Director of central services believes levels are standard for parks of its size
By Kellen Olshefski
SLN Staff
Hunting and trapping permits pulled in Walworth County to hunt in Walworth County’s White River Park dropped significantly in 2015, falling far below sales levels of 2014.
Walworth County Director of Central Services Eric Nitschke said during the Walworth County Parks Committee meeting on Feb. 15 he thinks while there was a lot of interest initially for supporting hunting in the area, it has dropped because of hunting game and wildlife in the park.
According to a report provided to the committee, though deer archery permits remained fairly steady last year, with the county selling 26 permits in 2015, only one less from the previous year, gun deer was a bit of a different story, with only eight permits being sold in 2015, compared to 21 in 2015.
In 2014, six permits were sold for the deer muzzleloader season, 12 were sold for the deer holiday hunt, 17 were sold for the fall turkey season, 10 waterfowl permits were sold, 13 trapping permits were sold and 11 small game permits were sold. A stark contrast in 2015, zero were sold among all six categories.
In total, 119 permits were sold in 2014, with only 38 being sold in 2015.
However, Nitschke said he thinks what the county saw in 2015 is fairly standard for what they’d see in a park of similar size.
Nitschke said in the past, the previous owner would allow residents to hunt the property. However, with it now being open to the public, 48 to 50 permits means a lot of hunters on a piece of property of its size.
White River Trail passes
As for the White River State Trail, in 2015 Walworth County sold a total of 685 annual trail passes and 1,515 daily trail passes, according to information included in the committee’s packet.
Six area vendors sell trail passes, the Pedal and Cup in Springfield being the only vendors which sells both annual and daily passes and is allowed to keep 10 percent of the money received per their sub-vendor agreement with the county. There are additionally five self-registration stations in parking lots along the trail.
A total of 303 annual passes were sold by the six vendors, with the remaining 382 annual passes being sold at self-registration stations or directly by the Walworth County Public Works Department.
Of the 1,515 daily passes sold, 507 were sold by Pedal and Cup, the remained being sold from self-registration stations.
County Board Chairwoman Nancy Russell said funds are supposed to be used for the maintenance of the trail. Russell said of the annual passes sold in Walworth County, she believes the county receives 70 percent of the revenue from the sales.
