Sunny today, but big storms rolling in

Please see the link to Gathering Waters’ announcement regarding the funding of four conservation and parks projects around the state. Please also take the time to read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's story on the topic, and the Wisconsin State Journal's editorial. That's a lot of reading but I think it will provide the background for what I fear will be a major conservation controversy and battle over the next year.

Cedar Gorge-Clay Bluffs along Lake Michigan. Photo by Aaron Volkening FCC

The news, in my opinion, is fabulously good. Governor Evers was able to use federal COVID funds to assist in the purchase of the Lake Michigan bluffs and shore in Washington County, some park improvements in Milwaukee, and thousands of acres in northwest and northeast Wisconsin. You probably remember the ongoing struggle to preserve the Lake Michigan land and water. Almost all of the land in northern Wisconsin will become part of the county forests in Forest and Bayfield Counties. I was lucky to work with some of the county forests years ago and consider them to be one of the great, too little known conservation projects in Wisconsin. Some of this blog is about to get a little grim. You can balance that out by checking out some of the county forests in northern Wisconsin, especially if you're visiting that area. Start with Bayfield County's.

The sun shines today. The Governor's funding supports some excellent projects. The bluff/shore purchase is a wonderful enhancement for the enjoyment of a spectacular natural resource in southeast Wisconsin. $4.5 million for all these projects is a lot of money but we get a lot of land across the state and it's a modest percentage of the state's federal COVID money. Folks can reasonably disagree over the appropriateness of using those funds for these lands and improvements. One lesson that COVID taught us is how important accessible public lands and parks are, especially when folks cannot gather and recreate in other settings and need to be outdoors. So, personally, I think it's an acceptable use of the funds.

Beware the storm clouds on the horizon. Republican legislators had used an obscure and, here comes another opinion, loathsome procedure in the Joint Finance Committee to stop some of these projects. If you haven't already, please read that WSJ editorial on how unfair and cowardly that procedure is. The Governor's action blew up that roadblock, at least for these projects. Many Republican legislators will become and stay angry.

The conservation community might well face a watershed moment. Essentially, the conservation community, led by Gathering Waters and joined by dozens of other organizations, have played nice on Stewardship. We have thanked and praised any legislator who had supported Stewardship in any form. We've invited all of them to join citizens to visit Stewardship projects in their districts. We have begged our members to contact legislators with the friendliest, most positive language possible to request their support of Stewardship. Some of them have come through big time and we owe the continued if diminished existence of Stewardship to their efforts.

We might have a grimmer, more public fight on our hands and have to call out the legislators who seek to destroy Stewardship and/or cripple its effectiveness. Republican legislative leaders might find themselves caught between some angry members and a more forceful conservation community.

A prairie at Faville Grove Sanctuary, protected in part thanks to Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Funds. Photo by Galen Hasler

For now, my advice is:

1. Thank the Governor for the funding. I really believe those projects are most worthwhile and the Joint Finance Committee's anonymous veto is unconscionable.

2. If you know a Republican legislator contact him or her and ask that she or he urge the JFC to take up Stewardship recommendations such as these and discuss and vote on them publicly.

By the way, if you read this blog regularly you might think this guy is a Democrat, he just wants Democrats elected. You'd be half right. I almost always vote Democratic. But what I want even more for the long term health of conservation in Wisconsin is for some Republicans who really care about conservation to be elected to the Legislature. Even if the Legislature would not be gerrymandered, the Legislature might well have Republican majorities. We won't have stable conservation policy in Wisconsin without some legislators from both sides of the aisle serving as conservationists.

Take care; enjoy the sunshine while it's here,

Topf Wells, Madison Audubon advocacy committee chair