 |
|
|
| 2/27/2009 9:57:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | LdF Tribe will go to referendum in efforts to spear more walleye
Border battle between Mole Lake and Lac du Flambeau threatens to lower bag limits
Spearers from the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians attempted this same process last season and simply ran out of time, according to tribal president Carl Edwards.
This year, spearers of the Lac du Flambeau are taking the same route by saying they want more and need more fish, and that the tribe should eliminate the current agreement with the State of Wisconsin opening Pandora's box for negotiations on bag limits for hook and line fishermen on non-reservation lakes declared by the tribe.
The current agreement between the state and tribe was signed back in April 1997 between then-DNR secretary George Meyer and then-tribal president Tom Maulson.
That agreement has stayed in place and since then allowed bag limits for hook and line fishermen to be set by the state. Those limits were determined by the safe harvest predictions and not allowed to drop below three fish per day.
But now that could all change should a Lac du Flambeau membership referendum vote choose to eliminate the agreement signed by Maulson.
No agreement - no guaranteed three walleye bag limit for fishermen.
The new agreement could be amended to keep walleye bag limits at three fish per-day for non-tribal anglers, but members of the LdF tribal council expressed concern that their tribe needs more fish and voted to go to referendum to let the membership decide if the agreement should be renegotiated.
Some tribal members though aren't sold on the idea of lowering bag limits and say that opening the book would have a significant economic downturn in profits at their main revenue sources, especially the Lake of the Torches Resort Casino.
"One of the main purposes of the agreement is public relations," Edwards said in a letter to the tribal membership. "We are in bad economic times and we need all of our businesses to produce revenues in order to get through this economic downturn."
Another coal that seems to be fueling the fire is a competition for lakes between the Mole Lake and Lac du Flambeau bands.
With Flambeau's agreement with the state in place, even if the Mole Lake band were to declare a lake in the Vilas and Oneida County area, no more fish than what was allotted to keep the bag limits at three were allowed to be speared.
In essence, the two tribes would get equal amounts from a specific lake if declared by both. What the agreement has limited is the number of fish that could be taken from a specific lake no matter what or how many tribes had declared it as a lake they intended to spear.
However with no agreement, the waters of Vilas and Oneida counties would be open for any tribe to spear with a greater number of fish inevitably being taken.
In addition to the lost money in tourism that Edwards and other LdF leaders fear is inevitable with the change in bag limits goes profits from tribal licenses that the state currently allows the tribe to keep.
When the tribe first entered into the agreement, the tribal membership passed a referendum to do so. By approving the contract with the state, area lakes outside reservation boundaries maintained the three walleye bag limit in return for the LdF band being recognized as a sovereign nation.
In turn, it allowed the sale of tribal and state fishing licenses within the boundaries of the reservation.
Funds gathered through license sales from 2006-08 was $50,000 annually. Those funds were sent directly toward management of reservation fisheries.
No agreement, no funds.
The Lac du Flambeau band is the only Chippewa Tribe that has the agreement with the state. Other tribes typically declare a higher percentage of fish and bag limits are then set accordingly. What this typically means in most cases for anglers is a two-daily limit instead of three.
Tribes must declare by March 15 which lakes they intend to spear and a specific number of walleye they intend to take. The state then takes a comparative look at the safe catch percentage based on shock or historical data and adjusts bag limits accordingly.
If the agreement is eliminated, the tribe could declare a percentage up to nearly 90 percent of the allowable catch and therefore the state would have to lower bag limits and in some cases eliminate them completely by saying no walleyes can be taken from a specific lake.
Some lakes in other tribal areas are met with this fate as they have no agreement in place that protectively limits the number of walleye that can be speared to keep a three bag limit.
Once spearing numbers are in, bag limits are typically adjusted to reflect what number of walleye were actually speared. This, however, comes after what is typically the busiest fishing month of the year which is why many area leaders are worried about a drastic impact on the number of walleye and muskie fishermen coming to the Oneida and Vilas county lakes.
For example, last season, the safe harvest number set by the state for the Turtle Flambeau Flowage was 4,511 walleye. Of that number, the bands of the Superior Chippewa were only allowed to declare 2,480 fish in order to keep the posted bag limit at three.
One-thousand were declared by the Bad River tribe and 1,480 by the Lac du Flambeau band.
Actual harvest numbers for the Turtle Flambeau were 1,880, well below the 2,480 declaration.
Had the agreement between the tribe and the state not been in place, the 2,480 walleye limit would be eliminated and the declaration number could have been raised, allowing the tribe to spear more fish.
Not knowing exactly how many fish would be speared, the DNR would have to set the bag limits accordingly for the opening of fishing under the assumption the total allotment declared by the tribes were to be taken.
Once spearing numbers came back, and officials see how many walleye were speared, bag limits could then be adjusted.
An administrative rule passed by the state Natural Resources Board in 1998 allows the department to adjust initial bag limits annually to reflect actual spring spearing harvests and projected summer harvests.
Edwards said that the agreement paved the way for a better working relationship with the DNR, chambers of commerce, businesses and communities.
Should this come to fruition and the tribe decides to eliminate the agreement, the state could inevitably take the joined members of the Chippewa Nation to court and fight to regain the three walleye bag limit.
The six Chippewa tribes together declared a harvest of 51,683 walleye for 2008 and had harvested 27,856 as of May 19, 2008.
According to spring fish harvest data supplied by the tribe, in 2007 Lac du Flambeau spearers declared 12,541 walleye out of about 80 lakes between Oneida Vilas, Price and Iron counties.
According to the document, the actual harvest was 87 percent of 12,541, or 10,922 walleye.
The largest harvest the tribe recorded in the last five years was in 2003, when spearers took 11,482 walleye. That year the tribe declared 15,099.
Doug Etten can be reached via email at detten@lakelandtimes.com.
|
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, March 02, 2009
Article comment by:
Joyce Brown
Don't they realize the domino effect of increasing their harvest. More fish speared means lowered bag limits for sportsmen, which means less fishermen during the summer and fall, which means an empty casino? Who do they think are the main gamblers at their casino? This doesn't even take into account the complete loss of any goodwill between the tribe and the residents of the surrounding towns and the State of Wisconsin. The loss of tourism dollars and casino revenue would completely negate the value of the additional fish harvested.
|
Comment on this story
|
|
|
|
