former assistant upland wildlife ecologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said that the state recently faced a push to condense zones, start the season earlier and eliminate time periods (the state's six-week season is broken into six one-week segments to distribute hunting pressure and harvest). And that, she said, would have been a mistake."
The way it is worded seems to imply that the proposal is no longer on the table. I'm assuming she is referring to the same proposal that we're discussing here. Anyone heard any news on this?
I don't like what I read. We currently have 6 periods which spreads the hunter out. If you look at left over tags, the first few periods are always gone and the later ones still available. Too many guys would hunt the first week of each period. Sure, would I like one big period if I was the only guy hunting an area, but that's not going to happen with our pressure. I also have read the comments about out of state hunting (fishing) license costs. I agree, we give them away and they have the same priority as a resident. Other states don't do this, why should we. I am tied of out of state guys getting extra doe tags and I live here and sometimes can't.
Ches.
Quote from: Ches. on February 06, 2022, 12:00:33 PM
...and they have the same priority as a resident.
Wisconsin does gives priority to residents. I believe the order is resident landowner, resident, non-resident landowner then non-resident.
Quote from: Ches. on February 06, 2022, 12:00:33 PM
I don't like what I read. We currently have 6 periods which spreads the hunter out. If you look at left over tags, the first few periods are always gone and the later ones still available. Too many guys would hunt the first week of each period. Sure, would I like one big period if I was the only guy hunting an area, but that's not going to happen with our pressure. I also have read the comments about out of state hunting (fishing) license costs. I agree, we give them away and they have the same priority as a resident. Other states don't do this, why should we. I am tied of out of state guys getting extra doe tags and I live here and sometimes can't.
Ches.
Non residents pay over 3 times as much a res hunters to shoot 1 bird for 1 week time period. Pretty comparable too other destination states. Problems being those destination states don't limit you to 1 bird and you can hunt the entire season. Well, used to be you could hunt the entire season. Still much longer than a one week period.
Apparently there's a big uproar because a you tuber came in there and bought multiple tags through out the state. They cover non res hunters in a blanket and say "your shooting all our birds!". No, not really. Can a NR hunter purchase more than one left over tag for the same time period. Sure can. Do they? Most likely not considering the state wide success rate was 16.9% last year.
The Wis DNR has a pretty good grasp on it's turkey population and allocate tags accordingly. They spread the pressure out by having one week time periods. There are left over tags available quite frankly because Residents didn't want them. These tags are offered within the safe harvest framework provided by the state. You'd rather them tags go unused instead of a NR hunter paying $5 more than a Res for one. Sounds to me like the mine, mine, mine, go get your own mentality of most Res hunters instead of anything to to do with safe management practices.
Anyone with any updates? Listened to The Turkey Hunter podcast the other day with the Wis state biologist as guest. Kudos to Cameron Wedderling (a forum member). I think him and Andy do a fantastic job of highlighting issues related to Wild Turkey's and have excellent guest.
Apparently the state biologist is vehemently opposed to the new proposal. She feels Wis has the gold standard in Wild Turkey season management.
i talked to MK M GOBL from the board a few weeks ago and he said these proposals are shot down for now
Quote from: bigriverbum on February 19, 2022, 06:49:29 PM
i talked to MK M GOBL from the board a few weeks ago and he said these proposals are shot down for now
Let's hope so. I wish more states would follow suit. I worked up there for 2 years...Pipeline's Life ;D By far the best system out there to track hunting pressure and monitor harvest rates for given time periods.
Also, if you've hunted WI much, you know there are plenty of birds. I don't see why they'd want to change an already very liberal season.