Attendees
PRESENT: Steve Sears/Chair, Emma Ellsworth/Vice Chair, Ernie Foster/Secretary, Bob Durand, Sasha Dyer, John Organ, Matthew Sisk, Mark S. Tisa/Director, Tom O’Shea/Commissioner/DFG, Eve Schlüter/ Deputy Director, Mike Huguenin/Assistant Director/Wildlife, Trina Moruzzi/Assistant Director/ Operations, Emily Myron/Assistant Director/Land and Habitat, Andrew Madden/Western Wildlife District Manager, Pat Huckery/Northeast Wildlife District Manager, Joe Rogers/Conn. Valley Wildlife District Manager, Jason Zimmer/Southeast Wildlife District Manager, Todd Olanyk/Central Wildlife District Manager, Dave Wattles/Black Bear and Furbearer Project Leader, Rachel Shepardson/Western District Clerk, Dan Koch/GIS Specialist/DFG, Christine Smith/Assistant General Counsel/DFG, Major Kevin Clayton/MEP, Captain Bill Woytek/MEP; PUBLIC: Dave Morin, Steve LaRivee
Acceptance of minutes
A motion was made by Mr. Foster to accept the minutes of the April business meeting as presented. The motion was seconded by Mr. Durand; the vote in favor was unanimous.
A motion was made by Mr. Durand to accept the minutes of the April 29, 2025, special meeting as presented. The motion was seconded by Dr. Organ; the vote in favor was unanimous.
Chair's updates
Chair Sears thanked Mr. Durand, who has been working with NGO partners and the legislature to codify in statute the reimbursement of free and discounted licenses mandated by statute. He also thanked Berkshire County League members Dan Meraglia and Bill Gates, who he said continue to monitor access for fishing and advocate for sportspeople.
He reported that he had seen a forestry presentation from Tom Brule that was very good. He also reported several recent meetings with members of the public and constituents with issues to discuss.
Director's updates
Director Tisa reported that the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) had held its annual conference the previous month in New Hampshire and noted that he was reelected as President of the NEAFWA for another two-year term running through the fall of 2027.
Commissioner’s updates
Commissioner O'Shea thanked Mr. Durand for his efforts on the reduced-cost license reimbursements.
He reported that he had had a great time at an April trout-stocking event with his son and Mr. Durand and his grandson. He gave a shout-out to staff for the annual trout stocking event at Jamaica Pond, which he also participated in with Curley School students, who were very enthusiastic. The Commissioner reported that many people attended, over 100, and they all enjoyed the experience.
Commissioner O'Shea reported that on May 29 an announcement was expected on the Governor’s environmental bond bill, which will focus on infrastructure upgrades and other initiatives. He stated that he is confident of support for key aspects of the biodiversity initiative, explaining that the bond bill represents capital investments, which cover physical structures. He also reported working on the fiscal year 2026 budget, which is currently in the senate. He also expressed his uncertainty about federal cuts and their impact on the state budget, noting that he has some concerns, especially in areas MassWildlife, the Department, and the EEA want to grow.
Commissioner O'Shea alerted the members that the definition of harm in the federal Endangered Species Act has been proposed to change. The new language says that a project must wound or kill the subject animal to be considered a take, rather than the existing wording that also includes impacts to habitats. He stated that he is in talks with the Governor’s administration, and it will be a huge change if enacted. He also noted a growing push to actively market conservation incentives to landowners, but the funding needed would likely be federal, so the initiative is in question.
Law Enforcement updates
Major Kevin Clayton provided the Environmental Police (MEP) report. He said that officers are seeing more coyote interactions and noted that spring is denning time. He cited one recent incident with a coyote den behind a school, which had already been mitigated. The Major also reported that officers are working with MassWildlife staff on MassFishHunt capabilities for the MEP. He then provided the Board with a brief overview of actions connected to the current hunting and other recreational seasons and activities; a report of recent OLE activities, including fish-and-wildlife-related examples of calls for service that Environmental Police officers had responded to in the previous month; and the outlines of ongoing and recently completed investigations.
