Patrick Durkin
Time to Shame Wisconsin DNR’s Policy-Setting Board
You’ll have to excuse deer hunters around Wisconsin for faking a sneeze and blowing profanities into their elbows when asked about the...
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Patrick Durkin
Jun 26, 20214 min read
Policy Board Repeats its Wisconsin Deer Quota Fiasco
The man who brought the “County Deer Advisory Council” process to Wisconsin’s deer hunters in 2014 is the same man now doing the most to...
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Patrick Durkin
Jun 19, 20214 min read
Friendly Women and Old Men: Wooden Boats Summon Them
If superstitions about shoddy ship launchings were valid, I would have put my cedar-strip rowboat on Craig’s List the morning after its...
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Patrick Durkin
Jun 12, 20215 min read
Wisconsin Spring 2021 Turkey Kill Takes Expected Dip
Wisconsin hunters registered 37,179 turkeys during the six-week season ending June 1, a 17.3% decline from Spring 2020, according to...
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Patrick Durkin
Jun 6, 20215 min read
Squatter Prehn Taints Wis. Natural Resources Board
Like soured milk fouling the fridge after its expiration date, dentist/cranberry farmer Frederick Prehn of Wausau is tainting Wisconsin’s...
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Patrick Durkin
May 28, 20214 min read
Patient, Precise Shot on Turkey Secures Many Satisfying Firsts
Nearly a minute had passed since the longbeard strutted in to model and posture for our hen decoy. And there the gobbler stood, flexing...
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Patrick Durkin
May 21, 20214 min read
It's Finally Time to Put Golfing, Skiing Out of Their Misery
I gave up golfing and skiing this past week, only 39 years after I last golfed and 45 years after I last skied. Maybe I’m slow to catch...
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Patrick Durkin
May 15, 20214 min read
The Eastern Hognose Snake: An Award-Winning Actor
Every few years I stumble across an eastern hognose snake while hunting turkeys or morel mushrooms. And every time I respond much the...
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Patrick Durkin
May 7, 20214 min read
Divers Unravel Lines, Mysteries Among Lost Fishing Gear
The more you fish from boats, the more likely you’ll consign rods, reels, wristwatches, smartphones, boat anchors or entire tackle boxes...
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Patrick Durkin
May 2, 20214 min read
With Wolves, We Seldom Agree About Much
If you hear folks discussing Wisconsin’s gray wolves, try not to laugh when someone says, “I think we can all agree that …” No. When...
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Patrick Durkin
Apr 21, 20215 min read
Wis. Conservation Hearings: Record Year for Resolutions
One year after a record 64,943 people participated online in Wisconsin’s 2020 spring conservation hearings, one-fifth that number took...
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Patrick Durkin
Apr 17, 20215 min read
Photographers Value Fox vs. Sandhill Crane Encounters
Tony Peterson and Eric Christensen are veteran outdoors photographers who know the risks of leaving home without their cameras. Odds are,...
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Patrick Durkin
Apr 10, 20214 min read
Science Proves that Turkeys Make People Happy
State-employed biologists often suffer insomnia and facial tics caused by cranky hunters demanding more deer and bigger bucks. But before...
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Patrick Durkin
Apr 2, 20214 min read
Conservation Hall of Fame Inducts 4 Wisconsin Legends
No one enshrined in the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame gets fitted for a gold jacket with an iconic breast crest to wear for the...
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Patrick Durkin
Mar 27, 20215 min read
Over 80 DNR Jobs Vacant as State Navigates COVID-19
Unprecedented job vacancies in the Department of Natural Resources are hobbling Wisconsin’s fisheries and wildlife programs, especially...
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Patrick Durkin
Mar 19, 20214 min read
Wisconsin’s Perch Obsession Goes Beyond the Border
Folks who debate their eating preferences for crappies, bluegills, walleyes, yellow perch and northern pike must be rich or living...
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Patrick Durkin
Mar 12, 20214 min read
Remind Mr. Chairman that He Serves Wisconsin’s Public
One never knows what will set off the three silver-haired drama divas on Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board, the seven-citizen,...
1,323 views1 comment
Patrick Durkin
Mar 4, 20214 min read
Lake Chetek Surrenders a Big Late-Season Northern Pike
Someday I hope to pit Nach Peerenboom of De Pere against Tyler Florczak of Chetek to determine who has the best hunting and fishing...
203 views1 comment
Patrick Durkin
Feb 28, 20215 min read
Wisconsin’s Wolf Overharvest was Predictable, Preventable
No one monitoring Wisconsin’s wolf-management melodramas the past 25 years was shocked Feb. 24-25 as the Department of Natural Resources...
2,069 views1 comment
Patrick Durkin
Feb 20, 20214 min read
Green Bay’s Whitefish Boost Fun and Business
If Dan Lindal didn’t know better he might think every ice-angler goes home grinning with a heaping bag of whitefish reeled up from Green...
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