KAMO – September, 2023 Newsletter – 5 pages
For comments related to this document, contact Mike

President?s Remarks – Hello to all KAMO members and friends o f KAMO,
This is Mark Walters, the President of KAMO with my monthly update.Fourteen people, representing four chapters of KAMO met in Wisconsin Dells to plan our annual “Joe Hunt” and we had an excellent meeting.Kevin Seymour is the Huntmaster. Bob Brodeur is researching hunting properties. We could use some cooks and quite possibly an EMT to be on site for the weekend, although we?re working on that.
Something else that we discussed was background checks and that plan was secured at our state meeting last March. Unless I am mistaken, all KAMO members have to go through the process again as it is every five years and some folks may be long overdue.
I have had the pleasure of helping the Meadow Valley Chapter try to get their 2 kids a bear, we have one and have one to go. I will be sitting with Chase this Tuesday night. The following weekend I will be camping with 2 KAMO Kids as they try to harvest a whitetail deer during the statewide Youth Deer Hunt.
Right now I am getting into my truck and heading to Lansing, Iowa to take part in a very fun weekend of camping on an island on the Mississippi River with 18 friends and family members for Wisconsin’s “southern Wisconsin duck opener”.

As always, thanks for all that you do for KAMO!

Mark

Upcoming Seasons – Youth Gun Deer – October 7th and 8th,
Antlerless / Mac Kenzie – December 8th – 10th.

Planning meeting for the Mac Kenzie hunt (the ?Joe?) – Wisconsin Dells – September 11th.
Learn to Hunt regulations have changed. The hosting organization decides who can be in their LTH on the honor system. For convenience/ simplification sake, all the MacKenzie participants will be LTH. They can participate in this hunt a maximum of two times. They do not need a license and can shoot either sex (on private lands, it is up to the discretion of the landowner about whether does/ bucks can both be taken).
A Learn to Hunt program requirement is that participants attend 4 hours of training prior to the hunt. The final hour is taken as a group at the MacKenzie Center the Friday before the hunt.
The first three hours consist of range practice and whatever is in the lesson plan. A chapter can deliver the content of this 3 hours if one of their members delivering that content is a hunter ed instructor or they line an instructor up outside the chapter. If you do your own 3 hour class, you will have to turn in an attendance sheet for the activity to Kevin Seymour for our records prior to the hunting weekend.
Mentor Requirements: Must be of adult age. Must have substantial experience hunting species. 5 years is the number the DNR uses.
Each mentor must complete and pass a background check specific to the DNR – ?for Educational Skills Programs? prior to the hunt..The appropriate form is 4100-217- Revision 07/21 – it has a message in red on top of it. Once filled out and submitted, it will automatically trigger your next background check in five years.
Do not send in by fax – send in the regular mail. This process can take 6 – 8 weeks, thus it represents one of the biggest challenges deadline – wise. The need to get new mentors recruited early.
Mentors must turn in Novice Hunt Application (Mentor Form) to Kevin Seymour by October 17, 2023 and also make sure mentee and parents are made aware of requirements, forms, training and range times/ locations. At this writing, Kevin has received only 1 mentor application.

Mentee – Must attend 4 hours of training prior to hunt, 3 of which must be done before the Friday night before the hunt. The fourth hour is delivered at MacKenzie on Friday night.
A 3 hour course will take place at the New Lisbon Sports Club on Saturday, December 2nd from 9 am – 12 pm. The address there is W7311 Ceylon Road, Mauston, Wisconsin, 53948. Bob Nicksic can be contacted for more details – 608-479-1403.
Any participating chapter may run its own 3 hour course provided it is run by a certified hunter education instructor and adheres to the lesson plan (Kevin Seymour can provide)..
Mentees do not need a license – they will be provided a tag by the hunting supervisors.

Volunteers needed – One person to collect dorm fees and another person to serve as a certified first aid volunteer. Last year?s medical person is unable to attend this year.

Wisconsin DNR Master Plan – These are on a 15 year cycle.
Message from John Frank of the Friends of Mac Kenzie:

Are the leaders of the various KAMO chapters aware that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has just published a draft of a master plan for the Central Sands Hills area of the state, including specifically the MacKenzie Center?

The MacKenzie portion of the master plan offers four alternatives for the future of the site. The alternative may affect the use of the MacKenzie Center by KAMO, perhaps making it more available,
perhaps making it less available. The Friends of MacKenzie is concerned about at least two of the four alternatives because they could result in defunding some of the facilities that KAMO might be using. At this point I just wanted to give a FYI and to open communications, but public comments to DNR on the master plan must be in by November 2. Thought you and the leaders of the various KAMO groups should know.
Here is the link to the Central Sand Hills Master Plan draft. https://widnr.widen.net/s/whn6xwrnbm/fl_mp_vgoa_document_2023.
The part of the plan that pertains to the MacKenzie Center begins on page 76. Comments on the plan as it pertains specifically to the MacKenzie Center may be made by clicking on the DNR?s form at https://ua.dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/fl/PropertyPlanning/CentralSandHills or by email to the DNR planner at John.Pohlman@wisconsin.gov. Please note that there are separate forms for general comments on the plan as well as specific forms for only the MacKenzie Center and for Devils Lake State Park (the most heavily attended state park), so I believe that DNR anticipates a heavy response to the master plan for these two sites.
Individuals who are interested in reading a more voluminous and specific write up on the Mac Kenzie Friends concerns/ input, please let me know and I (Mike) can send it electronically.

