• New hunter education graduates in Wisconsin can hunt small game for free during their first season.
• The free hunting period is valid from the date the certificate is issued through March 31 of the following year.
• This exemption allows hunting for species like squirrels, rabbits and pheasants without purchasing a small game license.
• Deer carcass dumpsters are expected to be available in Manitowoc County starting around Nov. 2.

New hunter education graduates in Wisconsin can hunt small game for free during their first hunting season.

For Wisconsin residents, a hunter education certificate issued this year may be used instead of a small game hunting license from the date of issuance through March 31 of the following year. Those who qualify do not need to buy a small game license during that period.

With a hunter education completion certificate, hunters can pursue squirrels, cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hares, pheasants, ruffed grouse, crows, raccoons, foxes and coyotes.

They also may hunt woodcock and mourning doves if they first complete Federal Harvest Information Program registration through Go Wild.

Ducks, geese, rails, snipe, common gallinules, coots, moorhens and mergansers require a federal waterfowl stamp for hunters older than 16, as well as HIP registration. Goose hunting also requires state early and regular season goose permits.

First-time graduates are exempt from purchasing pheasant and state stamps while the certificate is valid for small game hunting.

The certificate does not allow the holder to trap furbearers without an additional trapping license. It also does not allow the holder to hunt turkeys. Fall or spring turkey hunters must purchase the required license, stamp and harvest authorization.

Hunters who plan to go out right after completing a hunter education course should carry the physical copy of their temporary completion certificate while hunting. Instructors provide the temporary paper certificate at the end of the course.

Once the permanent completion certificate appears in a Go Wild customer account, hunters can download a PDF to keep on their phone or present a Wisconsin driver’s license or Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Go Wild conservation card.

Hunters should check individual species season dates and follow all hunting regulations. For questions, call DNR customer service at 888-936-7463. Call center staff are available seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. More information about small game hunting is available on the DNR website.

Deer dumpsters expected in Manitowoc County in early November

I was going to wait to report this, but I have been getting calls about the deer dumpsters.

At the August Manitowoc County Fish and Game directors meeting, it was mentioned that deer dumpsters would be placed out on or about Nov. 2 this year.

In past years, dumpsters were placed out just before the start of the nine-day deer season later in November. The concern this year was the smell and the possibility of warmer weather in early November, but it was decided to give it a try.

Delta Waterfowl leaders attend signing of hunting heritage order

Delta Waterfowl leaders attended the presidential signing of an executive order titled “Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage.”

CEO Jason Pharpe was on hand for the announcement of the order, which directs agencies to increase hunting access, restore refuges, enhance habitat and recruit hunters.

President Donald Trump signed the executive order, which is intended to boost the quality and traditions of hunting in the United States. The order recognizes the role hunters and landowners play in American conservation and directs agencies to focus on several priorities.

Those priorities include expanding hunting opportunities on federal land; completing construction, repair and maintenance on federal land for recreation and wildlife management; improving the administrative process for authorizing migratory bird seasons while working with flyways and affirming the importance of annual surveys and data collection; encouraging the expansion of Sunday hunting on state and federal lands; promoting the growth of game populations through voluntary agreements with private landowners and producers to conserve and enhance habitat; and validating targeted predator management and other actions aimed at bolstering game production.

“We sincerely appreciate the president’s executive order as it highlights a number of Delta’s priorities for ducks and duck hunters,” Pharpe said. “Having the president affirm the need for access, addressing infrastructure needs on public land, enhancing habitat through agreements with willing landowners, and ensuring waterfowl hunting regulations are based on the best available data are all core needs. We appreciate the president’s leadership.”

The executive order also highlights the need to partner with states on hunter recruitment efforts and hunter education, including the possibility of federal funding to assist those efforts.

“We stand ready to work with the administration to fully realize these important and lofty goals outlined by the president,” Pharpe said.

That’s it for this week, so have fun in the great outdoors.

Outdoors columnist Bob Schuh’s “Scoping the Great Outdoors” column appears each Sunday in the Herald Times Reporter. Reach him at 920-682-3106 or bobschuh@lsol.net.