Personnel report
Deputy Director Eve Schlüter presented highlights from the resume of the candidate for the Board’s approval who was already employed in the Central District as a Wildlife Technician.
Promotion
John (Jack) Bonafini; Outdoor Education Specialist (Game Biologist I); Westborough
Dr. Organ moved acceptance of the personnel report as presented; Mr. Durand seconded the motion; the vote in favor was unanimous.
Assistant Director for Operations Trina Moruzzi introduced the newest member of her staff, whose employment had been approved by the Board at the previous meeting and who had started her duties during the preceding month.
Introduction
Rachel Shepardson; Western District Clerk (Clerk IV); Dalton
Ms. Shepardson reported that she was learning the ropes and enjoying working in the Western District. The members welcomed Ms. Shepardson and wished her well in her new position.
VOTE: Bear hunting regulations: comment review and final recommendations (Dave Wattles)
Black Bear and Furbearer Project Leader Dave Wattles began his presentation with a brief recap of the specific changes proposed, i.e., to create a continuous black bear hunting season from Labor Day until end of deer shotgun season and to create a Youth Bear Hunting Permit, as well as the reasons that staff recommended them, namely, the steady expansion eastward of the black bear population despite multiple expansions of hunting opportunities since 1980, and the attitudes of the public toward bears and toward strategies to avoid conflicts with them that make a resident population in eastern Massachusetts extremely problematic. Mr. Wattles reminded the Board members that the goals of the proposal to expand the hunting season to include more time when bears continue to be active before hibernation and when more hunters are on the landscape hunting other species are to increase the harvest of bears, to stabilize the bear population at its current size and geographic range, and to slow/reduce the establishment of bears in eastern Massachusetts.
Mr. Wattles reviewed the staff’s efforts to publicize the two public hearings that were offered to explain the reasons for the proposals and solicit comments from a wide swath of the public, which included multiple pages and/or posts on MassWildlife’s website, on its Facebook and Instagram accounts, and in monthly newsletters. He also noted the written comment period extension, which was also heavily publicized, by an additional 2 weeks due to complaints that the original online comment input form was too limited.
He then provided an analysis of the comments received during the public comment period, reporting that only 44 unique members of the public attended the virtual public hearings held on the afternoon and the evening of January 27, 2025. Despite the relatively low hearing turnout, a total of 356 comments from individuals and 17 comments from organizations were received during the entire public comment period. Staff received 95 comments in support of the proposals, less than 5% of which were specific to one or the other of the two proposals. Mr. Wattles stated that the reasons the commenters gave for their support could be grouped into four themes: the desire for expanded hunting opportunities, experiences of conflict with bears in the past, the belief that there are too many bears in the state, and agreement that the population needs to be controlled from further expansion. There were 269 comments in opposition to the proposed changes, with similar, small percentages of the total expressing opposition to one or the other specifically. Mr. Wattles also reported themes that emerge from the reasons given for opposition, namely, opposition to bear hunting or hunting in general, assertions that no rationale had been given for the proposed changes, the belief that it will be unsafe to allow youth to hunt bears, a belief that public education will prevent all conflict, assertions that harvested bears are not utilized by hunters, and conflicts with other types of recreation in the same time period.
Mr. Wattles then reviewed the results of the human dimensions survey staff had conducted that he had cited and quoted from extensively, both in the original request to the Board for a public hearing and in his presentation during the hearings themselves. The scientific survey was conducted so as to be representative of the general population of Massachusetts, and the results were grouped by region as follows: the western and central parts of the state, where bears are established; the expansion area, where the majority of the expanding bears are encountered; and the current non-range, which includes the entire coast and Southeast. He used bar graphs, with a bar for each of the four regions, to compare the responses to questions about the bear population status, about attitudes toward regulated bear hunting, about those same attitudes when the goal of bear hunting is to prevent bear expansion or reduce existing populations, and whether it is acceptable to have bears living in all parts of the state. He detailed the extensive work he and Wildlife Program staff conduct, including through answering phone calls; print and live interviews; public presentations; distributed informational materials; the creation of an Outreach Biologist position; and the agency’s website, where bear pages received over 40,000 hits in 2024. Despite all these efforts to educate the public over many years, the slide charting the answers to the question whether people would remove their bird feeders if they knew that feeders increase conflicts with bears showed that, regardless of where they live, people are resistant to removing feeders.