Chapter Reports –
Baraboo – Our meeting was held at Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center and several mentors attended from other chapters including yourself and our President?Mark Walters. 14 Mentors worked on preparing for the upcoming Joe Hunt (learn to deer hunt), which will be held December 8?10th at the MacKenzie Center near Poynette,WI. Everyone is looking forward to this upcoming annual event and we decided to limit the youth hunters to 25 total. Huntmaster Kevin Seymour had some forms available and will be sending out an updated packet. Forms for K.A.M.O. Mentor, Novice and DNR Press Release are all due by October 27th, 2023. We discussed several topics and it was determined that kids will need to attend a required 3 hour safety training/learn to hunt meeting prior to the hunt (even if they have already passed Hunters Safety). We are allowed to start hunting Friday evening and ends by 10 AM Sunday. Everyone will need to return and help clean up the dorms and common areas before checking out and heading home. Meals will be provided for everyone Friday evening, 3 on Saturday and Sunday breakfast. Youth hunters will stay in the dorms at no charge, but mentors/adult helpers will pay $20/day to stay in dorms. Make sure to bring your own bedding and toiletries. We will finalize plans in the next month or so and plan to play Bingo again on Saturday night. Hats will be provided by the Meadow Valley Chapter again. If you have prizes to donate please bring them to the event.
In other news: Our small chapter had 76 hours working to get Kids Outdoors this past month. We finally received our KAMO T-shirts and they were handed out to our group. Mark Walters talked about the positive effects of a Community Facebook page. Our next meeting will be held Monday October 9th at Rivers Edge.
Thanks,
Greg

Coulee – Randy and Mike ran a hunter education class at the Omni Center on Saturday, September 2nd for a group of 11. Five were from KAMO.
We had a Best Dam Fishing Float outing on Sunday, September 10th. Our biggest float group ever with 6 mentors, 3 BBBS staff, 5 Big/ Little pairs, 3 KAMOKIDS and one KAMO parent. Every kid caught fish.
Campfire evening on the evening of Tuesday, September 12th at the Pettibone Park Lagoon Shelter. Fritz and Mike were joined by 8 BBBS pairs, 3 BBBS staff, nine kids from Boys and Girls and their 3 staffers, one parent with two KAMOKIDS for a total of 39. Kids could choose between playing Backyard Bass, throwing or kicking balls, roasting marshmallows and Smores.
The Backyard Bass is All you need is eight rods and reels and a rod carrier to go along with the game and you will have a highly interactive game the kids love for years to come.
Two mentors and two mentees went out on a scouting/ blind placement mission on a 150 acre Monroe County DMAP in preparation for the upcoming Youth Gun Deer hunt.

Dodge County Conservation – Kind of a slow month for our chapter. Will be having a Back to school campout at one of our Mentors House coming up on Oct 14th and 15th.. Will also be taking a few boys waterfowl hunting and at least one boy will be participating in the youth deer hunt. Working on getting things put together for the “JOE ” hunt . We will be holding a 3 hour class at the Pumpkin Center sportsmans club Oct. 22nd 9am till noon. As always, keep an eye on our facebook page and get a kid outside.
Jim B.

Meadow Valley – We had 3 people attend our meeting, so we did not have a meeting.
We have been heavily focused on the youth bear hunt, and we had 1 successful hunter along with memories that will last a lifetime.
A special thanks to James Newlun for all the assistance and the mentors Bob, Aaron, and Mark. Bob will be conducting the mandatory hunter safety training for the boys prior to the hunt.
Jim
Northwoods – Hello from the Northwoods,
It’s a great time of year with the fall colors peaking! We will be hosting our fall trap and pheasant hunt on October 14th. Kids with hunter safety will have a chance to shoot a flushed bird with a dog and a mentor in arms reach. Kids without their hunter safety will still be able to shoot clays with a certified instructor to learn proper techniques and gun handling. Our group has also acquired a large volume of snowshoes from the school district. This will add opportunities for several chapters coming up this winter. We are still waiting to hear back from our ice shack source from Minnesota. This will be a fun and busy month for sure, get out and enjoy it with some kids!
That’s all for now from the Northwoods, signing off,

Johnny Johnson from Florence Wisconsin. JJ