<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Patrick Durkin Outdoors]]></title><description><![CDATA[Patrick Durkin Outdoors]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:15:57 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Wisconsin DNR Seeks Volunteers to Teach Hunter Education]]></title><description><![CDATA[We hear often how Wisconsin’s hunting population keeps dwindling as baby-boomers grow older, and leave the woods and fields forever.    Wisconsin’s hunter-education program faces similar challenges as senior instructors step aside, hoping and trusting younger folks to step forward to teach firearms safety and hunting ethics to beginners.    To help recruit this year’s class of new instructors, the Department of Natural Resources put out the call for volunteers to teach its four safety...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/wisconsin-dnr-seeks-volunteers-to-teach-hunter-education</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d7c80f4e4fe2e3f72a67ea</guid><pubDate>Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:52:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_071500f4bfc240b79ae8314541157505~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wisconsin’s Conservation Patron License Defies Trends, Gains Buyers]]></title><description><![CDATA[Even as sales of most fishing and hunting licenses decline in Wisconsin, the all-inclusive conservation patron license has grown nearly 50% in popularity after bottoming out in 2012.    Sales of the $165 CPL hit 65,803 in 2025, up from 44,049 at the same price 14 years ago. As with all other resident hunting, fishing and trapping fees, the patron license’s price hasn’t increased since 2005, when it cost $140. The record sales year for CPLs was 2002, when 81,896 sold for $110 each.   ...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/wisconsin-s-conservation-patron-license-defies-trends-gains-buyers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d131c52a4608ae0021ceb2</guid><pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:06:37 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_62236ef922db4b509380ba95955ef900~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Payne, Lunney, McCaffery Enter Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame]]></title><description><![CDATA[Whenever folks badmouth public servants who work for schools, agencies or simply “the government,” you’d like to stand them before a crowded auditorium to meet guys like Neil Payne, Keith McCaffery or the late William Lunney.    Once you whistled everyone to attention, you’d invite the critics to explain how and why these three public employees didn’t do enough for Wisconsin during their long careers at UW-Stevens Point, the Department of Natural Resources, and our state courts, county...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/payne-lunney-mccaffery-enter-conservation-hall-of-fame</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69c824ecaf19906fa1780bf1</guid><pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:14:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_4ac4d908388b4494b8804fee71e9a5b8~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Computers Crash as Wisconsin Hunters Rush to Buy Turkey Tags]]></title><description><![CDATA[“Thundering herd problem.”    That’s how IT (information technology) folks diagnose uncommon, but not rare, calamities when computer systems collapse as people stampede websites to buy coveted tickets for concerts, playoff games or hunting licenses.    Wisconsin’s turkey hunters recorded their third such meltdown in 18 years on March 16 shortly after 10 a.m. That’s when the Department of Natural Resources began selling leftover $10 “bonus” tags for the spring hunt, which begins April 11 with...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/computers-crash-as-wisconsin-hunters-rush-to-buy-turkey-tags</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69c0373cf68fa4c22fbc29b2</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:55:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_05bf4269fa204ee2af8127d760977ccc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[April’s Statewide Conservation Hearings Focus on Funding]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wisconsin’s hunters, anglers and trappers will be asked 13 ways whether they support higher license fees, sales taxes or other revenue-generating alternatives April 13-15 when they vote in the annual statewide spring hearings.    The hearings are held by the Department of Natural Resources and Wisconsin Conservation Congress. The WCC is a 360-person citizens group that’s legislatively sanctioned to advise Wisconsin’s seven-citizen Natural Resources Board, which sets DNR policy. This year...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/april-s-statewide-conservation-hearings-focus-on-funding</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69b56ef44898c9cce5a189f1</guid><pubDate>Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:43:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_59d5a337d98d42cc9656af9094a6506a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[River in Ireland Cautions Us to Protect Minnesota's Boundary Waters]]></title><description><![CDATA[Whenever politicians try to roll back rules on sulfide mining for metals like gold, nickel  or copper, I flash back to June 2005 when my wife and I toured Ireland with my parents.    About 40 miles south of Dublin, we pulled into Avoca, a small town in County Wicklow, to visit Fitzgerald’s Pub. Mom and Dad wanted to see the pub because it was featured in a 1990s BBC TV show called “Ballykissangel,” the show’s fictional name for Avoca.    If you ever watched “Ballykissangel,” maybe you saw a...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/river-in-ireland-cautions-us-to-protect-minnesota-s-boundary-waters</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ac95a43fdd64550e6a91b4</guid><pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 21:47:21 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_d902e6aa33584456b245abf7176b620c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Modest Milo Hanson Dies, But His 1993 Record Buck Remains No. 1]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some lucky deer hunter will eventually shoot a whitetail with antlers bigger than those atop the buck that Milo Hanson killed Nov. 23, 1993, near his Saskatchewan farm.    With a certified score of 213-5/8 inches, Hanson’s 14-point buck became the world-record “typical” whitetail during the Boone and Crockett Club’s 1995 awards ceremony. It bumped a 10-point Wisconsin buck from the top spot it held since 1971. That buck scored 206-1/8 inches, and was shot by Jim Jordan in 1914 near Danbury in...