Posts Tagged ‘wisconsin state parks’

The annual Wisconsin Governor’s Conference on Tourism will kick off Sunday, March 6th at the Kalahari Resort & Conference Center in Wisconsin Dells and run through the 8th.  Attendees will get to spend 3 days listening to various experts in the tourism industry speak about ways to improve their bottom line as well as  listen to Governor Scott Walker “share his vision” for the state’s tourism industry as well.  The Governor’s speech will begin at 8:30 am on Monday.

For those of us interested in outdoor recreation it’s fair to say that this event is not on the top of our annual agenda.  By any standard WIGCOT is a quasi-political event filled with movers and shakers on the high end of Wisconsin’s travel industry. It’s no surprise to anyone that it’s held in Wisconsin Dells. What’s more, the new governor has taken a strong stance against many of the state’s environmental issues including a budget that eliminates mandatory recycling & funding, making it harder to acquire land for preservation and recreation through the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, cutting funding for cycling & pedestrian trails and more.  He has also separated Wisconsin’s DNR wardens from the rest of the state’s law enforcement when it comes to exemptions to the removal of collective bargain rights for state workers.

So while the attendees to the 2011 WIGCOT event are enjoying “a six-story Ferris wheel, 24 lanes of bowling, 18 holes of mini-golf, over 200 arcade games, go carts and so much more!”,  we’ll still be trying to find enough volunteers to keep the trails clear and pick up the trash that will soon start piling up at our understaffed and underfunded state parks. While there is good reason to believe attendance at Wisconsin’s state  parks & natural areas will only go up in the near future, funding will most likely keep going down.

• WIGCOT 2011 Official Website

New Glarus Woods State Park in south-west Wisconsin was established in 1934 and covers 431-acres of  rolling hills covered by a mix of forests and restored prairie just outside of the village of New Glarus.  From Baraboo, the park a scenic, 2 hour, winding drive through Wisconsin’s rural driftless region.  Read the rest of this entry »

Opinion - The Baraboo News Republic is reporting today that Wisconsin State Parks could be opened to more hunting.  The opening line of the article states, “Voters in Sauk County and elsewhere overwhelmingly supported a proposal to allow trapping and hunting in state parks during last week’s statewide fish and wildlife rule hearings.”  The problem of course, is that these “Voters in Sauk County and elsewhere” are a minority within a minority.  These are folks who attend such hearings specifically because they have an agenda in one direction or another.  They are not, as the casual reader of this article may suppose, voters as a whole, but select, activist voters. In the case of Wisconsin State Parks, this is an important distinction.

First let me say I’m not opposed to hunting in the parks. Yet, as a frequent park user I am aware of the restrictions put on hikers, bikers and other park users when hunting is allowed.  (Our local park, Devil’s Lake State Park, does allow limited hunting in some areas.) The trick is balancing everyone’s desires as much as possible while serving the best interests of the park as a whole. In reading the article I was struck by what I thought should have been some rather obvious questions that could have given balance and fleshed out such a headline as, “State parks could be opened to hunters”.   First, how many “Voters in Sauk County” actually voted? What percentage of county voters do these hearing attendees or “voters” represent?  How about on a statewide level? Who uses the parks most often and in the largest numbers, hunters or recreational users such as hikers, climbers, campers, cyclists etc.?  Are the majority of park users local residents or tourists from outside the county or state? If as I suspect local users and hearing attendees are a small minority of regular park users (certainly in our area), then how much influence should they actually have in such decisions?  I assume no more than the percentage of folks they actually represent. Public hearings are great in that they allow anyone with a concern to step up and try to sway government opinion but they are rarely representative of the public as a whole.

Now this brings up the most obvious question, “What percentage of actual park users, those most effected by such rulings, support more hunting and trapping in the parks?”  Shouldn’t we ask ALL the folks who use the parks regularly? It would certainly be easy enough. Why don’t we hand out a quick survey or ballot to everyone who buys a Wisconsin Park Sticker, Bike Pass or reserves a campsite?  You wouldn’t get responses from everyone, but certainly you will overwhelm the number of those who voted on this recent resolution. Let’s then compare numbers and opinions again. If the majority support more hunting so be it, but you know where this is going… Chances are that if you asked the majority of folks who actually frequent Wisconsin State Parks  rather than the attendees of “Fish and Wildlife rule hearings”, you may find you get another result entirely.  Sometimes a little context is a good thing. (Before things are put to a vote that actually effects us all.)