A coalition of sportsman’s groups in Oconto County is working together toward a common goal.
That goal? To introduce children to the outdoors in a county that provides plenty of opportunities to do just that.
Gary Lemmen, of Oconto Falls, is president of the Oconto County Sportsman’s Alliance, a group that includes the Breed, Crooked Lake, Kelly Lake, Klondike, Oconto, Morgan, Suring, Underhill and White Potato Lake sportsman’s clubs; Northeast Wisconsin Deer Management Alliance; Northern Lakes Archers; Oconto Bowmen; and Oconto River Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
“They all do something a little different,” Lemmen said. “Some of them are into fishing, some of them are into pheasants, and a lot of them do scholarships. They each do their own thing.”
Members of the 13 groups meet four times a year, according to Lemmen.
“We get together and tell each other what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s been around for a long time. I was on it years ago when I was on the (Wisconsin) Conservation Congress, and I used to go to the meetings.”
Lemmen said the groups want to introduce children to outdoors opportunities around them.
“Part of that is to get them off the cell phones and stuff like that and get them doing something out in nature,” he said.
Fishing opportunities in Oconto County include Green Bay, more than 100 inland lakes and trout streams such as the Oconto River and its tributaries.
“The old guys that fish the trout streams have a hard time walking down them now, so they’re basically underfished,” Lemmen said. “The young kids aren’t getting out and taking that over.”
The alliance owns and maintains 440 acres in southern Oconto County in the Town of Morgan that is open to the public for hunting.
“I believe (the alliance) bought it back in the ’50s,” Lemmen said. “It’s wetlands and highlands. It’s good grouse habitat, and there are a lot of deer there. There’s some water, so the ducks are in there in the fall. We did a (tree) cutting on 30 acres last winter and we plan on cutting every five years, because that’s going to help the habitat for the deer, grouse, woodcock, everything.”
The property isn’t the only land open to the public for hunting in Oconto County.
“There’s the Machickanee Forest, and as you go north around (State Highway) 64, there’s a lot of county land,” Lemmen said. “There is quite a bit of public land in Oconto County. It’s hunted pretty heavily during the deer season and we get bear hunters. We have a sheriff that supports all this, so that helps, too.”
Lemmen eventually joined the Northeast Wisconsin Deer Management Alliance and is now president of that organization.
“I got a call from the (Oconto County Sportsman’s Alliance) to come back in, because they didn’t know what we were,” he said.
The deer management group started more than 20 years ago as a chapter of the former Quality Deer Management Association.
“They wanted too much of our money, so after three years, we said, ‘Let’s start our own (organization) and spend our money at home,’” Lemmen said. “It’s worked out really good.”
The deer management alliance provides funds for scholarships each year.
“We bought Archery in the Schools (equipment) for schools and those programs right now are around $4,000,” Lemmen said. “Every school around here has one. They do it in phy ed classes. We donated that to a couple of church groups besides the schools, and they use it a lot. We support trapshooting clubs in the schools, and that’s been a big thing. It takes quite a bit of money to run those programs.”
The idea behind the deer deer management alliance is to get youths started and involved in hunting.
“Another thing we do is a learn to hunt turkey program every spring for kids,” Lemmen said. “We take 15 to 20 first-time turkey hunters out, and everything is free. The DNR gives us a free tag for the kids. We get them out with a mentor and give them a good experience of turkey hunting. We send them out with a mentor, but they have to bring a parent or guardian with them. The parent will get a tag and get to hunt with them.”
Lemmen hopes the county alliance and its 13 members are making a difference.
“The opportunities are out there,” he said. “Let’s get the kids involved and their parents involved with them. We want to work with young people and get them involved so they have the same opportunities to hunt and fish that we have.”