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/modest-milo-hanson-dies-but-his-1993-record-buck-remains-no-1</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69a2134332a596f2a27cdfae</guid><pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 22:20:59 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_e921d57133c04c31865a879ea030eddd~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wisconsin's City-Dwelling Red Foxes Face Endless Challenges]]></title><description><![CDATA[If a red fox tunnels under your toolshed or burrows beneath putting greens on nearby golf courses, you won’t guarantee it a long, healthy life by hiring a trapper to move it to a suburban woodlot or even a rural wetland.    That’s what researcher David Drake concluded in a talk Feb. 12 at the annual winter meeting of Wisconsin’s Wildlife Society in Stevens Point. Drake, a professor at UW-Madison, put it bluntly in the conference’s three-day seminar schedule: “Urban red fox translocation leads...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/wisconsin-s-city-dwelling-red-foxes-face-endless-challenges</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6999da3db229ed3c39b4df14</guid><pubDate>Sat, 21 Feb 2026 16:39:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_6fd9c96eb09a4fbc8520b68129d237f1~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wisconsin’s Stewardship Program Caught in a Festering Political Pout]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wisconsin lawmakers have bickered about funding the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program since 1989, when Rep. Spencer Black, a Democrat, crafted it and Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican, signed it into law.    Until recently, state lawmakers always wore each other down for conservation. Eventually, they’d always pause, tug up their mom- or dad-pants, and settle on budgets neither loved but could stomach. That’s just how they did the hard things inside Wisconsin’s capitol, given voters’...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/wisconsin-s-stewardship-program-caught-in-a-festering-political-pout</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6991d8e8766c6b5d6499d366</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:58:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_dd72dfa730aa4ce6be7060d60bfcccb8~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wisconsin Citizens, Communities Keep Inspiring Leopold’s Conservation Ethic]]></title><description><![CDATA[In his 1948 foreword to  “A Sand County Almanac,”  Aldo Leopold observed that some people can live without wild things and some cannot.    And then he defined the contents of his book: “These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.”    Roughly 15 years earlier, those credentials qualified Leopold to create and lead the nation’s first wildlife-management program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. No one else could match Leopold’s ability to wield the pen just as expertly...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/wisconsin-citizens-communities-keep-inspiring-leopold-s-conservation-ethic</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6988d9000c9b54090fe31386</guid><pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 19:11:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_c41d12f4f68e4b94a6657c53bbe0ce22~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[CWD Setting Deadly Records in Wisconsin’s Best Deer Habitats]]></title><description><![CDATA[Alice Roosevelt, the sharp-tongued eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, famously said, “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.”    Would Alice have invited us to sit beside her to badmouth chronic wasting disease? Probably not. Few people do.    Even so, Wisconsin’s 2025 deer seasons proved we still can’t wish away CWD. The Department of Natural Resources found a record 2,022 CWD cases in a record 41 counties for a record detection rate of 11.2%, up from 10.3%...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/cwd-setting-deadly-records-in-wisconsin-s-best-deer-habitats</link><guid isPermaLink="false">697faaa1e90da4b752296a80</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 Feb 2026 19:50:11 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_fc697763c55e4f7bb2f3f5aa3d10afbf~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wisconsin Man Asks, ‘Have You Seen This Buck?’]]></title><description><![CDATA[Roger Maes knows he’ll recognize his grandfather’s nearly century-old trophy buck whether it’s in online photo galleries, hanging in a Northwoods tavern, or fully restored and displayed at a giant hunting/fishing store.    But the Madison resident hasn't seen the buck for over 30 years, not since his grandfather sold it shortly before dying in 1993. Maes is just going off childhood memories and an old photograph whose top-left corner is peppered with thumb-tack holes. The photo shows the...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/wisconsin-man-asks-have-you-seen-this-buck</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6974fd4de389f5384b71998e</guid><pubDate>Sat, 24 Jan 2026 17:24:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_c665538fb13043b8bd2895ae5e86848b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The North Can’t Rival the South for its Superstitions and Ghost Stories]]></title><description><![CDATA[As we work deeper into January, I’m reminded of past deer hunts this time of year in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.    Photos and keepsakes from those hunts remind me how much the South’s culture differs from my own. Southerners seem more fascinated with death, superstitions and the afterlife than do most folks of the Upper Great Lakes.    For example, when I arrived at the Long family’s camp in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Bayou in 2012, Mr. Raymond Long said I couldn’t hunt until signing...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/the-north-can-t-rival-the-south-for-its-superstitions-and-ghost-stories</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69695cea022bfc82f7644621</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 21:51:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_11ffd99dcad444a49ffc8c27f937838f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Tasty but Homely Burbot Gaining Respect with Nation's Ice Anglers]]></title><description><![CDATA[Vern Hacker has been dead since March 1989, but I recall his smiling face and respect for rough fish whenever someone makes news for catching a huge gar, burbot, sheepshead or another piscatorial pariah.    