KAMO – August, 2022 Newsletter
For comments related to this document, contact Mike

Highlights from 8-29-2022 B.O.D. Teleconference – Moving forward with Joe Hunt plans – second weekend in December. Smaller kid group anticipated this year.New mentors would need DNR background check per LTH requirements. Do you plan to participate? Know of any kids? Would you be willing to work with contacting landowners in advance? Let your chapter president know.
Replacement of State President – Prepare and put ads in Wisconservation and Wisconsin Outdoor News publications. Send an ad email to the Conservation Congress. Ads are ready to go.
State Convention – March 25th, 2023. Centralized location and time to be announced. Bring your chapter?s laptop and someone will get you up to speed on a Gmail account and forms.
Treasurer provided the balance amount in the state account.

Insurance/Web Hosting renewals – Our liability insurance runs from October 17th – 17th of the following year each time it renews. We should be getting an invoice soon. When we pay it and get the new certificate, it will be sent to each chapter.
We also received notice that our QTH hosting fee is coming up. This is the company that keeps our site on their server. We are on a non profit rate that has been under $30 a year..
Learn to Hunt funding – We have received several cash donations from the family of Jim Tobias of Prescott. Jim passed away this summer and memorials have been sent in our direction intended to fund a learn to hunt event. Jim was an avid hunter. The family went on line doing a search for a youth outdoor hunting group to send the memorials to and came across the kamokids.org site
Hunter Education – The demand for hunter education certification classes is high. Minors can no longer do the online only. Our local (La Crosse) hunter ed group set up an internet field day class for 27 students for September 10th in Onalaska on GoWild and it filled up in 9 days. Whether a second September class is run depends on whether enough instructors would be available /become motivated to run another one.
Hunter education training is a crucial piece of ?tradition forward?. One would think that this time of year, it would be easy to get into a hunter ed class. If you log into GoWild.wi.gov and scroll down the homepage to ?safety education – Manage safety education? ?enroll? you will be directed to the student dashboard. By clicking on the green ?search for class? and choosing hunter class/ internet field day ?statewide?, you will notice that in some areas there may be several classes, and in other regions, there is nothing. We have several hunter education ?deserts? in Wisconsin.
Young people living in these desert areas who need certification have to choose between traveling two or more counties out to get into a class or go without certification until later. This demand/supply mismatch gives some people a problem to point at – inability of a dwindling supply of volunteers to keep up with the steady demand for classes. Solution – eliminate the face to face hands on hunter safety requirement entirely –
The demand for/ supply of classes dilemma is not lost on the Wisconsin Hunter Education Instructor Association (WHEIA) . In their summer newsletter, they talked about their version of R – 3 – finding and training new people and the reactivation of former instructors – getting them recertified. Some progress has already been made.
Having one or more hunter education instructors in your chapter or available to it can be a prudent move. Not only could your chapter shore up the supply of classes in your area, but a certified instructor is required to run the training portion of a learn to hunt – an instructor available gives your chapter more flexibility to have an LTH.
When you read the chapter reports, you?ll see that some chapters are actively involved with hunter ed..

Letter from R3 Coordinator Bob Nack
I?m sending this to people that participated in a Hunting Mentor Training Course provided by the DNR and R3 Partners (Pheasants Forever, National Wild Turkey Federation, and Becoming an Outdoorswoman) prior to the start of the health pandemic in 2020. At that time, you likely worked with Keith Warnke as the Hunter and Angler Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation (R3) Team Supervisor. I replaced Keith in that position in October 2021 and I am excited to be working with you and others that share a passion for introducing people to the outdoors.

Beyond my introduction, I?m writing to provide an update on R3 program work plans and how you can get involved. Current R3 Coordinators are listed below with their contact information. We are actively planning Learn to Hunt multi-day programs and one-day workshops around the state. The one-day workshop topics we are focusing on include ?Learn to Butcher and Process Deer? and ?Learn to Shoot?. The multi-day programs will cover a variety of game species depending on location and volunteer interest. The current list of events and a recorded webinar intended for people thinking about giving hunting a try can be found on the Learn to Hunt web page HERE.

At the time of the training you attended, there was discussion and interest in insurance coverage provided by the state to hunting program volunteers. However, following the training, DNR staff learned there were still some outstanding issues that needed to be addressed on the insurance topic. Soon after that the R3 supervisor position became vacant, the health pandemic set in, in-person programs were canceled, and no additional action on this topic has been taken since that time. Since this issue is new to me, I will work on clarification and next steps moving forward. For now, the Certificate of Protection letter that you may have received at the training is not valid. If you choose to continue mentoring activities, you will not be covered under that policy. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will provide updates on this topic as I have them. I hope to resolve this soon.

