By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

Keeping Kansas lakes safe from aquatic nuisance species was the focus at last weeks Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism commission meeting at the Robbins Center, located on the Fort Hays State University Campus in Hays.

The topic of invasive species brought serious discussion for the board after hearing from an expert in the field as well as concerned audience members.

“It’s difficult and we’ve tried,” said Robin Jennison, secretary of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. “When you talk about Asian carp and even when you talk but zebra mussels a number years ago, we prohibited the use of wild caught bait in our reservoirs and and we felt like that was the best thing that we could do from a biological standpoint and from a law enforcement standpoint. The fact of the matter is, socially, the anglers in Kansas really objected to that and so the Commission did come back and backed that up a little bit and allowed for an exemption of three species of fish that are really a pretty common bait-fish. They are not fish that can be easily mistaken for the main fish we were concerned about, the Asian carp, and so we made that exception and there is some concern that that we probably should have not gonna ahead and made that exception.”

The problem, as presented at the meeting, may be more complex than simply moving toward more regulations for fishermen and tourists visiting the lakes and treatment options at this time have been shown to present unintended consequences to the treated bodies of water.

“The transfer of water from our federal reservoirs to different reservoirs that have not been invaded with these species that’s what happens and typically the way we are right now in Kansas it goes down stream in these Western Kansas lakes,” Jennison said.

While the topic of invasive species was a highlight of the meeting, the commission addressed several other topics during their day long meeting as well.

There is “actually two sessions in our commission meetings, there is an afternoon session which is a what we call a workshop session and this afternoon they talked about aquatic nuisance species, they talked about the migratory bird seasons, they talked about ducks on boundaries, they heard from the public on on those issues as well as for request to have them take a look at some falconry issues as well,” said Ron Kaufman, director, information services division of the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.

Later the commission discussed deer hunting seasons, bag limits, permits, and migratory bird hunting seasons.

The commission has a long history in Kansas and is set up in a manner to keep the commission addressing issues throughout the state, meeting in various locations throughout the year.

“They’re a regulatory body, so any regulations we want to put forth the Commission has to agree to or change. At this point it’s pretty routine for us, we have to,of course, adjust for regulations every year for seasons and bag limits on a variety of species, set the ducks zone limits. Typically the meetings occur then the public hearings occur in the evenings and any issue that requires a regulation change or or season adjustment requires three different meetings. The first is a general discussion with the commission, second meeting as a workshop session, which we had today, consumer issues and then the public hearing in the evening as for those issues that have come before a discussion in a workshop and now the commission is being asked to make decisions.”

The board has also been set up to ensure consistency in policy.

“They’re on rotating four-year terms so there’s never one situation where all the commissioners leave for instance. There’s always seasoned commissioners on duty and they meet six times a year.” Kaufman said.

Full commission meeting

Due to the process of getting regulations passed through the commission, only two actions were brought to vote during the Hays meeting. The commission approved early migratory bird seasons and KAR 115-25-9a, which addressed deer hunting season, bag limits, permits, and considerations at Fort Riley. Both measures were passed unanimously.

The next commission meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m., Aug. 20, at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, 592 NE K156 Hwy, in GreatBend.