That’s because Hacker was the Don Quixote of fisheries biologists during his career with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Hacker always encouraged people to eat rough fish instead of burying them to fertilize their gardens or flowers. And he especially despised those who...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/the-tasty-but-homely-burbot-gaining-respect-with-nation-s-ice-anglers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69629762768b848d271044e6</guid><pubDate>Sat, 10 Jan 2026 18:41:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_1d73fff7cb39443d9934bf48b58494bc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Hunters Needlessly Fret About Hunting's Impact on Buck Fawns]]></title><description><![CDATA[Of all the many whitetails roaming and browsing Wisconsin’s forests, farmlands and lowlands, which deer do hunters most cherish and protect?    Some would say it’s the mature adult doe, the species’ noble matriarch. Some gentle-souled hunters still consider it an act of sainthood to never shoot and eat “Mama Doe.” But if they sin, they’ll claim they fired only after verifying the doe was traveling alone, with no fawns depending on her for guidance and nourishment.    Some hunters even claim...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/hunters-needlessly-fret-about-hunting-s-impact-on-buck-fawns</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6953002faed82543611f503d</guid><pubDate>Mon, 29 Dec 2025 22:39:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_e138f1f2dc454b3f9ba347619173df99~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[End-of-Year Photo Dump Triggers Many Memories of 2025]]></title><description><![CDATA[We didn’t need Sherlock Holmes to identify the feathered victim.    Neither did we need John James Audubon to list the possible killers when finding blood and feathers scattered beneath our bird feeders in late November.    The feathers’ dark undersides were more rosy red than rusty, with streaky orange above the quill’s bare base. Inches away, fluffy tufts of afterfeathers fluttered atop the snow, weighted just enough by bloody tissue to mark where a cardinal, probably a male, died that...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/end-of-year-photo-dump-triggers-many-memories-of-2025</link><guid isPermaLink="false">694f0137c3b646e68286ec51</guid><pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2025 22:01:25 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_05fcbe6aecb3413cbf6710159a36598f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Meyer Protected Wisconsin’s Natural Resources and Outdoor Heritage]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wisconsin lost its most devoted and enduring conservation watchdog Dec. 10 when prostate cancer killed George Meyer at age 78.    Meyer's list of job titles in five decades of public service grew so long he almost had to unfurl a scroll when introduced at podiums across the state. And man, did Meyer tour Wisconsin. In 1993 alone, he delivered 240 speeches; speaking to just about any group, anywhere.    About that re sumé : Meyer spent over 30 years with the DNR, serving as a staff attorney...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/meyer-protected-wisconsin-s-natural-resources-and-outdoor-heritage</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69447b581a6ea3dfc240e703</guid><pubDate>Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:35:52 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_8174f05d7581414bb41f440b5b2380ce~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wisconsin Hunters Shot 1.26 Deer Per  Second During Opening Weekend]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wisconsin deer hunters once again killed lots of deer during late November’s nine-day firearms season.    More specifically, we killed a big ol’ bunch of bucks with antlers 3 inches or longer, and a slightly bigger bunch of deer without antlers.    That surprised some folks, given how many called Nov. 22-23 the quietest opening weekend they’ve ever heard. But y’know, magazine-emptying fusillades seem a thing of the past. Hunters no longer blaze away at deer like we did 30-some years ago....]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/wisconsin-hunters-shot-1-26-deer-per-second-during-opening-weekend</link><guid isPermaLink="false">693db5e23557d3f0b470adcd</guid><pubDate>Sat, 13 Dec 2025 19:11:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_3e6c42e95bb244838168ac613a185a91~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Family Deer Hunt Expands to the Next Generation]]></title><description><![CDATA[I took my daughter Leah deer hunting for the first time on opening day of the November 1991 gun season.    She was 6, and sat beside me until about 9 a.m., when she hissed “Deer!” and pointed out a doe and two fawns bounding downhill behind me. The doe paused in the valley after clearing the creek, apparently deciding whether to jump a barbed-wire fence between her and a cut cornfield.    That pause gave me time to fire my 7mm-08 Remington Mountain Rifle. The doe leaped back across the creek,...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/family-deer-hunt-expands-to-the-next-generation</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69334884138c033374d340a2</guid><pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2025 21:17:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_e56ef681c2ae4d89b7911d5b1ef30dcf~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wisconsin’s 9-Day Gun-Deer Season Has Lost its Clout]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wisconsin long considered its nine-day gun-deer season “the hammer” for managing whitetails, accounting for over 90% of the annual deer kill during the early 1970s, and routinely 85% of it through 1995.    But November’s gun season has lost its clout. Since 2018, four of the past six gun seasons generated less than 60% of the total autumn deer kill. The most recent shortfall was 2024 when November’s gun-hunters registered 190,798 deer, or 58.4% of the total 326,547 gun/archery kill.    Until...]]></description><link>https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/wisconsin-s-9-day-deer-seasons-has-lost-its-heavy-clout</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6929c525e4368d687caf65b0</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2025 16:08:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6545f9_47e3cbcaa5484c32a32053193f6b410c~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Patrick Durkin</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>