Saturday, February 11, 2017

Walker wipes out DNR magazine, keeps killing agency mission

[Updated from 2/9] Here's how deeply the right-wing, anti-science, GOP Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will reach into state service to kill off a long-standing source of easily-accessible environmental information, and force two workers from their jobs, in a bit of post-Act 10, ant-state worker 'achievement.'

Though its costs were completely covered by subscribers, and the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine had a long and useful run, climate change denier Scott Walker and his "chamber of commerce mentality" DNR mission-saboteur Secretary Cathy Stepp are using the state budget to wipe out the credible, high-quality publication that published items like this 
no longer wanted by official Wisconsin:

Photo of bumble bee on flower © Callen Harty
As spring creeps in earlier and earlier, some blooms may be in flower before the insects that pollinate them have hatched and matured.
© Callen Harty

February 2011

Managing our future: Getting ahead of a changing climate

The first of a series of reports to be issued every four to five years suggests how Wisconsin can adapt to stave off consequences from an altered world.

Or...

February 2017


The efficiently-run, low-cost magazine ($8.97 annually for six issues, and a lower rate if two-or-three year subscription were purchased), had been published under several names since 1919.

Why after nearly a century does the Governor want to kill it, and its positive public purpose?

Even the DNR itself said on an agency webpage that "magazine stories encourage readers to participate in outdoor activities, appreciate a healthy outdoor environment and contribute to its welfare," but Walker has decided the DNR should not be telling these stories.

Here is the larger context for the move.

Unless media statewide rise up against this ham-handed termination of public information, and if the Legislature says otherwise.

6 comments:

  1. I get the magazine with my Patron's License. I will no longer purchase said license. Our governor is a real pile.
    What Scooter has picked up is the Trump tactics. Do so many really dumbass things, one after another, so that we forget most of it.

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  2. Dropping this magazine is one more prescription for disaster. The story entitled "Preserving pine relicts a prescription for good health: Mary Kay Baum tackles health challenges and garlic mustard" appears in this Feb. 2017 issue. The exceptional writer, Lisa Gaumitz, traced the development of our state's natural areas and how retired farmers beam as they return to the land and help conserve it. The story closes with, "When I slow down I sense the wonder of the land around me, I am drawn to renewed hope that together we can imagine and work toward that deeply interconnected world that is meant to be." Mary Kay Baum, Ridgeway, WI

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  3. Since we pay for the magazine by subscription we should all demand a refund from the governor.

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  4. The employees are both half-time limited term employees so the DNR doesn't pay benefits for them. One retired from the magazine and came back, the other is partly responsible for doing communications work also. I am surprised the magazine doesn't make money. I think they would have to pay back subscriptions.

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  5. Say it isn't so! Does our Governor realize this is a truly self-defeating move? How many people were or are, about to subscribe?! The website still advertises 1-, 2- and 3-year subscriptions... Fake Advertising, Total Scam or Fake News?!

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