When this latest polar blast has you safely and warmly inside, click on this link and tell the DNR how you think wildlife should be managed.

The DNR has opened the public comment period in the development of a new strategic plan for wildlife management. The obvious foci of the plan are game species and hunting opportunities but it covers vital topics such health and diversity of habitat, wildlife and human health risks, varieties of outdoor recreation available on public lands and access to those lands. Public Hunting Areas will be the DNR land holding attracting attention in this plan.

The initial call for comments asks us to fill out a brief survey. It takes 5 minutes and encourages us to offer questions and suggestions in addition to answering the survey questions.

Beyond those critical general topics of the plan, I think we, the public, can comment on specific concerns. Some of those would be controversial—deer/CWD, anything to do with wolves, and Sandhill Crane hunting/crop damage as examples and others not so much. I've made my pitch already for more attention to woodcock, the coolest of birds, on southern Wisconsin public lands. Darn it, I should have added bobwhite quail.

American Woodcock, *photo by Peter Rea USFWS Midwest*

At the end of the survey, you can sign up for updates on the plan. The process will take a couple of years. But our birding and conservation community should make sure our concerns and values are stated clearly and early.

Thanks,

Topf Wells, advocacy committee