By Bruce Ross, Executive Director
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s March 2020 Newsletter edition.
The WWA/WWF 2020 survey was completed by nearly 700 respondents from throughout Wisconsin. This is by far the highest total number of respondents ever! Thank you for taking the time to provide this information to us.
This survey was created by WWA President Bruce Urben, in collaboration with Mark Kakatsch, chair of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation (and former WWA Director!) to better understand the WIWaterfowlers’ perspective on many issues we confront, including waterfowl season structure, policy topics, and demographic information.
This is a significant undertaking for us, and gives WWA significant credibility with the regulators and legislators whose decisions impact our fall activities. Indeed, of the various Wisconsin waterfowling groups that might have an opinion on such things, your WWA has the strongest voice, thanks to this survey. Some important issues on which we took your “pulse”:
Waterfowl Stamp Fee: Nearly 82% of you thought we should increase Wisconsin’s duck stamp price to account for inflation, from $7 to $12. That’s an impressive margin of support, but I was a little surprised that it wasn’t higher. It was clear from the comments of those who did not support the increase that we need to do a better job explaining where that money goes. So let me start here:
- BY LAW, every WI stamp dollar has to go towards habitat that is important to waterfowl – in state (66%) and Canada (33%). Since most ducks harvested in Wisconsin are born in Wisconsin, breeding habitat here is especially valuable. We will do a better job highlighting projects that have been completed with the duck stamp monies that WWA leverages with other monies (including your membership $$’s) to do just that!
- Sandhill Crane Season: A similar number thought that since the Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that Sandhill crane populations can easily support a hunting season and that Wisconsin should consider implementing such a season. This would require a legislative initiative, something WWA may consider based on these survey results.
- Highway 64 or Highway 10? While nearly 30% of respondents had no opinion, 34% of respondents who had an opinion thought the dividing line between north and south zones should be Highway 10. Only 25% thought it should be Highway 64.
- Season Structure Options? More respondents (37.5%) thought 3 zones, 1 split per zone was preferred over the other options, but nearly 21% thought 2 zones, 2 splits per zone would be better.
- Lake Michigan Zone? There was general support for a Lake Michigan zone; and if such a zone was established, a good majority (55%) of you thought that the waters of Green Bay should be included in that zone (for duck hunting more than 500 feet from shore).
- State-wide Opener? Most respondents preferred a statewide opener (i.e., same day) by a narrower margin than most other questions.
- Happy Waterfowlers? Most of you were satisfied with the way the duck season played out last year…. except when it comes to the behavior of other hunters, or the number of hunters near you (not too much surprise there). So maybe we need to be sensitive to this when we are out on our hunt. And, that it’s not always the other guy – sometimes we should look in the mirror. Maybe this is something on which WWA should do some education???
In the chart below: The smaller the bar is, the greater the satisfaction levels.
We’ll be sharing more survey information on Facebook and in future newsletters.
Many of you may be interested in how this will shape the upcoming waterfowl seasons; WWA will be meeting with the WDNR soon in order to provide our survey results and advocate for the positions that you have told us (in this survey) are important to you.