"I have been writing articles for years to encourage groups to start working together at this level," said Ron Leys of the Conservation Congress and also a retired outdoors writer and editor.  "I am honestly touched by this gathering."

Ron and others were impressed with the number of participants which provided countless networking opportunities.  People also had the chance to talk to state representatives who attended such as Senator Alice Clausing, Representative Al Ott and Senator Kevin Shibilski. 

Breakout sessions ran throughout the day on Saturday for people to discuss WSN’s priority issues.  Skills workshops were also offered to help people improve their efforts in contacting their representatives, public speaking, learning new legal tactics when addressing environmental issues and how to work with print and television media effectively. 
 

Highlights of the meeting included:

• An important discussion between leaders from the Conservation Congress, WSN steering committee members and  meeting attendees. The focus of the discussion centered  how we can strengthen ties between the Conservation Congress and the Stewardship Network.  In all, eight congress members attended including congress president, Steve Oestreicher and vice president Dick Chier.

• The eighteen member WSN Steering Committee decided to add  the renewal of the Wisconsin Stewardship Fund as a new priority issue.  Many sportsmen and environmentalists believe that additional investment for the Stewardship Fund and an expanded program to cover more areas is a smart choice for the future. 

• UW-Stevens Point Professor and outdoors woman, Christine Thomas gave a rousing keynote speech on Saturday which included a challenge to the crowd to "activate the 858 sporting and conservation groups to take action."  Her talk was followed by a lengthy standing ovation. 

Recommendations from the issue breakout sessions included:

• Support legislation which would return the DNR secretary appointment process to the Natural Resources Board and demand a public hearing on the bill.

• Support  the town of Nashville’s legal defense fund to overturn the local agreement with Rio Algom.  The sulfide mining committee also recommends researching federal guidelines which govern water quality to find ways to protect rivers and lakes from mine pollution.

• Support legislation which would enforce a waiting period on granting applications to new large scale animal factory farms until environmental protection programs are in place to deal with the waste problems.

• Work on a county by county level to enforce shore lands 75 foot setback rules which exist statewide and also design a strategy to educate lake shore property owners about the need to protect natural shorelands.