Cathy Stepp, On Night Hunting; Wolves, Yes - - Deer, No

Monday, November 26, 2012

Cathy Stepp, On Night Hunting; Wolves, Yes - - Deer, No

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources chief Cathy Stepp is embroiled in a fight with tribes over their plan to use lights in this year's annual off-reservation deer hunt - - with subtexts from wolf-hunting to spear-fishing to mining and water quality.

Not sure why she wants to go down this road - - even sending all DNR staff a "Dear Colleague" email about it today:

Dear Colleagues,

You may have heard about potential shining – or night hunting of deer – by Tribal members in the Ceded Territory, which is roughly the northern third of Wisconsin. I want to give you an overview from the State’s perspective. 

We have been informed the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission today issued an order allowing Chippewa Tribal night hunting for deer in the Ceded Territory starting Nov. 26. 

DNR does not approve of this action and the State will file suit today seeking a federal court order requiring the Tribes to comply with the court’s prohibition on deer shining and confirming the State’s right to enforce the state shining law against Tribal hunters in the Ceded Territory. 

Why?

We have concerns about the short amount of time to notify the public, the circumvention of court oversight and past rulings on night hunting for deer, and public safety. 

We understand that the Tribes contend they should be allowed to hunt deer at night because a recently adopted State law permits the night hunting of wolves.

We believe that this is essentially the same argument the Tribes unsuccessfully asserted in federal court in the 1989 “deer trial” when they argued that State’s provision for night hunting coyotes should allow them to hunt deer at night.

After a week-long trial, the court concluded that deer shining was much more dangerous to public safety than the nighttime hunting of predators like coyotes, and so Judge Barbara Crabb rejected the tribes’ challenge to the State’s deer shining law.

We believe that the State’s legalization of night hunting of wolves, another predator species, changes nothing in this respect. 

Importantly, even if it were legal for the Tribes to hunt deer at night – which we believe it is not – we believe GLIFWC acted with too little notice and too little consultation with the State.

We have not been able to discuss adequately many safety aspects with the Tribes and believe the current order has inadequate Tribal regulation of hunter conduct to assure safe shooting, ill-defined hunter training requirements, and inadequate review mechanisms of deer shining “safety plans” to assure safety to the public.

Indeed, the department is not aware of any State or Tribe anywhere in this country which authorizes night hunting of deer in the manner proposed by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. Among other things, we need time to be sure that people using public lands with no expectation of night deer hunting would be aware of any such change.

Due to your work, DNR has diligently and in good faith implemented numerous enhanced Tribal resource harvesting opportunities, including  updating and increasing harvest limits for Tribal harvest of a host of species; honoring self-regulation for gathering forest products on State lands; agreeing to alternative monitoring of walleye harvest to save creel clerk expenses; youth hunt mentoring; improving  mapping of the Ceded Territory in Wisconsin; and responsive and flexible state park hunting opportunities mechanism – all of which have operated almost exclusively for the Tribes’ benefit.

I’m proud of that record, and I believe our actions of the past give us strong credibility is addressing this issue.

I contacted GLFWC Executive Administrator Jim Zorn and the Tribal Chairs and respectfully asked the Tribes to not go out shining until the federal court rules on our motion.

I assured Administrator Zorn of our continuing commitment to the court-approved process for negotiating changes to our past agreements on regulatory matters.

I let him know we are hopeful this does not put the Tribes and State with odds with each other.

But I also informed him that it is DNR’s job to honor court decisions and directives and to enforce the laws that are in place at this time, and we will do so. In the meantime, I ask that all of us – Tribal members, governmental agencies, and the public – work together to manage court-affirmed hunting and gathering rights in a safe and legal manner.

Cathy

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The final judgment of judge Crabb was accepted by both sides at the time, those sides being the DNR and the tribes. The judgment which they agreed to specifically prohibits shining deer, so it is difficult to see how the indians would hope to prevail in court. One explanation theorizes that the Indians want to force a test case to hope to obtain rights to co-manage the fish and game populations. They claim to have this now, but a careful reading of the judgment clearly gives the DNR ultimate responsibility and authority.

Cathy Stepp is truly standing up to ensure that the interests of Wisconsin citizens are protected and she deserves to be supported, not ridiculed as your pathetic misinterpretation of the facts seem to do.

November 26, 2012 7:42 PM

Anonymous said...

If the Indians are threatening to go back to court over treaty privileges, the DNR should welcome this. The Crabb ruling is deeply flawed and needs to be over turned. It is a travesty that the DNR never appealed the ruling before. Any ruling which creates a privileged class is a clear and open violation of the constitution. Go back and read the treaty, word for word, and then enforce it to the absolute letter of what is actually written, not what the Indians want it to have said. The treaty gives Indians the temporary right to hunt and fish until they are removed from the land to allow for mineral development. There is nothing about having rights over and above other citizens of the US, or that other laws which apply to everyone else do not apply to them. A right to hunt and fish will never be interpreted to be an unlimited right in any fair court in the land. Bring it on.

rk

November 27, 2012 5:33 AM

Anonymous said...

Heard a spokesperson for tribal government on WORT-FM last night who said that this is not "shining." Apparently the only illumination allowed would occur after the deer is targeted, just before the trigger is pulled.

I don't see how the state can maintain two standards, one for wolves and one for deer. Stepp should admit that the wolf-hunting rules have unintended consequences and were ill-considered.

November 27, 2012 12:29 PM 

 

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