Monday, July 11, 2016

Walker's do-little DNR about to do even less, agency says

Not content with flushing away the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources historic mission, slashing its staff, degrading its science focus, deliberately leaving positions unfilled - - hence the staff shortages which mean that environmental protection is being sacrificed - - giving breaks to polluters and favors to insiders and wiping out state park operating funds which hit The Average Wisconsin Family with steeper fees and even scheming (unsuccessfully) to wipe out long-standing citizen oversight of the whole operation - - here's one link covering it all with half a dozen or so links - - state Republicans through their lead "chamber of commerce" operative Walker put atop DNR are about to drop another bomb on the agency and the public the DNR formerly represented:
Current DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp has said that in August the department expects to unveil a plan to curtail unnecessary department activities and shift resources to bolster the agency’s core mission, which she said includes environmental protection.
Wisconsin DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp proudly shows off her first deer, taken opening weekend last year. In the upcoming TV Special "Deer Hunt Wisconsin 2012, Stepp urges male hunters to take more girls and women hunting. "The secret's out," she says. "Hunting is a lot of fun, so don't keep it to yourselves."  photo courtesy of Wisconsin DNR
Unnecessary department activities…bolster the agency's core mission…?

A core mission which she says includes environmental protection? Well, that's bold, though let's be honest: under this administration, a pledge to define unnecessary activities is worrisome, and further pledging to protect - - sorta - - the environment is just more manure.


Problem is, that's according to Stepp, who, in the past has attacked the agency's core mission and denigrated its staff, agreed with the budget and staff cuts while confirming that the mission under Walker's "chamber of commerce" agency construct now allows regulated firms to write their own permits and set the rules of their permit's pollution tolerance.


Insiders tell me internal work assignments at the DNR are beginning to happen, and without civil service protections which the Walkerites also threw away, a fresh wave of gloom is washing through its offices.

We, and the dedicated staff still doing the people's work, await Stepp's definition of unnecessary department activities and the agency's core mission.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't honestly say they are doing nothing. Walker's DNR is putting manure lagoon run-off in people's drinking water, something the big Walkerites are very fond of.

Anonymous said...

The DNR secretary and natural resources board attack the DNR's sacred mission
while threatening people with E.coli and fracsand particulate lung disease and there's no drumbeat for immediate removal of the guilty ones from office?

This great huge country where even all-American Betty Crocker items do get recalled because there are pesticide-resistant poisons (E.coli) in the product. E.coli is dangerous and already Wisconsin's wells are contaminated with it from the CAFO run-off DNR ignores. Outbreaks of Elizabethkingsia (a strangely powerful, bacterial infection) has already killed in Wisconsin. And we're famous throughout the hunting world for messing up the epidemic of Chronic Wasting Disease, the infectious, fatal prion disease now permanently contaminating the land and sending sick deer crashing through storefront windows in Wisconsin where white-tails are the State's Wildlife Animal?

Sick. Threaten our lives, our wildlife and Nature and you should be made to Stepp Down.

Is this an apocalypse movie or Wisconsin, Badgers?!

Jake formerly of the LP said...

Even more sick when you consider record rain just fell where that giant CAFO in Bayfield County is supposed to be. This is getting to the point where federal intervention is required