The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will celebrate the first chance for tribal members to harvest lake sturgeon in more than a century in a ceremony to be held Saturday, Feb. 5, at the Legend Lake Lodge landing in Keshena, Wis.
The ceremony will begin at 8 a.m. To reach the landing, go north through Keshena on Hwy. 55-47, turn right on Co. VV for about * mile and then take the first road to the left, Old South Branch Road, for about * mile. The lodge and landing will be on the right side.
Historically, the Menominee would wait for the sturgeon or namae’o to migrate in the spring along streams and rivers and harvest them with spears. The Menominee relied on sturgeon to supplement their diet along with other fish, wild game, wild rice, and maple sugar. The return of sturgeon in the spring meant that the Menominee could replenish their food supply, which was close to depletion after long winter months.
When two dams were placed downstream on the Wolf River in the 1880s and 1920s, lake sturgeon could no longer move upstream onto the reservation. To allow for harvest of sturgeon once again on the reservation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has stocked more than 56,000 lake sturgeon into Legend Lake since 1994 to establish a sturgeon fishery. Annual fishery assessments now indicate that there are substantial numbers of lake sturgeon over 40 inches in length to provide a limited fishery season for tribal members.
The 2005 Lake Sturgeon Fishery Opening Day Ceremony will kick off the first of two scheduled lake sturgeon fishing seasons this year for tribal members who have obtained a sturgeon fishing license. Participants in the ceremony will include Menominee Tribal Chairperson Joan Delabreau, Tribal Fish and Wildlife Manager Donald J. Reiter, and Doug Cox of the Menominee Conservation Commission; along with Ann Runstrom, a fishery biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Ron Bruch, regional supervisor for the Wisconsin DNR.
“ After more than 100 years, I am thrilled that the tribe is now able to provide this exciting opportunity for our fishing enthusiasts,” said the tribe’s Reiter. “The Menominee Lake Sturgeon Management Team, Menominee Conservation Commission and Menominee Tribal Legislature have worked closely with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wisconsin DNR to make this a reality, and we all hope that this lake sturgeon season will be the first of many.”
“ Since 1992, the Menominee Reservation Lake Sturgeon Management Team, with members from the Menominee Tribe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, have worked cooperatively to establish and maintain one or more harvestable lake sturgeon populations on reservations waters,” said Bruch, who is a sturgeon expert and DNR fisheries biologist from Oshkosh. “And now that dream has come true.”
“ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is pleased to be part of this historical occasion,” said Runstrom, who is a fishery biologist in the Service’s La Crosse, Wis., Fishery Resources Office. “Menominee people will once again be able to harvest a species that has remained significant, but physically absent, from their culture.”
There are two tribal sturgeon seasons scheduled to be held on Legend Lake in 2005: one from Feb. 5-20, and another from April 9-24. Only enrolled Menominee tribal members will be allowed to fish for lake sturgeon during these seasons and the annual limit will be one sturgeon per person.
Tribal regulations for the 2005 opener include a one fish bag limit, a targeted maximum harvest of 100 sturgeon from the lake, and a minimum length of 36 inches. Licensed tribal members will be allowed to harvest lake sturgeon by angling or spearing for up to 15 days in the winter and as many as 15 days this spring once ice is out. These conservative regulations will help ensure a continued sturgeon harvest for the tribe.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 Fish and Wildlife Management offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
