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Eisele: New state budget will impact those who enjoy outdoors

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  10/31/2007 7:07 am

The new state budget that was signed by Gov. Jim Doyle on Friday will impact those who enjoy the outdoors in Wisconsin in a variety of ways.

Among other things:

• The Department of Natural Resources will have to cut back on its chronic wasting disease monitoring efforts.
• A new Stewardship program was approved.
• There will be no increase in any hunting or fishing licenses in the coming year.
• There is a slight increase in the three-year boat registration fees.

Joe Polasek, budget director for the DNR, said that "We tried to hold fish and wildlife programs fairly tight so that we could go another two years without a license fee increase."

The two year DNR budget for 2007-08 is $572.9 million, and for 2008-09 is $579.6 million, compared to the 2006-2007 budget of $539.2 million.

In 2005-06, the DNR spent $4.6 million on CWD, but the 2007-08 CWD efforts will only be about $2.8 million due to a loss of more than $600,000 in federal funds and $2.1 million that the state would have received from the wildlife damage fund account. This is why the CWD testing levels have been eliminated in the northern region of the state and the food pantry program has been eliminated in the CWD zones.

The Stewardship program, known as the Knowles/Nelson Stewardship Fund, which the State uses to purchase public lands, was renewed and increased. Currently the fund is allowed to spend $60 million per year, but the new limit will be $86 million per year from 2011 to 2020.

The new budget requires that land acquired in using Stewardship funds must be open to the public for hunting, fishing, trapping, hiking, cross-country skiing and other nature-based recreation unless the Natural Resources board determines that a closure is necessary. The closure could be to protect public safety, protect a unique plant or animal community, or accommodate user patterns.

The budget allows the legislature's Joint Committee on Finance to now have the ability to review purchases in excess of $750,000. The budget would have put this in effect immediately (the current program doesn't expire until 2010), but the governor vetoed that so that review won't begin until 2011.

The budget requires the DNR to identify all Stewardship land open for public access on the interactive mapping tool on the DNR Web site and to make a directory available of all Stewardship land open to public access, and update the directory every two years.

Three-year boat registration fees will increase about 15 percent. The increases include non-motorized sailboats from $15 to $17; motorized boats under 16 feet from $16.50 to $19; from 16 feet to 26 feet from $24 to $28; from 26 feet to 40 feet from $45 to $52; and over 40 feet from $75 to $86.

Registration fee increases go into effect immediately, though most boaters won't see the change until the major renewals begin in March, 2008.

The budget also contains policy directions to agencies. This budget contains a new provision for an early catch-and-release musky fishing season up north, and changes in the catch-and-release bass fishing season up north.

The budget specifies that a catch-and-release musky season will be held north of Highway 10 (except not on the Wisconsin-Michigan boundary waters) from the beginning of the general fishing season to the day that the regular musky fishing season begins. However, only barbless hooks and artificial lures may be used to catch muskies during this time. Anglers may also compress the barbs on hooks to remove their catching ability.

People who are fishing for other species during this time period can use barbed hooks.

An early catch-and-release bass fishing season already exists, but the new budget requires fishermen to use artificial lures with barbless hooks (or those where the barb has been compressed) for the early season catch-and-release period.

The budget also:

• Provides $20,000 for administering the fishing tournament permit program. The funding covers review and approval of permit applications, enforcement-related costs, and tournament data collection. The DNR can charge fees for tournament fishing permits to recover the costs of administering the program.
• Prohibit owners of land designated as Managed Forest Land from leasing the land for recreational activities.
• Establish $60,000 in grants to forest landowners in the Wisconsin Forest Landowner Grant Program to conduct invasive plant control projects in 2008-09.
• Provide $431,000 for a two year period for Limited Term Employee conservation wardens to serve as Boat Ambassadors to educate the public at landings about aquatic invasive species regulations.
• Transfer $4 million out of Waters Access to fund aquatic invasive species grants.

Tim Eisele is a full-time freelance outdoor writer and photographer. He is a founding member and past president of the Wisconsin Outdoor Communicators Association and active member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America.

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  10/31/2007 7:07 am