EDITORIAL: Thwart this attack on conservation

Legislators who have been scheming for years to cripple or kill the conservation program that has protected and made accessible to the public Wisconsin’s most beautiful and environmentally important lands and waters moved a step closer to their goal last week.

The Republican majority in the Assembly on Jan. 22 passed a bill on a party-line vote that undermines the Knowles Nelson Stewardship program so profoundly that it would cease to exist in the form that has conserved thousands of acres of the state’s magnificent features of nature since it was established in the name of Republican and Democratic governors in 1989.

Here, then, is the precarious state of conservation in Wisconsin: If the Legislature does nothing, the Stewardship Program is, in effect, dead. Its authorization will end on June 30, 2026. If the Senate approves its version of the bill passed last week and it becomes law, the Stewardship Program will no longer be able to acquire land for preservation and recreational use. Either way, it is starting to sound like a death knell if a compromise is not reached in the Legislature.

This is of particular interest to the people of Ozaukee County because the roots of this unacceptable state of affairs lie in the soil of the county-owned Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in the City of Port Washington.

The preserve has a notable place in Wisconsin conservation lore as the subject of outrage when its Stewardship grant was sabotaged in a secret meeting of legislators and then celebration when Gov. Tony Evers bypassed the Legislature to save the project with federal Covid relief funds.

With a developer eyeing the 134 acres of lakeshore land planned for the preserve, the Joint Finance Committee had exploited a legislative rule in effect at the time to allow a single anonymous member of the committee to veto the $2.3 million grant. The grant, which had full approval of the Department of Natural Resources, would have used Stewardship funds authorized by the Legislature to match dollars raised by the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust to buy the land.

After saving the preserve with some of state’s ample federal funds, Evers directed the state Department of Justice to file a lawsuit to revoke the JFC’s power to blackball conservation grants on the vote of a single member whose identity was shielded. The state’s case was so strong that liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices joined in a 6-1 vote to put an end to the JFC’s antidemocratic veto power.

The committee’s Republican majority took its revenge in July when it deleted Knowles Nelson Stewardship authorization from the 2025-27 state budget.

The Assembly bill passed last week provides funding for maintenance of land protected through Knowles Nelson Stewardship, but strips the program of its primary reason for existence—providing matching grants to land trusts and local governments to acquire land for protection of natural areas and access for public recreation.

The program’s success at carrying out that mission is one of the great stories in Wisconsin’s governmental history. Thanks to Knowles Nelson Stewardship efforts in all 72 counties, Wisconsin residents are able to enjoy more than 750,000 acres of the state’s splendid outdoors in preserves, parks, lakes, waterways and trails.

The most popular park in the Ozaukee County Park System, with more than 200,000 visitors in some years, is Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve on land purchased with Stewardship grants matched by funding from Ozaukee County, the Town of Grafton and the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust.

State Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D-Whitefish Bay), who represents the southern two-thirds of Ozaukee County, including the Lion’s Den and Clay Bluffs preserve areas, has co-sponsored an alternative bill to reauthorize the Stewardship program. The bill was not even allowed a hearing by GOP leaders, yet it has some elements that could be the seeds of compromise.

Sinykin’s bill maintains the Stewardship program’s ability to acquire land, but instead of the DNR having sole approval power—a concern of Stewardship foes who apparently distrust the agency—a 17-member Knowles Nelson Stewardship Board with representatives from various interest groups would be established to consider all projects. The board’s approval would be required for purchases over $2.5 million.

The Legislature’s majority, as demonstrated by the vote of every single Republican representative in favor of the Assembly bill’s dismantling of the Stewardship program, can simply thumb its nose at any compromise, but it is impossible to imagine what constituency would be served by that.

According to the most recent poll, 93% of Wisconsinites want public funding for conservation. That overwhelming consensus brings together hunting, fishing and boating enthusiasts, campers, hikers, businesses, Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, children, senior citizens, nature lovers all varieties. Nothing in this state is more worthy of bipartisan support than conservation.

Members of the 93% group should demand that now by contacting legislators and telling them to reauthorize land acquisition by the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Fund.