Inside the WI DNR: poor morale, fear, despair over lost mission

[Updated] I am again updating this comprehensive 2016 review of right-wing GOP WI Gov. Scott Walker's ideological attack on science, freely flowing information and public service at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources by adding links about the agency's intentional scrubbing of climate change information from websites and Walker's plan to cancel the agency's 99-year old, subscriber-supported bi-monthly magazine.

Walker's spokesman offered a preposterous explanation contradicted by facts.

The real context is below:

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[Updated from 6/2/16] 

After two recent, high-ranking staff departures - - and a host of legal, program and policy changes in state government which have put Wisconsin air, water and land at risk since Gov. Walker's inauguration in January, 2011 - - I thought it was time to get a closer look inside the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

[6/10/16 update, 2:12 p.m.] The DNR has quietly adopted the advisory opinion of Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel - - one lawyer's view that is not state law approved by the Legislature - - that Wisconsin groundwater is not afforded protection or regulation long-guaranteed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Wisconsin Constitution. 

[6/16/16 update] Ordered up by Big Ag, mega-dairies and other special interests - - in writing:

The hand-delivered memo, its bold and bold-faced language. and the weighty array of powerful logos at the top tell the story:

An urgent communication to all Wisconsin legislators 

We are at a crossroads. It is imperative that the legislature assert its authority and bring certainty and sanity to the regulation of new and existing high capacity wells in Wisconsin. 

And:

However, we cannot accept any legislation that would create new, stifling regulations or establish regulatory uncertainty as to how DNR and the state will approach new well applications moving forward. 

Another win for polluters at the expense of the people who own all the water of the state, and solid evidence that the DNR is little more than a subsidiary of corporate Wisconsin where the GOP runs and coordinates all three branches of the government.

My findings, below:

The DNR, once a nationally-regarded science-based resource protection agency, has been disregarded, defunded and degraded by management "deliberately and proudly uninformed," according to one first-hand observer among several whom I surveyed over the course of ten days.

Wisconsin's far-right Governor Scott Walker set the DNR's downfall in motion when he appointed at the beginning of his tenure Racine developer and unabashed DNR-trasher Cathy Stepp - -  

Photo courtesy of Wisconsin DNR 

- - read her anti-DNR-staff-and-program rant while a revealing Stepp video has been taken off-line - - to oversee the DNR as Secretary with what Walker called "a chamber of commerce mentality."

Walker then added other top managers with work at leading builders, transportation and commerce trade associations on their resumes to oversee crucial air, water and other environmental policy development, implementation and decision-making.

While Stepp, at times, has promoted in-house activities or made remarks which one first-hand observer has called "not very professional. I think she is deliberately and proudly uninformed."

A summary post about some of this is here.

Walker has reduced DNR budgets, pared its long-standing, bi-partisan land acquisition program, slashed science and other staffs, enabled reduced pollution inspections and enforcement actions  - - read this 2012 enforcement summation and a 2016 followup - - and wants to turn over agency permit drafting to 'regulated' applicants already enjoying eased permit reviews. 

Updated, 6/5: As if on cue, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing a non-partisan state watchdog agency report, noted that the DNR has been routinely ignoring its own procedures and declining to charge large numbers of industrial and municipal polluters, for years:

Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources isn't following its own policies for policing pollution from large livestock farms and wastewater treatment plants, a state audit says.  

The Legislative Audit Bureau report found the DNR failed to send violation notices in 94% of the nearly 560 instances its policies said it should have over the past decade. The report found that permits have been extended without review for years due to a backlog and that staff members don't have time to thoroughly monitor concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.

And Walker has added special-interest friendly policies, rules and legislation to the DNR's purview, is using the agency to fight federal clean air standards, allowed the agency to systematically ignore federal clean water law enforcement and has opened the door to  sand and open-pit iron mining, wetland filling and shoreline development, regardless of local residents and governments' input or desires.

Added to this toxic brew which puts special interests above the public's needs: 

*  A solidly pro-Walker, GOP gerrymandered state legislature;

*  A 5-2 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court elected with the help of large campaign donations from some of the same trade associations supplying the DNR with senior administrators and corporate policy agendas;

*  An Attorney General also captured by special interests, especially those who would privatize the public's water while the current DNR is all-too-happy to look the other way.

* [6/19/16 update]: And the agency has just announced the sale of 128 parcels of publicly-owned land, many of which are labeled designated wildlife, water management of gifted property. Political and insider opportunities abound.

So after those two high-profile, senior DNR staff departures, and other policy decisions which put the public interest at the back of the line, I decided to survey people with direct knowledge of the DNR. I asked them to comment on agency issues, including morale, impact of budget cuts, reorganizations, and senior staff leadership/competence.

Here is some of the feedback:

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Updated, 6/21/16:

With his permission, I am adding comments to this post from Gordon Stevenson, an engineer and former senior DNR manager, who now serves Midwest Environmental Advocates as board secretary and spoke at a a May MEA water program in Milwaukee. This is from his MEA bio:

Gordon is a 26 year veteran of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. His last assignment was serving as the Chief of Runoff Management until his retirement in January of 2011. His professional expertise includes watershed-based water resource protection and control of diffuse water pollution sources. Gordon had been instrumental in development of policies and administrative codes for the State of Wisconsin involving both agricultural and urban nonpoint source water pollution. In particular, Gordon has been an architect of Wisconsin’s environmental programs that apply to Wisconsin’s extensive livestock industry. He wrote and issued the first permits for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in Wisconsin, developed technical guidance for abatement of agricultural pollutants in both surface water and groundwater and was the voice of the Department of Natural Resources to Wisconsin’s livestock producer community.

