Report on the WCC & Why Wisconsinites Urgently Need to Get Involved

Silent Alarm

The Wisconsin Conservation Congress (“WCC”) 2023 Annual Convention was held mid-May in Oshkosh. According to the Department of Natural Resources website, this congress is the only statutory body in the state where the public elects delegates from every county to advise the Natural Resources Board and the DNR on responsibly managing Wisconsin’s natural resources for present and future generations. The congress accomplishes this through open, impartial, broad-ranged actions. Some wish this description of taxpayer-funded WCC were true.

Most people don’t know the congress exists, but many who do argue the WCC has lost its way. Another piece of evidence was presented when a motion by Fur Harvest Committee Chair Ed Harvey to eliminate the 3/2 rule was pushed to a vote by WCC Chair Rob Bohmann at the convention. The 3/2 rule states as follows: That if the same resolution passes in the same three counties two years in a row, it moves onto the spring statewide survey. 

Those resolutions are gaining ground fast among conservationists participating in the resolution writing process. The rule is a way to bypass the biased members of certain committees, especially bear, fur harvest, and wolf.

Bayfield county delegate Kathleen Presnell heard what was going on and protested Bohmann’s call for a vote because the 3/2 issue was still stuck in three committees, violating Robert’s rules of order. The hurried attempt didn’t pass muster with the attorney for the WI Department of Natural Resources either, so the vote was stricken. The Wisconsin Examiner reported (5/18/23 – see link, below) on a prior letter Harvey sent to the district leadership council urging an end to the rule, stating in part that, “The Fur Harvest Committee often deals with proposals from citizens who have no regard or respect for the committee members or their lifestyles.”

“Let’s stop there,” wildlife advocate Valerie Gibbons of Monona told Silent Sports Magazine. “What Mr. Bohmann and some other delegates still don’t grasp is that the WCC is supposed to represent all the people of Wisconsin, not the committee members and their lifestyles. On the DNR website, an image of the organizational structure of the WCC is an inverted pyramid with the public at the top.”

Fellow advocate Amy Mueller from Ottawa agreed, saying, “The WCC’s undemocratic behavior betrays its role as a representative of all citizens. All Wisconsinites deserve an equitable voice in wildlife policies.”

Gibbons continued: “I have attended several virtual Wisconsin Conservation Congress meetings and participated in the resolution process throughout 2022. My overall impression of the WCC is that if it once had a legitimate purpose in representing the views of Wisconsinites, it has lost its way. Instead, factional committees exemplify groupthink and openly promote dominant members’ agendas, particularly hunting and trapping. I have endured long WCC meetings on Zoom, and always leave blindsided by the blatant disregard for new voices. The worst of it is young people with environmental science degrees who have much to offer say it’s hard to find a way into these rigid committees.”

The Wisconsin Examiner also reported that Kathleen Presnell warned, “[Change is] inevitable or the WCC will not make it to its centennial. It’s got to change and these older guys do not know how to handle it. I think it’s going to be the inevitable consequence unless there’s some give. If we do not follow our own rules of order, we are not going to be taken seriously and there’s no reason for the WCC to even exist.”

Mueller has a way forward. She said the only way to influence and change the WCC is through massive public participation in the congress and education about its shortcomings. To challenge the body’s current lack of democracy, she says we need broad public participation by people who will join the WCC as volunteer delegates in their counties and who will participate in Spring Hearings and committee meetings.

Here’s a news headline Gibbons said she’d like to read:

Wisconsin Conservation Congress Ceases to Exist

Why?

Gibbons said, “[Because] the 80-year-old brainchild of the revered Aldo Leopold has grown into a caricature of a grumpy, old gun-toting man and his hard-headed buddies. Conflicts of interest are rampant. For example, Matt McHugh, a delegate who sits on the Fur Harvest Committee, is also the organizer of ‘Moondog Madness,’ Wisconsin’s largest coyote hunting competition that posts images of dozens of bloody coyote carcasses at the foot of their killers. Further, the mere existence of such blood sport gives the state a backward image.”

Proponents say it’s a way of life. “The kill-for-a-thrill way of life, however, does not resonate with the majority of Wisconsin’s citizens and visitors,” Gibbons said. “People won’t turn a blind eye anymore to beaver trapping, bear baiting, hound hunting, wars on wolves, and the repulsive wildlife killing contests rampant throughout this state.”

Gibbons concluded, “If you can’t eat it and don’t need to wear it because you get everything at Walmart, and if you’re not a sadist who enjoys inflicting animal suffering, the question remains — why do you want to kill anything at all?”

For more, please go to the commentary in the Wisconsin Examiner via:

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/04/04/the-wisconsin-conservation-congress-is-broken/

For the Wisconsin Examiner article from May 18, 2023, please go to:

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/05/18/divide-over-hunting-at-wisconsin-conservation-congress-spills-into-annual-convention/