We are actively looking for people or groups of people to get involved this year with the intent to lead the program in future years with support from a R3 team member. I listed the R3 Coordinators below and the general topic area and location they are working in. Please reach out to one that best meets your area of interest. Thank you for your interest and participation. I look forward to working with you in the future.

Emily Iehl ? DNR Hunting and Shooting Sports Specialist (Emily.iehl@wisconsin.gov; (608) 445-8168)
Deer
Small game
Shooting sports
One-day workshops
Location: Statewide

Marty Moses ? Pheasants Forever R3 Coordinator (mmoses@pheasantsforever.org; (608) 712-8625)
Upland gamebird
Small game
Location: Southern Wisconsin

John Motovilof ? National Wild Turkey Federation R3 Coordinator (jmotoviloff@nwtf.net; (608) 419-0041)
Turkey
Waterfowl
Small game
Location: Western Wisconsin

Peggy Farrell ? Becoming an Outdoorswoman Director (pfarrell@uwsp.edu; (715) 346-4681)
BOW programs
Turkey
Deer
Shooting sports
Location: Central Wisconsin

Chapter Reports
Baraboo – The Baraboo Chapter had its meeting on August 8 at Kevin Seymour’s house as our normal meeting place is overrun with tourists during the summer months. It is a nice change of venue when we can sit around a campfire away from the busyness of life, even if only for a couple hours. Greg Wagner’s son is doing a scout project which involves building and installing 4 boot cleaning stations to help stop the spread of invasive species. These stations would be placed at different DNR approved sites around the local area. Jon Hillmer offered spare lumber and hardware that he has, to aid in the construction of these stations and our chapter has pledged to help with any additional costs to complete them. Just as a reminder as we are determined to have the Joe hunt this year Dec. 9-11 and it seems like a long way off, but it will come quickly, so please be looking for participants and keeping your own schedules clear for that weekend. We may need some additional help and support as this years event may be a little different than years past. As we all know, change is inevitable, and the great men and women will work through those changes. Thank you for all the effort in handing something down to the next generation. Tradition Forward
Rick Miotke

Coulee – We hosted an outing at Holmen Rod and Gun on August 2nd. 6 kids and 5 parents were in attendance. Big Brothers/Big Sisters held an event at Chad Erickson MemorialPark on Saturday, August 20th. Mike went there to help kids use the KAMO poles on the pond there. He talked to staff there and some partnering between our two groups is a possibility.
Tim and Scott took a family to a private property to shoot shotguns. One child from this family will be participating in the youth duck hunt with Tim. Mike has been preparing to have a hunter education class at Brice Prairie in September. One mentor, Randy, is making preparations to take a kid out for the Youth Deer Gun Hunt on a DMAP property. If you are looking for a place to hunt deer in you area,this DMAP program is accessible to all chapters. There are properties in your area.

Dodge County Conservation – Dodge County Conservation Chapter Taught their first hunters safety class to 14 students. One Mother participated along with her son. They all passed and on Tuesday the 16th they were invited out for a night of trap shooting. The Beaver Dam Trap team donated the shells and the BD Gun Club the Targets. Fun was had by the kids that came. Another class will be discussed at our next monthly meeting on the 30th. 6.00 pm at Tower lanes in Beaver Dam .
We will be sponsoring a boat in a kids fishing tournament on the 3rd of September in Fox lake . We will have a booth as well in the park that day and will be giving away some prizes when the fishing is complete. Sept !8th we will be holding a Learn to Kayak day along with a scavenger hunt. 10.00 am to 3.00 pm at Waterworks Park in Beaver Dam. Lots going on and lots of things in the works. Stay tuned to this web-site and our Facebook page as well

Lake Wisconsin – working with Baraboo Chapter to start getting ready for the Joe Hunt, KAMO?s Cadillac event..

Meadow Valley – Did not meet in August.

Northwoods – No activity to report from August.

Yellow River – Yellow River- we had one potential new mentor attend our August meeting. Plans have been finalized for the Central Wisconsin Outdoor Youth Day (Sept. 10) at the Central Wisconsin Sportsman’s Club in Marshfield where we will have a KAMO display. Youth and mentors from all KAMO groups are welcome to attend. See July KAMO newsletter for additional information.

Keith Merkel