WOCA 2025 Meeting Agenda

2025 Wisconsin Outdoor Communicators Association Annual Meeting
Trees For Tomorrow Conference Center, Eagle River, Wis.

Friday, Aug. 1

5 to 6:25 p.m.: Dinner and Social at Trees for Tomorrow, The meal will feature grilled “fireman’s corn,” and brats and/or hamburgers/cheeseburgers. Location: Outside the dining hall.

7 to 8 p.m. Evening Session: How will Declining Hunter Numbers Affect DNR Funding, Deer Management, Agency Policy. Location: Trees for Tomorrow main classroom/conference center.

  • Adam Mohr, Wisconsin DNR Research Scientist. Remarks and Q&A.

Saturday, Aug. 2

7 to 7:30 a.m.: Breakfast

7:35 to 7:45 a.m.: Welcome to Trees for Tomorrow, Cheryl Todea, TFT executive director.

7:50 to 8:50 a.m.: The Past, Present and Future of Rollie & Helen’s Musky Shop

  • Jim Stewart, owner of The Musky Shop in Minocqua, bought this iconic fishing store in 2003. In an era when most sporting-goods stores struggle, The Musky Shop is now 36 years old and a “must-stop” for Northwoods visitors passing by on U.S. Highway 51.

8:55 to 10:15 a.m.: A Lifetime Devoted to Wildlife Rehabilitation

  • Mark Naniot is the owner/co-founder and director of Wild Instincts in Rhinelander. It’s the state’s largest center for treating and rehabilitating sick, injured and struggling wildlife, including black bears.

Break

10:25 to 11:40 a.m.: A Nice Surprise: Wild Turkeys Thriving in the Northwoods

  • Taylor Finger, Wisconsin DNR Game Bird Specialist. When wild turkeys were reintroduced in 1972, biologists predicted they’d range from Green Bay westerly through Green Lake and Sauk counties to the Iowa/Minnesota border. Instead, turkeys have thrived statewide and into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

11:40 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Silent Auction Closes, Prizes Awarded; Group Photo at Education Center entrance

12:15 to 12:55 p.m.: Lunch Break

1 to 2 p.m.: Wooden Treasures: Why Wisconsin’s Public Forests Matter

  • Ron Weber, Wisconsin DNR senior forester, will discuss how the state’s county, state and federal forests are managed, and include highlights from the “Good Neighbor Authority” program. All these forests are public resources, but each forest has slightly different missions, opportunities and challenges. Ron will also discuss forest regeneration, tariffs, poor markets, challenges to logging, and other issues.

2:05 to 3:15 p.m.: Southwestern Wisconsin’s Deer, Predator and CWD Research Project

  • Dan Storm, the DNR’s chief deer research biologist, will provide the latest findings from the state’s largest and longest-running study of white-tailed deer. Among its findings is that CWD now kills more female deer and affects herd size more than hunting in many townships across Iowa, Sauk and Richland counties.

3:20 to 4:20 p.m.: A Tick Disease that Nearly Killed a Man

  • In August 2023, Al Hofacker of Athelstane received his last rites, and the hospital summoned loved ones, fearing he would die overnight. The co-founder of Deer & Deer Hunting magazine survived, but he spent over two months in the hospital. Doctors believe he had babesiosis, likely from the bite by a Lone Star tick.

Break (and/or “Rain Date” for group photo session)

4:25 p.m.: WOCA Business Meeting

  • 2025 WOCA Scholarship presentation: Matthew Crawford, Oshkosh, student at UW-La Crosse.
  • Laurel Steffes reviews WOCA 2024 minutes; WOCA budget/finances; Conference rates.
  • Donations for 2024-2025, Scholarship Program update: Laurel Steffes, Art Barlow.
  • A few quick thoughts from WOCA president Pat Durkin, and discussion.
  • Elect/appoint WOCA officers and BOD representatives.
  • Dates for next year’s WOCA conference at Trees For Tomorrow: July 31-Aug. 1, 2026

4:45 p.m.: WOCA door prizes

5 p.m. Adjourn.

Speakers’ Bios & Contact Info (in order of appearance):

Adam Mohr, DNR researcher, adam.mohr@wisconsin.gov; (608) 515-6077: Adam is a DNR research scientist in the Office of Applied Science. He earned a B.S. in wildlife ecology from UW-Madison and a M.S. in wildlife ecology from Cal Poly Humboldt. He has worked on several wildlife research projects across the country on deer, elk, wolves and other species. His current work focuses on deer hunter demographics, the annual deer harvest, and the effects of winter severity on deer herds.

Jim Stewart, Muskie Shop owner, info@muskyshop.com; (715) 356-6011: Rollie & Helen’s Musky Shop in Minocqua opened in 1989, and Jim bought it from the couple in 2003. Jim is from northeastern Iowa, where he ran a farm, and lawn-care and snow-removal service until moving to Minocqua when buying the store. Jim is a lifelong musky fisherman, and often fished this region during summer vacations. He’s now a 22-year resident, and loves life in Wisconsin’s Northwoods.

Mark Naniot, wildlife rehabilitator, info@wildinstinctsrehab.com, (715) 362-9453: Mark is the director of rehabilitation at Wild Instincts in Rhinelander. He earned a B.S. in biology and natural resources, and has worked with orphaned and injured wildlife nearly 40 years. Mark served from 2000-2012 on the Wildlife Rehabilitation Advisory Committee to the Department of Natural Resources. In that role he promoted wildlife rehabilitation as a profession, with rules and guidelines to protect wildlife in rehabbers’ care while safeguarding the public. He serves on the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council, and the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association. He also is a former member of the Wisconsin Wildlife Rehabilitators Association. Mark is a certified wildlife rehabilitator and instructor for IWRC.

Taylor Finger, Wisconsin DNR Game Bird Specialist, taylor.finger@wisconsin.gov; (608) 212-7923: Taylor graduated in degree in M.S.degree in biology and wildlife management, and earned her B.S. Stevens Point with a -2010 from UWShe was the DNR’s assistant migratory game bird biologist biology from Western University in London, Ontario, in 2014. bird ecologist since February 2017.-from December 2013 to February 2017, and has been the state’s game Ron Weber, DNR Forester, ronw2492@yahoo.com, (715) 415-2353: Though Ron has always been a writer at heart, he forester with the Wisconsin DNR in . He is now aWeyerhaeuser inhigh school science teacher began his career as a nty, state and federal forests. He has on couas well as on private woodlands, landowners with swork, and Ladysmithwritten many articles for Wisconsin Natural Resources, Badger Sportsman, and Wisconsin Woodland Owner magazines. Diane live in ,Ron and his wife on Wisconsin Public Radio. ”Wisconsin Life“selections of his essays on also read hasHe Weyerhaeuser.

Daniel Storm, DNR Deer Research, DanielJ.Storm@wisconsin.gov, (715) 401-2715: Dan lives in Eau Claire. He’s a research scientist with the Wisconsin DNR, specializing in deer and chronic wasting disease. Storm received his B.S. degree from South Dakota State University, his M.S. degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Al Hofacker, Conservationist/Tick-Borne Disease Survivor, unclealwi@gmail.com, (715) 938-0228: Al Hofacker co-founded Deer & Deer Hunting magazine in 1977, and co-owned the magazine until selling it to Krause Publications in Iola in 1992. Al served several years on the Wisconsin Conservation Congress through the 1980s and early 1990s, and has served as a member of the Marinette County Deer Advisory Committee the past decade.

Scroll to Top