Walker proposal to limit citizen oversight of DNR criticized
Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday sent shock waves through the Wisconsin conservation community with a proposal to end a successful tradition of citizen-involvement and open decision-making.
The surprise came in the 2015-'17 state budget. The proposal would strip power from the Natural Resources Board and make the seven-member citizen body "advisory only."
The board, which has been in place in some form since 1928, would no longer have the authority to vote on rules changes and set policy for the Department of Natural Resources.
It's not the first time a governor has influenced the board in recent decades. In 1995, Gov. Tommy Thompson used the budget bill to remove the board's ability to select the DNR secretary. And slightly more than a decade later, Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a bill that would have restored that power to the board.
Walker's proposal likely would be the third and fatal blow.
It's one of the governor's "bold" ideas that is being received badly.
"We're going to fight this," said Ralph Fritsch of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.
More than a dozen groups — with interests ranging from agricultural to environmental — announced their opposition to the proposal last week.
The Natural Resources Board has its roots in the Wisconsin Conservation Act of 1927. A group of Hall of Famers, including Aldo Leopold, Haskell Noyes and William Aberg, helped get the law passed that created a citizen's board called the Wisconsin Conservation Commission.
Citizens were appointed by the governor and served on the board as volunteers to set policy for the state conservation agency. The name was changed to the Natural Resources Board in 1967. But the function and goal remained the same.
Aberg was an ardent Republican but saw no place for politics in conservation.
"Conservation cannot afford to enter the political arena as a candidate or partisan," Aberg said.
Christine Thomas of Stevens Point has served on the board since 2003. In her day job, she's dean of the UW-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources. She is, hands down, one of the nation's most respected conservationists. She has been appointed to national boards by both Republican and Democrat administrations.
She also did her doctoral thesis on the Natural Resources Board. Her comments at the April 2011 NRB meeting bear reprinting today.
"When this country was founded, our founding fathers decided that mob rule was not what should happen and that is why there are legislators. They also decided that too much control by the legislature was not good and that is why we have the senate.
"And at some point in Wisconsin's history, our citizens decided that there needed to be one more buffer between the natural resources of this state and even those elected officials. That buffer is the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board.
"(The board is) the only people not tied to this by the money they make or the election process, the only people that can stand up for the resource with no tie to money, contributions, gifts or election. And every decision has to be made in full view of the public.
"The state legislature can take our powers away from us. They can eliminate us if the citizens of this state decide that it is more important for the person with the most money and most influence to win. (If they decide) the only group of people that can stand up for the resource regardless of sociology and regardless of anyone's self-interest is not worth having, then so be it. But I think (the NRB) is one of the best things about Wisconsin."
A short time later in the meeting, Cathy Stepp, a former NRB member and current DNR secretary, said she appreciated Thomas' comments.
"I don't think it's overstating it to say that you're totally singing out of the same hymnal as I am when it comes to the importance of this body and the objective nature by which this body makes decisions," Stepp said. "And that it's a really, really critical part of Wisconsin's history and it's something that's treasured by me. And I know the governor feels the same way."
The budget proposal, of course, tells a different story.
The governor's office has only offered that making the board advisory-only would "strengthen the department."
Significantly, the proposal has drawn opposition from across the political spectrum.
"Farm Bureau wishes to maintain the current authority that citizen boards have at Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources," said Jim Holte, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
The NRB includes one farmer, William Bruins of Waupun, who was appointed by Walker.
"Provisions in this budget paint a clear picture of an administration concentrating power in the politically appointed DNR Secretary and silencing the public's voice when it comes to the natural resources that belong to us all," said a statement from the River Alliance of Wisconsin.
Rob Bohmann, chairman of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, was working on a formal statement but said the group would be "overwhelmingly against the proposal."
The proposal no doubt will draw more attention in the coming weeks as the budget bill is modified. Now, as Thomas said at the 2011 board meeting, it's up to the citizens of the state to make their feelings known.
The latest assault on Wisconsin's conservation traditions has some asking: What's next, a Gogebic Taconite employee being named to a top DNR post?
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