Not long ago, a friend asked me, “How do you go about getting a wildlife rule changed?” Well, the first step is to make known your suggestion.

Every so often, the Natural Resource Commission (NRC) solicits the general public for input. I have seen a suggestion from an individual blossom into a new rule or regulation benefiting Hoosier outdoor lovers, and it all started with making known the suggestion.

The Indiana NRC is now seeking public suggestions as part of an ongoing comprehensive review and enhancement of fish and wildlife rules for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Substantive rule change suggestions can be made through a Web-based interactive form by going to www.in.gov/nrc and clicking on the “Submit a Suggestion” link.

The introduction of the online suggestion form marks the beginning of the third of a four-stage process recommended last year by a steering committee composed of NRC Chairman Bryan Poynter, DNR Deputy Director John Davis, Col. Mike Crider, head of the DNR Division of Law Enforcement, Sandra Jensen, NRC administrative law judge, Patrick Early, chair of the DNR Advisory Council, and John Goss, executive director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation.

The suggestion form will be available until April 1. An advisory group will review suggestions and conduct public hearings to determine the merit of those received.

The advisory group will report its findings and recommendations to the NRC in late 2009. Actual proposals of substantive rule amendments are not expected to be presented to the NRC until early 2010.

The first stage of the project was to readopt all Fish and Wildlife Rules (312 IAC 9) without change to ensure the rules did not expire while the remainder of the project is in progress. The readopted rules became effective on Dec. 24.

The Stage 2 goal is to provide clarity and consistency of interpretation and to improve enforceability with only minor amendments to the rules in three segments. The NRC granted preliminary adoption Jan. 13 to the first segment of amendments on deer hunting and hunter education rules.

Additional segments will address rules associated with wild animals (except deer), mammals and game birds (March 2009) and rules associated with reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, commercial licenses and permits (May 2009). It is hoped Stage 2 will be completed and approved by October or November.

“Our intent is to take what we have and organize it, update it and develop a more user-friendly product that encourages people to hunt and fish, rather than discourage them because they don’t understand the rules,” Poynter said. “We want to unravel any language barriers by employing public input to help point us in that direction.”

The fourth stage provides an option to work with the state legislature to enact necessary amendments to existing statutes.

Monroe County on emerald ash borer/wood quarantine

Coming back from vacation on the East Coast, I passed through an area where entire sections of forest had been bulldozed down and stacked into huge piles for burning. Seeing the massive forest clearing, I first thought it was done for development, but later found it was done to control the emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive forest insect that kills ash trees.

If no cure to the threat is found, the insect menace will slowly but surely destroy every ash tree in the Northern Hemisphere.
Unfortunately, Indiana is still seeing the pest continue to spread – a new find of EAB has resulted in Polk Township in Monroe County being quarantined.

The detection was found as a result of a statewide EAB survey and trapping program. The EAB surveys – part of which included the hanging of purple panel traps in trees around the state last summer – were done as a cooperative effort of the Indiana DNR and the USDA.

Polk Township and Monroe County are now quarantined for regulated ash material and hardwood firewood which could spread the pest further into Indiana. Robert E. Carter Jr., director of the DNR, declared the new quarantine of Polk Township late last month.
An EAB quarantine means regulated ash material may be moved within the affected county or township, but cannot be moved out of the county or township unless the shipper has entered into a compliance agreement with the DNR or the material has been mitigated as incapable of spreading EAB.

Regulated materials include the EAB in any living stage of development, any ash tree, limb, branch or debris of an ash tree at least 1 inch in diameter, ash log or untreated ash lumber with bark attached or cut firewood of any non-coniferous species.
EAB was first found in Indiana in 2004 and has now been identified in 21 Indiana counties: Adams, Allen, Brown, DeKalb, Elkhart, Floyd*, Hamilton, Huntington, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Marion, Monroe, Noble, Porter, Randolph, St. Joseph, Steuben, Wabash, Wells, White and Whitley.

Ten contiguous counties in northeastern Indiana encompass an area of the state referred to as “generally infested.” Regulated materials may be moved throughout the generally infested area.
In addition to the state-level quarantines, all of Indiana is under a federal quarantine prohibiting movement of regulated ash material across state lines without a compliance agreement or permit from the USDA.

A compliance agreement can be applied for by contacting the DNR Division of Entomology and Plant Pathology at 317-232-4120. For a federal compliance agreement application, contact the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at 765-497-2859.

For more information on EAB or to report an infestation, visit www.entm.purdue.edu/EAB/index.shtml or call DNR’s toll-free hotline at 866-NO EXOTIC (663-9684). To view the EAB Rule and EAB quarantine declaration, visit www.in.gov/dnr/entomolo

*A previous press release listed Greenville Township in Floyd County as infested and under quarantine; the township found to have an infestation of EAB and under quarantine is actually Georgetown Township.