Court of Appeals hearing on Thursday

[fishnpole]

DNR Lawsuit Hearing Set for November 20th                                                               
Attorney Erick Kaardal encourages everyone who can, to attend!
 
The Court of Appeals hearing date has been set!
 
The good news today from Attorney Erick Kaardal is that oral arguments before the Court of Appeals is set for November 20th. That means a Court of Appeals decision would be made around February 20.
 
Attorney Erick Kaardal encourages everyone who can, to attend this hearing.
 
The Court of Appeals hearing will be at held:
November 20 at 9:30 AM
Courtroom 100 in the Minnesota Judicial Center
25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in St. Paul.
 
While the pursuit of justice is impartial, a big show of support goes a long way in letting everyone looking in on this judicial process (including the media) know a grassroots movement exists. It lets them know we are committed to preserving our fishing heritage, the Mille Lacs fishery, and it's economy.

Show support for ending the Mille Lacs mess! Are you a friend of Mille Lacs? Do you agree Minnesota government must end treaty management and its intolerable impacts on our Mille Lacs sport-fishing heritage—the fish, the economy, and Mille Lacs-connected people near and far? You can demonstrate support for Mille Lacs in St. Paul on Thursday Nov. 20 — 9:30 a.m., in Courtroom 100 at the Minnesota Judicial Center, 25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. A three- judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in a Mille Lacs-related lawsuit wherein two citizen groups, a resort, and two individuals take on the Minnesota DNR for failing to protect our Mille Lacs fishing heritage. Whatever the legal merits of this particular case, and wherever it goes, all friends of Mille Lacs can agree that the severe destruction and damage to our fishing heritage must end now! State officials must scrap their callous indifference and end the misguided policies that have ruined the Mille Lacs heritage—for anglers, for businesses, and for thousands of longtime Mille Lacs lovers. CITIZEN DISCONTENT IS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH—AND JUSTIFIABLY SO! Intolerable costs: • LAKEʼS IMAGE WRECKED! Thank DNRʼs Mille Lacs-related press releases, publications, road shows, and headline stories about fish-population surveys, fish harvests, the latest allowable harvests and angling regs, etc. Fisheries science is fine, but DNRʼs one-of-a-kind Mille Lacs treaty management pushes a public-relations nightmare. • ANGLERS AVOIDING MILLE LACS! Boat counts and angler-hours on the lake have plummeted! Accesses and once-popular fishing grounds are often empty—even at prime times and under ideal conditions. Why? Misperceptions about no walleyes; extremist management; and lots of folks just plain fed up with it all. • OPTIMISM DESTROYED! The black cloud never lifts. Stressed-out Mille Lacs folks face endless hassle and uncertainty. Who can be happy and optimistic? DNRʼs treaty management brings ever-changing allowable harvests, hooking-mortality penalties, and tight angling restrictions. Mille Lacs canʼt win. If fish numbers are high or low, if fishing is fast or slow, itʼs scary news. • GILLNETTING GAME FISH? Gillnetting walleyes, northern pike, and muskies—especially on spawning grounds—is culturally offensive to most Minnesotans. In many minds, the mere presence of gill nets (a handful, or miles of ʻem) makes Mille Lacs a “netted lake,” a “crashed” fishery, and “another Red Lake.” What a p.r disaster! • ANTI-DNR FEELINGS RUN DEEP! DNR Fisheries managers are sharp biologists and good people. But their political loyalty to the flawed treaty-management system has been bad for all involved, including Mille Lacs walleyes and DNR! Fisheries personnel admit to “backward” management and unwise regulation, so why donʼt state leaders fight the system? Remember, no treaty and no court ordered tribal managers to permit eight Chippewa bands (six from Wisconsin) to gillnet Mille Lacs walleye spawners. And Minnesota governmentʼs hands are not tied. They can, and must, work to end the mess! Call it a grassroots movement, a revolution, or wronged citizens rightfully challenging their government. The Mille Lacs sport-fishing community near and far demands action.

[HD]

 

[Lee Borgersen]

 

[fishnpole]

Radical times call for radical action on the part of the DNR. Here's an in-depth look at some legal steps to return Mille Lacs to the lake it always has been before treaty management.
http://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=jplp

Mille Lacs remains the ONLY lake in Minnesota that is netted during the spawning season. Maybe the whole world.

The species HAS to be able to reproduce to survive. Just look at the hatches we had the last 2 years with late ice-outs and very little netting.

Until that regulation is made that there will be no fish taken (by anyone) until after the spawn, all the other regulations they make won't do anything but wreck the lake's balance more.

An excerp from the GLIFWC spearing and netting regs show that even the tribes know that netting during the spawn is bad and have a closed season on every lake BUT Mille Lacs:
http://www.glifwc.org/Regulations/MN_SpearingNetting.pdf

Lakes other than Mille Lacs.
Net fisheries in lakes other than Mille Lacs are intended to provide opportunity for subsistence harvest of walleye; so muskellunge and sturgeon may not be kept, nor can northern pike in excess of the bag limit, nor can commercial nets be
set. Subsistence gillnetting is allowed from June 1 to March 1 in any lake that is 1,000 acres or larger and in all lakes identified in
9.08(2) of the Model Code. In lakes 1,000 acres or larger, the allowable mesh sizes (bar) are 1.5 to 1.75 inches. In identified lakes under 1,000 acres, only 1.75 inch mesh (bar) may be used. Nets may be up to 100 feet in length and 4 feet deep.

