Mn DNR Chief said he would be threatened to loose his job!

At their meeting with DNR Fisheries personnel on Thursday evening, Feb. 27, Mille Lacs Input Group members and those in the audience heard Minnesota DNR Fisheries chief Don Pereira, in a moment of surprising candor, say he’d likely lose his job if he backed the Input Group’s calls for changing Mille Lacs state-tribal fish allocations and related treaty management.

For years we’ve heard the familiar line: “Yeah, well, if those Fisheries guys challenge the system, and stand up for us, they’ll get FIRED! Now, in a public forum, we heard the Fisheries chief himself say he’d get fired if he challenged the gillnetting and the treaty management system (and, what he called, its constraints).

He was responding to Input member calls for state government action to change a bad system that’s got Mille Lacs anglers, businesses and people (and even DNR Fisheries guys) trapped in never-ending hassle and bad stuff.

Time to change whom runs St.Paul from the Governor on down.

Including my State Representative in Chaska, Rep. Joe Hoppe.
after numerous phone messages and emails, he fails to reply to anything to do with AIS.

Yet, on other subjects he replies within hours.

Sometimes ya gotta stand up for what’s right … even IF it costs ya yur nice cushy at-the-public-teet position

Although I agree, they didn’t get to that position by having a backbone @desperado

I’ve heard him use that line for other situations that are hot potatoes. Problem is, in my thinking you don’t get to keep your job by opting out of problems.

Shouldn’t he be threatened with losing his job if he isn’t doing it? It seems to me that anglers are paying for part of his salary…how much do the indians contribute?

These topics can become touchy, and I’m not looking to start a fight, but with all do respect do we as anglers, business owners, and non native people have any right to change the Mille Lacs state-tribal fish allocations and related treaty management? I don’t feel like we have any rights to change something that was never rightfully ours in the first place. I am not Native American, as if that should matter, but I am an angler who loves to hunt and fish, and always want whats best for each ecosystem. I don’t think that netting large quantities of fish is healthy for the lake by any means, but that is something that we as anglers/business owners are going to have to put up with.

It’s not so much the nets, it’s the fact they net during the spawn. Taking fish out of the system before they spawn year after year is the issue. I’m pretty sure most anglers would accept the slot if the nets weren’t being used during the spawn. To most it makes no logical sense and then for the DNR to blame the sport fishing and eco system for their failures is laughable.

Contrary to what the media and DNR would have you believe race has nothing to do at all with the way Mille Lacs anglers feel.

no, it’s the nets

I’d feel the same way about that amount of fish being taken by that few of individuals via that method no matter what time of year it is . . .
if a fish was gill netted in Oct or Nov of 2014, it wouldn’t spawn in the spring of 2015 just like a fish that’s gill netted in March of 2015 won’t

but you’re correct it has absolutely nothing to do with race

Tonka wrote:

These topics can become touchy, and I’m not looking to start a fight, but with all do respect do we as anglers, business owners, and non native people have any right to change the Mille Lacs state-tribal fish allocations and related treaty management? I don’t feel like we have any rights to change something that was never rightfully ours in the first place. I am not Native American, as if that should matter, but I am an angler who loves to hunt and fish, and always want whats best for each ecosystem. I don’t think that netting large quantities of fish is healthy for the lake by any means, but that is something that we as anglers/business owners are going to have to put up with.

This is the 21st century and the term “equal rights” sort of sticks in my craw with this issue. I am white, upper to late middle age….can I go to Mille Lacs and net fish at the same time as the Indians? If no, why not. And if no, why can they but I not? Explain this without sounding or using any degree of prejudice.

Now, I have for the last two years watched as high tower electrical transmission lines chewed their way thru untold miles of farmland, all on the premise of eminent domain. The land did not belong to the utility company but the government forced the sale to allow this. Lake Mille Lacs falls inside the boundaries of Minnesota and if the Indians want to claim it, why cannot the state force eminent domain policy on it and tell the indians to go back to Wisconsin and net there if this practice is so sacred to them?

This is the biggest case of racial bias I have ever seen only in reverse. Its time for the lawmakers to ask the Indians what they want….walleyes or no food stamp and government checks – now that casinos support them.

desperado wrote:

no, it’s the nets

I’d feel the same way about that amount of fish being taken by that few of individuals via that method no matter what time of year it is . . .
if a fish was gill netted in Oct or Nov of 2014, it wouldn’t spawn in the spring of 2015 just like a fish that’s gill netted in March of 2015 won’t

but you’re correct it has absolutely nothing to do with race

You are correct however the treaty agreement must be honored as long as it’s valid. Netting during the spawn is the thing for me that’s not right and I don’t think I’m alone.

Ha, guess I should have left this one alone. I have no problem admitting that I know very little on this topic, so that’s my fault for coming into this conversation without the proper facts.

I can not agree more with everyone saying that netting during certain times of year disrupts a large percentage of the spawning population and that it has very negative impacts on the entire ecosystem. I realize this is bad for everyone, period.

I didn’t mean to make this about race, and see where you are coming from with certain points Mr. Sawvell. If I understand correctly, you are saying that equal rights belongs to all, not just Native Americans, and if they can net, why can’t anyone else, that is not equal.