Mr. Wattles also included a slide that graphed the answers to another question that he thought was very important for MassWildlife’s understanding of public attitudes toward bears in the state and should guide its regulatory framework to control the population and range at current levels. Asked whether they wanted to see the bear population in their neighborhood be increased, remain the same, or be decreased, the vast majority of people in each region wanted it to stay the same as it currently is.
Turning to the opposing comments that opined a lack of safety generally or objected to the creation of a youth permit, Mr. Wattles pointed out that hunting and bear hunting are highly regulated activities that are strictly enforced by the Environmental Police, they are demonstrably safe for hunters and non-hunters alike, Hunter Education is required to hunt, there is firearm training required for the FID/LTC approval process, and there is already concurrent recreation going on throughout the fall hunting seasons with no reduced safety. Further, he stressed that youth already have access to deer, turkey, pheasant, and waterfowl youth hunting programs; youth hunters can currently hunt bear during the regulated season using the permit of a licensed adult; youth hunters 12-14 must be under the direct supervision of a licensed adult; youth aged 15-17 must complete Basic Hunter Education or be directly supervised by a licensed adult; and the only change proposed is that youth would have their own permit. Mr. Wattles also countered the argument that harvested bear are not utilized by pointing out the popularity of many resources MassWildlife and others offer online that teach successful hunters how to process, prepare, and cook bear meat in safe and appealing ways.
Mr. Wattles closed his presentation by asking the Board to approve the final recommendations. Mr. Durand moved that the regulatory changes be approved as proposed by staff; Dr. Organ seconded the motion. During the discussion, Dr. Organ commented briefly on Mr. Wattles’ education, his extensive experience, and his proven expertise in black bear research and management. He also pointed out that just having hunters on the landscape – even if most are not successful – has been shown to decrease the habituation of large carnivores. There being no further discussion, the vote was taken and was unanimously in favor.
MassFishHunt update (Dan Koch)
Commissioner O'Shea stated that he had provided a brief update during the previous meeting prior to the launch of the new license sales system, and DFG’s GIS Specialist Dan Koch was before the Board to report on the actual launch and ensuing performance of the system.
Mr. Koch reported that the key goal of the initial launch was seamlessness for the customer, so staff and vendor efforts were focused on minimizing disruption. Their combined expertise indicated that the key would be a strong transition plan that coordinated all activity around the system so that downtime was minimized. The plan the team developed for shutting down the old system, transitioning the data, and launching the new one worked very well, with lots of onsite and phone support, good anticipation and mitigation of potential problems, and little disruption for customers.
The members congratulated Mr. Koch and his team for the successful rollout and thanked him for his report.
Confirm June business meeting date and time: June 18, 2025, at 1:00 p.m., at the MassWildlife Field Headquarters and in a Zoom webinar
After a brief discussion, the Board members confirmed the existing details of the June meeting, set the July 16 business meeting at 10:00 a.m., the August 13 meeting at 10:00 a.m., and the September 17 meeting at 11:00 a.m.
Members’ comments
Matthew Sisk reported that herring had stopped running at the Ames Dam in Braintree. The town and other officials have been trying to bring them back for over 20 years and have finally succeeded. He reported that there are now two fish ladders operating at the dam. He applauded the efforts of the town, which was also concerned about impacts to its drinking water system; NOAA; the Division of Marine Fisheries, and the Division of Ecological Restoration. Mr. Sisk noted that the restoration of the herring run is a great boon for the town, and it has had great support from the MEP.
