The Conservation Congress was set up in the 1930's by Aldo Leopold and

others to bring PUBLIC citizen input to statewide issues pertaining to

nature and wildlife. In the 1970's Governor Tommy Thompson gave the CC more

power by giving them legislative status as an advisory counsel to the

Natural Resources Board.  They have been consolidating power ever since as

they move to take more control of public lands (they can hunt 95% of the

publicly purchased Stewardship Fund lands) and as they work to gain access

to private lands (a private landowner gets less tax break with the Managed

Forest Program if he or she does not allow public hunting on their private

land.)

    Leopold cautioned two things: 1.  That the money to manage nature and

wildlife come from general public funds (not special interest killing

licenses), and 2.  That the landowner, naturalist, and environmentalist be

as valued a part of the process as the hunter and trapper.  He was an avid

hunter, but he recognized these balancing components to be important.

   This intent has been subverted by the hunting cartel with various

methods of concealment:  First, this so-called public election does not

operate under Wisconsin election law - no standard for running as a

candidate, no public announcement of candidates, no public debating on

issues before the election.  Candidates are nominated AT THE ELECTION and

give a 2-minute statement of their position (usually "I am a lifetime

member of the NRA, I kill every which way and every creature I can"). 

Secondly, the DNR announces this election only in the outdoors pages which

are not read by the public who have no interest in killing wildlife, so

they have their own private media.  There is no going into a private

curtained space to vote the issues or elect - it is done in a hunter forum,

which is lengthy and obnoxious, with hours of fish issues, and all framed

in killing more species, in more ways, with more weapons, and in more

places. The hunters COUNT THE VOTES! It is absurd. Our wildlife refuges are

trapping arenas now.  Even Teddy Roosevelt, and avid hunter, established

the wildlife refuges, realizing that nature needed some place to recupe and

be itself without the interference of such a destructive species as man.  

   The hunters have the entire system locked up.  At the federal and state

levels, wildlife agencies were set up by hunters at the time of the wild

frontier, to monitor market overkill (make sure there was more to kill),

and to provide an abundance of "game" animals, and to destroy natural

predators, seen as competition or predators of livestock, thereby allying

with the animal agriculture businesses.  This is a systemic problem across

the entire country.  The hunters and trappers ARE the DNR wildlife

management staff, and they ARE the Natural Resources Board, the secretary

of the DNR, and they ARE the chairs of the wildlife committees of the

Assembly and the Senate.  I went to speak to the new "Democratic" chair of

the Senate wildlife committee to promote democratizing the Conservation

Congress, and he flat out said this: "I am not interested in democratizing

it.  I will support the people who kill wild animals..  They are my

constituency."  So we have to build a coalition that lets him know that WE

are his constituency.  We can  set up a model for the entire country.

   So this series of emails is to work for several things, not the least of

which is education: 

 1.  To motivate people to attend and run for delegate status at their

county election and educate them that it is an ELECTION - driven process,

NOT an ISSUE-driven process.  (people tend to come out for the mourning

doves or feral cats or such, but if they do not come out every year to

elect delegates - since the delegates can vote anyway they want, the public

then has NO power to generate policy or respond to hunter-generated

policy.) All 360 delegates are from the rod and gun clubs - for 75 years!)

2.  To start a coalition to push the legislators to give us an ALTERNATE

LIVING WILDLIFE CONGRESS with a $24/year (comparable to a deer kill license

or the equivalent of $2/month) to give back to nature and help our

beleaguered wildlife.  This is coming from a DEMOCRACY not issue point of

view.  People will be all across the spectrum of attitudes toward wildlife

- some supporting hunters even if they do not kill.  But one way or

another, then we will all be giving back to nature and educating each other

and giving a voice to wildlife for the first time.  That is exciting!

In this time of massive human-caused species loss, human-caused climate

change, habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, the focus should not

be on more killing and orchestrating more violence in nature - it should be

on doing what we can to save who we can.  These are our wild brethren who

grace this world to give us balance and companionship and an ecosystem that

sustains us.  We are losing natural pollinators and amphibians at an

alarming rate.  We will find that we cannot live on this planet alone.  The

all killing system that is in place is not inclined to or interested in

biodiversity or protection of wildlife.  For 75 years, the so-called

Conservation Congress has used Wisconsin as a private game farm for their

own recreational killing field.  This is our most valuable commonwealth -

we are citizens too, and if they have a "Right" to kill, the we have a

RIGHT to protect.  Let's build that coalition and empower justice and life

for our wildlife.  They cannot vote, but we can.  We are the voice of the

voiceless - through us the innocent will speak. 

(Poster attached)

Patricia Randolph (former Dane County delegate to the Conservation

Congress, 1999-2002)