Wisconsin Act 168, a letter to the DNR and NRB

I will be sending some version of this letter to the DNR:
ssc.wisc.edu/~hemken/Huntin…

The only thing the climbing community really asks of the DNR is access. But if we don't ask, we won't get to keep it.

We have yet to determine if this letter will be from the Club or from a bunch of individuals, but the prevailing sentiment would suggest it will be an official Club letter.

Even if you are not a Club member, you are welcome to sign this letter with me. Reply here with your name and mailing address, or send me an email.

Thanks. The more people who join in the better. Tell your friends.

Passed it on to a few friends. I'll send you an e-mail, I'm interested in +1'ing this letter.

Looks good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Though, I think that climbing is not allowed at Gibraltor and Mill Bluff areas anyway. How well does the ice for off Burma Rd at DL? Any Beta you can PM me? Thanks

I don't know where the ice is, personally. Ask Burt!

The Nat. Res. Board votes next Tuesday. We'll see what consideration they (and the DNR) have given to climbing, and go from there.

On a side note, Master Planning is underway at High Cliff, but I see no mention of climbing in their documentation. This is another place where these issues have to be addressed sooner or later, or else we will eventually lose access there.

To me, the deeper issue in all of this is that the DNR should be considering climbing access in any of their planning, and they don't.

Regardless if there is ice to be climbed or not down in Pine Hollow (down and right of that sharp bend in Burma road past the car park and where it meets the fencing line of the old Amunitions plant grounds) the area will be affected greatly by these changes in hunting and trapping access and times of year in DLSTP... maybe more then anywhere else in the park.... this area is remote and may have the most attraction to hunters and trappers.

I don't know how many of you are keeping track, but the NRB voted on the new hunting & trapping in State Parks regs yesterday. I was only able to attend the first couple of hours, but what I saw was interesting.

In the end, the DNR moved a number of the boundaries they had proposed (and they were paying attention to what we said, not that they gave us everything we asked for). And the NRB decided to limit the expansion to the months of November and April.

The result for climbers is that some areas that have had hunting in the past will now be exempt (e.g. the Reserve, East & West of the Quarry), some areas will see more hunting (e.g. the Old Sandstone area, Qual Wall).

Next we see how the Gov's office and the Legislature react, I guess.

I fully support and applaud your efforts, but judging from the way the state government has been run for the past couple years I have a feeling you would be better off reading the letter and showing the maps to a brick wall.