Sasha Dyer reported that she had seen a nice display of turkey on her way to the meeting. She reported that she had attended the annual Quabbin board ramp opening, which was attended by many people, with lots of kids, and was a very good event. She also attended a fish-stocking event at Lake Quinsigamond, and though she arrived a half-hour early she couldn’t immediately find parking. There were a large number of kids participating with many interacting with the fish. She thought it was an amazing experience. Ms. Dyer also reported about a young person who had learned Ice-fishing at an outdoor event in Winchendon. The young boy was so impacted by the experience that he made a memento for Central Technician Ray Bressette, thanking him for his efforts at the event.
Ernie Foster reported that Al [Allerton] Bonney of Scituate, a respected past-president of the Scituate Rod and Gun Club and the Plymouth County League of Sportsmen, had passed away at the age of 95. Mr. Foster reported that Mr. Bonney was still hunting and fishing recently, despite his age. Mr. Foster also reported that he had recently learned that members of Mr. Bonney’s family were founding members of the Massachusetts Sportsmen’s Council, which was established in 1929. Mr. Foster said that the Council was instrumental in advocating to create the independent state Fisheries and Wildlife Board, to secure dedicated funding for the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife through its license sales, and to ensure public access to the Great Ponds of Massachusetts. He also stated that the Council's advocacy had led to the Wildlands Stamp Act, which has been a key component in protecting nearly 300,000 acres of wildlife habitat for public recreation in the state since its inception. Mr. Foster reported that the Council had sponsored and supported MassWildlife’s Becoming an Outdoors Woman [BOW] Program in its early days, promoting inclusivity in outdoor activities, and the Council has consistently supported local clubs and leagues, protecting sportsmen's rights. Mr. Foster reported that Mr. Bonney's life exemplified the principles of the Massachusetts Sportsmen’s Council: respect for nature, conservation commitment, and dedication to sportsmen’s traditions. Closer to home, Mr. Bonney’s active involvement in the Scituate Rod and Gun Club and the Plymouth County League of Sportsmen, together with his wife Dee's work as treasurer, significantly benefited the sporting community in Southeastern Massachusetts.
After Mr. Foster’s comments, Mr. Durand moved to dedicate the day’s meeting to the memory of Mr. Al Bonney and his many contributions to the sporting community in Massachusetts; Mr. Foster seconded; the vote in favor was unanimous.
Emma Ellsworth reported that this was her third turkey-hunting season, that she found it a new learning experience and noting that she had difficulty calling in a turkey. She reported her enjoyment of going out as spring is arriving and sitting in the woods, letting the woods wake up around you. She has been using the Merlin app and finds it amazing to move around a hill and get a whole different set of birds singing, which Merlin helps to identify. She described the challenges of turkey hunting, having developed the skills to know how to shoot and be ready, yet feeling the adrenaline surge as a bird approaches, and navigating the huge number of decisions that need to be made in 10 seconds or less. She finds the entire experience astounding, harvested a 16-pound bird this year, and said it has been an awesome journey learning to hunt. Ms. Ellsworth also reported that she is proud of the land acquisition decisions of the Board and the Department of Fish and Game. When DFG protects land, the presumption is public access for all. She stated that she feels sad to see land everywhere being posted against trespass. Many people have hunted for years on open land they don’t own, then suddenly have to stop when posted signs go up.
Bob Durand reported that he and non-profit partners, including Steve Long of The Nature Conservancy, Heather Clish of the Appalachian Mountain Club, The Trustees, the Worcester County League, the Berkshire County League, and many others, have been working to get legislation passed to reimburse the Inland Fish and Game Fund for statutory free and reduced-price licenses, but that they were unsuccessful on the House side for another year. On the senate side, he reported that Senator Peter Durant and others have put a bill forward. It was in the senate budget at the time of the meeting, so the measure could go to the conference committee. He reported that he may ask for another letter of support from the Board, depending on how things go. In another development, Mr. Durand reported that Senator Moore’s senate bill S. 67 is actually in the agriculture committee, which had a hearing on the previous Tuesday. Mr. Durand and his allies were waiting to see what would happen with the conference committee.