Mille Lacs Lake.
Gillnetting in Mille Lacs Lake is allowed year around. Only subsistence netting may occur from March 2 - May 31.
Subsistence nets during this and other times may be up to 100 feet in length and 4 feet deep. The allowable mesh sizes (bar) for subsistence nets during this and other times are 1.25 to 1.75 inches. From June 1 - March 1 both subsistence and commercial netting may be authorized. If authorized by your tribe, allowable mesh sizes (bar) for commercial nets are the same as for subsistence nets (i.e. 1.25 to 1.75 inches); however, commercial nets may be up to 300 feet in length and six feet in depth. All nets must comply with lifting, marking, and safety requirements. For gill-nets targeted at tullibee, only 1.75 inch mesh (bar) is authorized.

The mesh sizes still target young males. This was a big problem that was condemned two years ago, but now seems to be just fine with management.

[snow1]

Lets get on this guiyz!!!!!

The bases are loaded,we need a grand slam!


We are hoping for standing room only to let Judges know this is effecting all Minnesotans, their heritage and the Mille Lacs Lake Walleye population.

When: November 20 at 9:30 am
Where: Minnesota Judicial Center,
25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
Courtroom 100
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101

Now we are asking, will you be part of this coalition?
“Join us on November 20th at the Minnesota Judicial Center to
build a grassroots movement that will strengthen us all.”

– PERM,
– Save Mille Lacs Sport Fishing,
– Twin Pines Resort,
– Bill Eno,
– Fred Dally,
and Attorney Erick Kaardal

THIS DEAL IS DOABLE!

[fishnpole]

I was at the hearing. There was a decent turnout with 60-70.
Kardaal presented our case for 15 minutes. The attorney for the DNR then got up and tried to say that the DNR is free to make decisions without having to answer to anyone concerning the Heritage Ammendment, because that ammendment was meant more for legislators than an operational guideline for the Department of Natural Resources. He wouldn't directly answer the judges questions, instead he said "suppose the fishing was good, right now" and stuff that sidestepped what the judges were asking.

When asked about the open season for walleye on Mille Lacs, he didn't have a clue.

When asked about the other regulations, he didn't know.

It's funny that the DNR actually found an attorney that is as lost as they are.

When asked about the economic repercussions of the regulations, he said he didn't think the regulations had anything to do with any financial repercussions, which is one of three criteria of a lawsuit.

He claims that the DNR isn't responsible for there not being a healthy population of walleye in the lake.

The decision will be announced by February 20th.

[Lee Borgersen]

  Our thanks goes out to fishnpole and snow1 for keeping everyone abreast regarding this DNR debacle. Also for being a part of the grass roots efforts on behalf of the common sense folks being effected by all this.   

[fishnpole]

Thanks to PERM, SMLSF and all the supporters that have joined with Bill and his family, Fred and his, Bob's, mine and yours to try and get our voices heard on the Mille Lacs issues that are being run rough shod by "treaty management".

I just have to ask .................
Why is Mille Lacs the ONLY lake in the country that is netted during the spawning season for walleyes?

There's a forty-year low population?

The DNR can't figure out why?

GLIFWC netting regs

GILL-NETS:
Your tribe must have declared a quota for a lake to be available for netting. You may not use nets on a lake at the same time that spearing is taking place (except on Mille Lacs Lake). Rivers are closed to gillnetting. You must possess a valid permit to use a gill net. A monitor must be present when the net is lifted.

Lakes other than Mille Lacs.

Net fisheries in lakes other than Mille Lacs are intended to provide opportunity for subsistence harvest of walleye; so muskellunge and sturgeon may not be kept, nor can northern pike in excess of the bag limit, nor can commercial nets be set. Subsistence gillnetting is allowed from June 1 to March 1 in any lake that is 1,000 acres or larger and in all lakes identified in
9.08(2) of the Model Code. In lakes 1,000 acres or larger, the allowable mesh sizes (bar) are 1.5 to 1.75 inches. In identified lakes under 1,000 acres, only 1.75 inch mesh (bar) may be used. Nets may be up to 100 feet in length and 4 feet deep.

Mille Lacs Lake.

Gillnetting in Mille Lacs Lake is allowed year around. Only subsistence netting may occur from March 2 - May 31.
Subsistence nets during this and other times may be up to 100 feet in length and 4 feet deep. The allowable mesh sizes (bar) for subsistence nets during this and other times are 1.25 to 1.75 inches. From June 1 - March 1 both subsistence and commercial netting may be authorized. If authorized by your tribe, allowable mesh sizes (bar) for commercial nets are the same as for subsistence nets (i.e. 1.25 to 1.75 inches); however, commercial nets may be up to 300 feet in length and six feet in depth. All nets must comply with lifting, marking, and safety requirements. For gill-nets targeted at tullibee, only 1.75 inch mesh (bar) is authorized.

IT"S THE ONLY LAKE I CAN FIND IN THE WHOLE WORLD THAT IS NETTED DURING THE SPAWNING SEASON.

It's also the only one GLIFWC commercially nets w/300ft gillnets.

Why does the Ojibwe Nation want to fish Mille Lacs out?

What do they have to gain?

Why is our DNR letting them?

Stay tuned to this channel for the answer to this and more............


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