Wildlife

It drives me nuts how some of the local folks are so critical of the WDNR.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources seems to get blamed for about anything that involves wildlife - if it is bad.  

Too many deer, 

too many wolves, 

hunting season results, 

not enough wolves, 

too few deer, 

fishing rules, 

lack of fishing rules, 

and the list goes on.

One of the reasons that this gets my goat is that all of the employees of the WDNR, are residents of our state.  So, they are our friends, neighbors, and maybe even relatives.  I am somewhat biased since I have a nephew who works for the WDNR, but I felt the same way when I lived in Colorado.

The DNR is working to manage our natural resources, whether it be living or land or water.  Without management, some of these resources would be diminishing or be gone.

So, I say, let them do their job.  Give them the respect they deserve, involve yourself in the decisions that are made by the DNR boards and treat your local wardens, area managers, technicians and other DNR employees fairly.  Get off the bashing wagon and pay attention to what they really do and why they do it.

Okay, I'm off my soap box (for now).

***

On Friday afternoon I got a call from nephew Kris that he was headed to Rice Lake for a work assignment.  He was delivering an animal to a Wildlife Animal Rehab center just North of town.

It worked out that he could stop here after, and we had a very nice visit before he had to start his long drive back to Alma, WI.

It's always interesting to me to hear his news about his job, and also about his family.

We tend to agree on many social and political issues, so I enjoy our visits.

I'm interested in finding out more about the Wildlife Rehab place near here, maybe I'll be finding a new volunteer opportunity.

On a very silly note,
when Kris called to say what he was up to and where he was headed, I did a search using the voice feature on my phone to see if I could figure out where he was headed.
The results are somewhat shocking, confusing, funny and weird.
Sometimes, you have to laugh.
And think twice about eating out?