Current through August 26, 2024
(1) The
conservation act, s.
23.09(1),
Stats., requires the department of natural resources to provide an adequate and
flexible system for the protection, development and use of forests, fish and
game, lakes, streams, plant life, flowers and other outdoor resources in this
state. Specific authorities and missions of the department for wildlife
protection and use besides the general authority are:
(a) Protect and manage nongame species,
particularly endangered, threatened and uncommon species;
(b) Acquire and lease lands;
(c) Conduct research and surveys;
(d) Establish long-range resource management
plans and priorities;
(e) Manage
wildlife habitat on public land;
(f) Provide regulations to govern the harvest
of game species and furbearing mammals;
(g) Establish resource management information
and education programs; and
(h)
Propagate wildlife.
(2)
The primary goal of wildlife management is to provide healthy life systems
necessary to sustain Wisconsin's wildlife populations for their biological,
recreational, cultural and economic values. Wildlife management is the
application of knowledge in the protection, enhancement and regulation of
wildlife resources for their contribution toward maintaining the integrity of
the environment and for the human benefits they provide.
(a) The department's wildlife program ranges
from endangered and threatened species management to the production of huntable
game. At its best, wildlife management is a process that requires a
considerable degree of harmony between people and land to provide the quality
landscapes and diverse habitats necessary to produce and support all types of
wildlife.
(b) Public concern for
the welfare of wildlife resources can help to instill a land ethic in what has
become a predominantly urban population. Public support for the maintenance of
native or near-natural plant communities, as necessary wildlife habitat,
indirectly assures continued opportunities for a whole range of human
interactions with nature that goes well beyond hunting or wildlife-oriented
recreation.
(c) The department's
wildlife management program is financed in large part by user contributions,
particularly license fees and excise taxes on selected equipment purchased by
hunters; however, management programs directed at hunted game species provide
very significant indirect benefits for a wide range of other wildlife. New
sources of funds are needed to supplement the existing financial base and
provide more adequate programs for nongame fish and wildlife, especially
threatened and endangered species.
(d) Larger quantities of wildlife habitat are
required to meet management objectives for hunting and trapping than for most
other uses. The future of hunting, however, depends upon more than wildlife
habitat. It depends upon the quality, the behavior and sense of responsibility
of today's hunter, the willingness of private landowners to provide access, and
the tacit approval of people who don't hunt. Since many hunters do not own the
land on which they hunt and because wildlife belongs to all citizens, mutually
acceptable relationships between hunters, landowners and the nonhunting public
are required for hunting to continue as a socially acceptable form of outdoor
recreation.
(3) The
natural resources board directs the department to implement its statutory
wildlife responsibilities through the execution of the state wildlife policy as
set forth herein. For the purposes of this policy, wildlife means all varieties
of birds, mammals and terrestrial vertebrates other than man and domestic
animals.
