By Bruce Ross, Executive Director
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s June, 2020 Open Water Newsletter edition.
2021-2025 Open Water Zone
Every other year WWA develops a survey for our members and other waterfowlers to be able to represent your interests in the hunting decisions to be considered by the DNR and the legislature. This past survey (late 2019), we spent a lot of time, along with our partner, Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, designing a survey that would accurately capture the sometimes-conflicting desires of a very diverse Wisconsin waterfowling group.
In Dec 2019, 713 (a record number) of you took our survey and the results helped shape our input to the DNR in the matter of the waterfowl zone re-consideration that happens every five years. Here’s a quick summary of the results of that survey, as it relates to the open water zone decision.
- First, our respondents were overwhelmingly male (98%) and tended to be pretty experienced waterfowlers, with 83% having more than ten years of duck hunting experience.
- When considered alone (i.e., not asked to prioritize), respondents favored establishing an Open Water Zone by a 4:1 ratio.
- When asked to prioritize the overall zone structure they would prefer, a small margin ranked the Mississippi zone higher than the Open Water Zone (by less than 5%).
- Finally, the respondents preferred that the Mississippi Zone open the same day as the South zone, and by a slight margin, have a split that lasted the same duration
So, if you’ve been reading closely, there is some conflicting information in these survey results. That’s not at all surprising. The more questions you ask to really understand respondents’ perspectives, the more likely the survey will reveal perspectives that are not entirely consistent. No surprise. But here’s the way we read the results:
- The majority (even if not all) of Mississippi hunters prefer season/split dates that are identical to the South Zone’s.
- There is no benefit to having two zones with identical season dates.
- The Fish and Wildlife Service expects states to create and maximize hunting opportunities with their zone structures.
- By absorbing the Mississippi zone into the South zones, Mississippi zone hunters get their preferred dates, while freeing up a zone to create a truly unique Wisconsin hunting experience on the waters of Lake Michigan.
With so many hunters, and not surprisingly, each of them with an opinion, we know that not everyone will embrace the new structure. But if you are one of those, take heart: it’s not forever. We’ll live with it for five years and then have another bite at the apple. And, if there is a significant flyway change between now and then (very unlikely, but certainly not impossible), we are confident there will be an opportunity to re-visit the proposal. And then make sure your voice is heard in such surveys in the future.
And here’s the letter we sent to the NRB to reflect WWA’s position, based on this survey.