{"id":3642,"date":"2024-09-17T06:10:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T11:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/?p=3642"},"modified":"2024-09-17T06:10:09","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T11:10:09","slug":"the-public-are-our-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/the-public-are-our-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"The Public Are Our Partners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Warden<\/a>By WDNR Warden Ed McCann, a member of the Mississippi River Warden Team\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

DNR Conservation Warden Ed McCann of La Crosse was just about to take his first bite of his Thanksgiving dinner with his family when the phone rang.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey Ed, someone just shot a swan<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fork goes down, hand grabs truck keys and Warden Ed is off to one of the biggest water enforcement areas around \u2013 the Mississippi River and its pools, basins and marshes. This is where Warden Ed works as a member of the Mississippi River Warden Team, based in La Crosse.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it on this Thanksgiving, another DNR warden was going to call it a day when Warden Ed arrived and relayed the news that the warden\u2019s Thanksgiving shift was not quite a done deal.<\/p>\n

And the two wardens took off in their boat because, \u201csomebody shot a swan<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHey,\u201d a guy in a boat yells to the passing wardens. \u201cSomeone shot a swan. He\u2019s down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wardens motor on.<\/p>\n

Another waterfowl hunter yells to the wardens about someone shooting a swan and points the wardens in the right direction.<\/p>\n

This escort of sorts, courtesy of alert hunters and strategically pointed fingers, leads the wardens to the shooter. \u201cHappens every year,\u201d Warden Ed said, \u201cSomebody shoots a swan\u2026 or swans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Swan\"<\/a>Violations like these, Warden Ed says, make the law-abiding hunters look bad. \u201cThe public wants us to get these law-breakers as much as we do,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd wardens really rely upon the public\u2019s eyes and ears to help us because there are more of them than us.\u201d<\/p>\n

What other violation tips does Warden Ed get from the public? \u201cHunting in a closed area. People shooting wood ducks during the teal season. And another big issue that really bothers people is not retrieving game.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the law-abiding waterfowl hunter, if you are following the laws and hunting in an ethical manner \u2013 Warden Ed says you may never have an encounter with a warden beyond the friendly banter of the occasional license check.<\/p>\n

To the person out to skirt the laws, possibly harm the resource, put others at risk and interfere with the enjoyment of other hunters, you should know this: wardens are out there even if you don\u2019t readily see them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat may keep this certain population honest \u2013 the ones thinking about getting away with something \u2013 is not seeing us on duty. It\u2019s not knowing where we are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Consider this, he adds, a group may be checked without ever knowing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may sit and observe a hunting group from a distance for a while. If we don\u2019t see a violation, we move on. In essence, we did a check without any direct contact. On the other hand, we may sit and observe a group break a law \u2013 and then approach them to talk about the violations they have no idea we have witnessed.<\/p>\n

Best advice?<\/p>\n

\u201cEnjoy your time afield and obey the regulations. It really is that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, if you do observe a violation, wardens are only a phone call away (or might be watching already<\/em>!).<\/p>\n

If you have information regarding natural resource violations, you may confidentially report by calling or texting:<\/em> VIOLATION HOTLINE: 1-800-TIP-WDNR or 1-800-847-9367.<\/strong> The hotline is in operation<\/em> 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.<\/strong> Trained staff relay report information to conservation wardens.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WDNR Warden Ed McCann, a member of the Mississippi River Warden Team\u00a0 DNR Conservation Warden Ed McCann of La Crosse was just about to take his first bite of his Thanksgiving dinner with his family when the phone rang. \u201cHey Ed, someone just shot a swan.\u201d Fork goes down, hand grabs truck keys and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-words-from-the-wardens"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3644,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3642\/revisions\/3644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}