John Organ reported on the status of the Coop Unit [the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit] and Pittman-Robertson/Dingell-Johnson [Federal Aid], both bedrock programs for conservation in this country. He reported that the Coop Unit in Massachusetts was created in 1948, and many MassWildlife staff have received their advanced degrees through the Coop. Dr. Organ said that Coop funding has been eliminated; leaders were told to get rid of vehicles and equipment; scientists were let go, though there is a reprieve until later in the month. The Conservation Investment Program is the new name of the Federal Aid program, and all fiscal staff have been moved into the Department of the Interior and out of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including fiscal staff stationed in Hadley. He stated that the level of responsiveness and the funding of proposed project grants will suffer, as will the level of service and peer-to-peer relationships. He also reported that State Wildlife Grants are eliminated by the new budget. These are huge changes that will dramatically impact conservation in this country and certainly in this state. Dr. Organ also reported the sudden death of Paul O’Neil, the biologist who oversaw land management for the Pittman-Robertson Program. Mr. O’Neil was 76, and Dr. Organ reported that it was a very sad loss. He had lived in Leyden and worked on land protection with the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust. Dr. Organ went on to report that there were diversion attempts every year while he was chief of the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program. He cited two examples in Massachusetts, the Inland Fish and Game Fund under Governor Romney, and more recently for the marine [saltwater] license fees. He stated that having a quick response from the regional office of the Fish and Wildlife Service was critical to stopping those diversion attempts from going very far, and the lack of local Service staff is worrisome when thinking about dealing with future diversion attempts.
Executive session
Mr. Durand moved that the Board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing proposed land acquisition projects whose negotiations might be compromised by discussion in open session and that the Board not return to open session afterward. Mr. Foster seconded the motion. A roll-call vote was taken.
Mr. Sisk: Yes
Ms. Dyer: Yes
Mr. Foster: Yes
Mr. Sears: Yes
Ms. Ellsworth: Yes
Mr. Durand: Yes
Dr. Organ: Yes
The vote in favor was unanimous.
Three parcels were presented by staff. Before the presentation of parcel #1, Ms. Ellsworth recused herself and left the room. The vote by roll call was six approvals and one non-vote by recusal; the parcel was accepted. Ms. Ellsworth rejoined the executive session. The other two parcels presented were unanimously accepted by roll-call votes.
Adjourn
There being no further business, Mr. Foster moved to adjourn. Mr. Durand seconded the motion. A roll-call vote was taken.
Mr. Sisk: Yes
Ms. Dyer: Yes
Mr. Foster: Yes
Mr. Sears: Yes
Ms. Ellsworth: Yes
Mr. Durand: Yes
Dr. Organ: Yes
The vote in favor was unanimous and the meeting was adjourned at 12:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Ernie Foster
Secretary
List of documents presented to the Board in its May business meeting packets
May agenda
April monthly meeting minutes draft
April 29, 2025, special meeting minutes draft
Personnel report
Copy of letter dated May 1, 2025, from John Kellstrand and the Massachusetts Sportsmen’s Council to the members of the Fisheries and Wildlife Board RE the Council’s request for a coyote season extension
Copy of reply letter dated May 9, 2025, from Assistant Director of Wildlife Michael Huguenin to John Kellstrand and the Massachusetts Sportsmen’s Council RE the Council’s request for a coyote season extension
Copy of letter from Bob Durand and Steve Sears dated April 28, 2025, on behalf of the Board to the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee RE support for Representative David Vieira’s Amendment 1094 to permanently codify the reimbursement of discounted and free hunting and fishing licenses in statute
Copy of letter from Bob Durand and Steve Sears dated May 13, 2025, on behalf of the Board to the chairs of the Joint Committee on Agriculture RE support for S. 67, to permanently codify the reimbursement of discounted and free hunting and fishing licenses in statute
Copy of email from Christine Smith to Susan Sacco RE the transfer of a gift of land that had closed during the previous month
May 2025 DFG budget summary for land acquisition and due diligence costs
Supporting packet for executive session