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 At the MEA water program, Stevenson said, in part:

For the majority of my career, water policy decisions were based on the strong bond between law and science, the people in charge of making those decisions had conservation and environmental protection credentials, and my colleagues and I shared the belief that Wisconsin's true and sustaining wealth is its clean water.

Much of that is now changed at DNR. Wisconsin DNR's water quality permit program has been found seriously deficient by the US Environmental Protection Agency. DNR is failing to protect downstream water from upstream pollution sources, they are allowing already impaired water bodies to get worse and they are suppressing the public's ability to challenge water quality permit decisions.

Wisconsin DNR's authority to protect Wisconsin's water resources is delegated from EPA. Under the delegation agreement, DNR is obligated to administer the federal Clean Water Act. DNR is not doing so. On behalf of 16 Wisconsin citizens, Midwest Environmental Advocates has filed a Citizens Petition for Corrective Action with the US Environmental Protection agency to correct these deficiencies. The petition seeks to restore the credible water quality protection program that we once had in this state.

We're arriving at an important crossroads in Wisconsin. We have our own version of Flint, Michigan in Kewaunee County where citizens cannot drink the water and we have our own version of the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone. A dead zone now also exists in Green Bay that runs from the City of Green Bay all the way up to Marinette.

While I am alarmed, I am also encouraged . We are pleased to report that more than 70 people like me, DNR retirees, along with other credible scientist and partners have signed on to support the Petition for Corrective Action along with our original 16 Wisconsin citizen clients. And the number of people supporting the petition is growing daily.

But in a larger sense. I am even more encouraged that so many Wisconsin citizens believe like I do: that water policy decisions should be based on the strong bond between law and science, that the people in charge of making water quality decisions should have the credentials to do so, and that Wisconsin's true and sustaining wealth is its clean water."

In an email, Stevenson also said:

In addition, DNR management has made it clear to staff that environmental advocacy is no longer the core mission of DNR and staff are disallowed from doing so.  What was once a guardian of Wisconsin’s natural heritage is now reduced to a rubber-stamping vendor of licenses and permits without oversight.

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*  A lobbyist noted DNR policy and procedure changes that have tilted agency activity and decisions towards regulated businesses:

No legislative analysis of bills by Department staff. No testimony on bills unless asked by a legislator... DNR used to have written instructions on providing testimony. That no longer exists. 

Decisions on permits, policies, responses to FOI's [freedom of information requests] are all made by Division Administrators (political appointees) 

Routine for permit applicants to meet with senior staff (Secretary's Office) with no front line staff working on permits attending - or even notified of these meetings. 

General - low morale - much of it from fear. Employees have no idea what realignment will look like and many long term employees are afraid they will be out of a job. There is no info on the realignment which is supposed to happen by July 1.

*  A former longtime staffer said:

Employee morale is far lower than it ever has been. Most experienced  employees leave as soon as they can. There is often a fear to make unpopular decisions which often are part of the job.

* Another former staffer said:

...morale among the long-time staff is not good. Many are old enough to retire... but feel they can't. I've also heard that senior management (division admins and up) "listen" to advice of technical staff but often don't follow it.

*  A second lobbyist said:

...for retired DNR workers...there's deep dismay about the selling off of the agency, the trashing of its mission, the disrespect for agency workers (and all public employees, for that matter, by the Walker regime). 

The most deeply dismaying, for former DNR types, is how acquiescent and compliant newer DNR workers are to this philosophy of government -- how they really know nothing else and they think this is normal. Retirees understand younger DNR workers have families to support and careers to build, but it pains them to see them robbed of their autonomy and professionalism -- and that newer workers may not even fully understand the robbery.  

*  A third former staffer said: 

The most alarming issue to me is the great waste of decades of sound science, compiled overtime in on-going studies and data collection. WI had more information about our natural landscape than most states. Abolishing science services put an end to decades long studies vital to maintaining and recovering rare and endangered plants and animals as well as understanding natural communities as information on resilience for climate change. 

* A current employe on personal time echoed many of the lobbyists and former staffers'  observations:

Under Walker and Stepp, science is not a priority. Scientific knowledge is ever-changing but in Wisconsin our staff are being left behind. We no longer have a statistician to help interpret data, a library to provide journals or books, or researchers that monitor fish counts, wildlife health, air quality, water quality and etc….employee scientific knowledge and data specific to WI is stagnant...we cannot do the best job possible for our state. 

The DNR is currently run by people who understand public relations spin but not the complexity of the natural resources they are responsible for...Communications staff, generally not trained specifically in resource communication, answer questions with talking points..usually developed by upper management - political appointees - and legal staff. The information provided is biased and superficial.

Act 10 and the pay cuts related to that have been hard on a lot of staff...we can no longer hire and/or keep the best and brightest and that is sad. Especially looking back at some of the really ground-breaking research and resulting policy work done here 20-30 years ago. We now do the minimum to protect resources...

We have 2,500 full time staff (down from 3,100) and about 1,500 Limited Term Employees. That is an extremely high number of temporary employees who can and have been fired without any notice. After Civil Service "reforms" which go into effect in July, we will all be subject to that uncertainty. Under these circumstances, collective institutional memory can be lost very quickly...Reinventing the wheel is wasteful... 

Also happening in July is our "Alignment," the new term for reorganization. Anyone not performing a "core function" will be moved to a new job [but] there has been no information provided to staff on just what the core functions are….

I do believe that all the natural resources of Wisconsin belong to the people of Wisconsin...I don't understand why people who live in one of the most beautiful and environmentally diverse places in the world voted for environmental degradation.