County opposes legislature’s wildlife damage plan

The Shawano County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution May 25 opposing the state of Wisconsin’s efforts to diminish its land conservation authority.

The Wisconsin Legislature is proposing changes to the Wildlife Damage Abatement and Claims Program, a voluntary program through the Department of Natural Resources that helps farmers and other agricultural producers with losses caused by deer, bears, geese, cougars and other animals. The county has been part of the program for over 25 years, and the resolution notes that county land conservation departments are the local mechanism for many resource management programs.

Senate Bill 63 and Assembly Bill 49 seek to strip the county of administering the programs and have the DNR manage it instead. Besides the authority issue, the county would also lose $7,000 that it receives annually for staffing and mileage reimbursement.

Supervisor Arlyn Tober, who sits on the county’s land conservation committee, said the committee received the resolution from a neighboring county and asked for Shawano County’s support.

“There are still 17 counties in Wisconsin that are enforcing the program, and the rest of them already changed over to the DNR,” Tober said. “I don’t know why, because the conservation committees in these other counties is running it pretty good, and we’re running it very well.”

By giving the authority to the DNR, anyone seeking to appeal a decision would have to go down to Madison for a public hearing, whereas the current setup would keep farmers closer to home.

“That’s really going to put them out,” Tober said. “Why fix something when there isn’t any problem?”

The bill passed by a 24-2 vote. Supervisors Gene Hoppe and Dennis Knaak cast the opposing votes but did not specify why they were against it.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com