I guess you should be able to net? Luckily, you probably wouldn’t participate in that method of harvesting fish. I see your point talking about power lines going through peoples land with no option other than to allow it. Is that right, no, and just like I don’t think it should happen to farmers, I don’t think it should happen to anyone. As far as the rest, I simply don’t agree. And as men we don’t have to, and can still co-exist, I shouldn’t have entered this conversation because I’m on here for the fishing, and I have now learned that it’s better to just keep your mouth closed at times if you are not looking to debate a topic. Lesson learned. At the end of the day, I respect everyone’s opinions and feelings, and have no problem with anyone as long as they are not trying to harm me. I could continue this conversation, but don’t feel it necessary, for again, everyone is entitled to their thoughts and feelings.

Hoping to get out tomorrow on the ice, I’ve gotten beat up last few times out, and am hoping to turn things around this weekend, good luck fishing boys and girls.

All the race issues this country has endured and claims to move foreword and progressively get better yet we live in the past honoring a treaty made in the 1800’s when there was a reason for it. Same idea with MN casino laws.

desperado wrote:

no, it’s the nets

I’d feel the same way about that amount of fish being taken by that few of individuals via that method no matter what time of year it is . . .
if a fish was gill netted in Oct or Nov of 2014, it wouldn’t spawn in the spring of 2015 just like a fish that’s gill netted in March of 2015 won’t

but you’re correct it has absolutely nothing to do with race

Netting during the spawn, is like looking for kids in the candy store…. it’s about the vulnerability and ease of netting. And mostly my issue is the tribes coming from hundreds of miles away and netting…they have nothing to do with tradition and everything to do with being pigs.

Both excellent points G

DNR’s solutions… outlaw a leech, not a gillnet….??? And with that decision,no threat of losing your job…???

You’re on a roll G
Strangely, I can’t think of a time when I’ve ever agreed with your posts this much

Boycott all casinos!

BassBuster2 wrote:

Boycott all casinos!

Or at the very least … tribal casinos

And since we’re now on the subject, also MLB Texaco and Eddy’s resort

Don’t forget Woodlands Bank in Onamia, the St. Paul Hotel, and their Las Vegas properties.

10 people complaining here on the internet is laughable. I have said it before, if you want to see/make an impact, you need 2000 fishermen to show up somewhere and have speeches ready for the news coverage that will follow. Until that happens it will be status quo. Just a thought, eddy’s will be having a grand opening sometime around opener. 2000 trucks with boats in tow causing a large traffic jam not allowing guests to enter there and stopping traffic on 169 will get some attention. 2000 fishermen on the steps of the capital will get some attention. There are alot of things that can be done to get the point across, complaining on the internet is not going to get it done.

But it does help answer questions for the less informed…namely..
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I agree with that bk. We need a professional protester to get involved to organize and assist in implementing a plan. Until then, its just hot air. The political types can receive emails all day long and notify you that they got it, but that don’t mean they will do anything about it. Have the newsies around and they will come out of the woodwork to see themselves on the news. Where has Sondra Erickson been of late, I haven’t heard anything out of her since she was reelected? This is her district, I would think she should have a iron or two in the fire on this. If everyone that was planing to fish within 100 miles of mille lacs on opening day met somewhere close to the lake and had a protest, that would be a starting point and word would get out that we are going to stand up for what is right. Its the old squeaky wheel gets the grease routine, lets start squeaking!!!!!

puddlepounder wrote:

10 people complaining here on the internet is laughable. I have said it before, if you want to see/make an impact, you need 2000 fishermen to show up somewhere and have speeches ready for the news coverage that will follow. Until that happens it will be status quo. Just a thought, eddy’s will be having a grand opening sometime around opener. 2000 trucks with boats in tow causing a large traffic jam not allowing guests to enter there and stopping traffic on 169 will get some attention. 2000 fishermen on the steps of the capital will get some attention. There are alot of things that can be done to get the point across, complaining on the internet is not going to get it done.

Agreed! Eddy’s is re-opening May 5th, with Opener May 9th. If everyone who fished Mlacs for opener stopped for 2 hours to protest opening morning this would get a ton of publicity. I would happily change my opener plans, if this were coordinated.

Sandra will talk the talk all day long. She has been a regular on Bear Facts and Fish Tales for years. She says all the right things and likely has good intentions but she will (like the others) do nothing to jeopardize her job. I think I saw her in Isle last year when the DNR was doing their YOY dance. To be fair I thought I heard she was authoring a bill on Mille Lacs, what the status of the bill is I don’t know. If I had to guess I would say it is laying in some committee or else she was ordered by the party to back off.

At least kulick Jackson said she took casino money so you knew where she was going to side. Tiptoeing around the problem and doing NOTHING is way worse. If she was doing something, anything, there would have been some kind of snipit in the news somewhere. ALL of the politician’s need to be called out on the carpet and the only way that will happen is with a very large protest. Just look at what those protesters did in mpls, they shut down a freeway for an hour and it was in the news for a week, and they were protesting something that happened in Missouri. We need to find out the person that organized that and get them up here.

Rep. Sondra Erickson has been consistently over the years pushing for laws to help the Lake Mille Lacs fishery/business issues. She has been given the cold shoulder by almost every lawmaker in St. Paul when the subject comes up–let alone get a bill to be passed. Don’t blame her…typically “they” won’t even allow her bills to the committee level! Same answer/reasoning fisheries head Don Pierra gave the other night?

Newly elected Rep. Dale Lueck, from the Aitkin area is working hard to change things too–along with Sen. Carrie Ruud from the Brainerd area. Time will tell….

Thanks for clearing that up. I am just shooting from the hip. Now is the time to fire people up and get something positive done. Positive as in getting our cause out there for the state to see.