Joint Finance Committee Axes Funding for Wisconsin's Largest Conservation Project

Wednesday, April 19th, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

(Bob Hague, WRN) Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday rejected funding for a 56,000 acre conservation project near Rhinelander in northern Wisconsin.

State Senator Mary Felzkowski of Irma said there’s already 5.9 million acres of Wisconsin in conservation easements or public lands. “If you want northern Wisconsin to be economically viable, people to be able to purchase land and build homes and enjoy it and live there, we have declining enrollment in our schools, we have areas that are going broke. And we continue to take the tools away from them to allow them to be economically viable. So, enough is enough."

Finance Committee co-chair, Representative Mark Born was critical of the Department of Natural Resources. “The fact that they thought they could shove this down the throat of the locals. Pretend like there was no concerns. Literally hide those concerns.”

The $15 million purchase would have been the largest conservation easement in state history, and made the land unavailable for development uses.   

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