Wisconsin DNR Has Lost 500 Positions Over Two Decades

Thursday, August 21st, 2025 -- 11:01 AM

(Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio) The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has lost 500 positions over roughly two decades, leading to slower permitting times and loss of capacity for habitat management.

According to Danielle Kaeding with Wisconsin Public Radio, the head of the agency’s board called the decline a “slow, insidious loss of resources.” Bill Smith, chair of the Natural Resources Board, said at the board’s Wednesday meeting that the steady loss of positions combined with inflation means less work being done to protect natural resources and the environment.

“The department is nothing more than a steward that takes care of your resources, your access to the outdoors, your health and welfare,” Smith said. “It’s being affected by this gradual and slow, insidious loss of resources. In very simple terms, every biennial budget, you are losing production (and) you’re losing work.”

Under the current state budget, the DNR is down 500 positions since the beginning of the 2003-05 biennium when it had nearly 2,975 positions, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Maggie Hutter, the DNR’s budget director, informed the board that the Legislature eliminated 20.1 positions that had been vacant for more than a year as part of an update on the current two-year state budget. “It means we’re not laying anybody off in order to cut those positions, but it does mean work that we can’t do going forward,” Hutter said.

The DNR is authorized to spend more than $1.25 billion under its budget. At the end of the current biennium in 2027, the agency will have nearly 2,474 full-time equivalent employees.

That’s the lowest number of authorized positions at the agency since 1981. Since 2003, the agency has seen large cuts under Democratic former Gov. Jim Doyle and Republican former Gov. Scott Walker.

The DNR lost 256 positions under budgets approved by Doyle and around 230 positions under budgets during Walker’s tenure. The office of Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, noted the DNR requested the elimination of 46 positions.

Those positions had a limited term and were primarily funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In a statement, LeMahieu didn’t address the loss of positions over time.

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