DNR Taking Aim At Rural Wisconsin

There is a plan afoot to curtail legally-mandated environmental impact reviews by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources when assessing some major projects and to restrict citizen involvement in the process.

Worse - - this sweeping change is being proposed by the DNR instead of it being its opponent.

And it could fall heavily on rural Wisconsin, where negative environmental impacts can be out of sight, out of mind (think sand mining that pollutes a river, for example, or an endangered trout stream depleted by nearby high-capacity wells, such as the Little Plover).

At issue is the implementation of basic Wisconsin environmental protections and procedures under a body of state law known as NR 150.

How basic is NR 150, thus how broad is the impact of what the DNR wants to do?

Don't be thrown by the bureaucratic numeric title of something you may know little or nothing about:  As the DNR itself says about its so-called NR 150 reform  - - "NR 150 applies to all DNR actions and is a requirement that all department programs must meet..."

This is why the mainstream Wisconsin Wildlife Federation - - and its thousands of hunters, anglers, and hunters statewide - - is trying to talk sense about it to you and the DNR on our behalf.

As George Meyer, a former career DNR employee, its Secretary under GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson and now the Wildlife Federation's Executive Director put it:

"The Federation is greatly concerned about the proposed changes to NR 150 because of the reduced analysis of projects that have the potential to cause significant harm to the state’s valuable natural resources and just as importantly, we are concerned about the many changes in the proposed NR 150 that reduce transparency on proposed projects and the opportunity for input into decisions by our members.

Unfortunately, the Federation sees this as a dangerous trend in the actions of the Department and the Wisconsin Legislature."

You can read the group's full comment, and links to related materials about ongoing threats to the Wisconsin environment, here.

And no doubt you will hear in the debate on the horizon all the contemporary absentee governance buzzwords that we heard during the approval of bills allowing filling Wisconsin wetlands and mining the Penokee Hills - - more certainty for businesses, less paperwork, streamlining, reforming [sic], but you can also read in the DNR's explanation and justification for its proposed action this troubling and unambiguous key line:

The level of environmental analysis required for DNR actions will be considerably less under the proposed rule.

And what kind of projects would be getting these lesser reviews?

Timber management, high-capacity wells, county forest plans, waste storage and waste water treatment facilities, pollution permitting, mega-dairy farm operations and expansion, and the like - - all of of which fundamentally influence water quality, air cleanliness, land use and value - - not to mention the people living nearby, downstream or just hiking or canoeing through.

Bottom line: The DNR is taking dead aim at Wisconsin's environment, and particularly the rural lifestyle and economies in central, western and northern Wisconsin, by diluting NR 150.

And will use a weakened NR 150 implemented by the "chamber of commerce mentality" that Gov. Walker intentionally installed atop the DNR to turn the far right's anti-environmental and deregulatory ideology against all of Wisconsin.

State anglers, hunters, hikers and everyday conservationists are calling him out.

Influential media should pound home their message.

Leave NR 150 alone.