Wisconsin’s Stewardship Program Caught in a Festering Political Pout

   Wisconsin lawmakers have bickered about funding the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program since 1989, when Rep. Spencer Black, a Democrat, crafted it and Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican, signed it into law.

   Until recently, state lawmakers always wore each other down for conservation. Eventually, they’d always pause, tug up their mom- or dad-pants, and settle on budgets neither loved but could stomach. That’s just how they did the hard things inside Wisconsin’s capitol, given voters’ preference for bipartisan cooperation for conservation.

   The late, great Bud Jordahl — a Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame inductee in 2005 — reminded us of that heritage during yet another squabble over the Knowles-Nelson program nearly 20 years ago.

   “Stewardship has never been a Democratic or Republican program,” Jordahl told me in April 2007. “Republicans never wanted to give Gaylord Nelson any credit, and Democrats never gave Warren Knowles or Tommy Thompson any credit. But they worked together because they knew how much this program means to Wisconsin. Whether it’s duck stamps, cigarette taxes, federal excise taxes, license surcharges or public bonds, our citizens always bought and preserved lands for themselves and future generations.”

   Jordahl wouldn’t have been impressed Feb. 3 during the state Senate’s Sporting Heritage committee hearing on a GOP bill that commits only $28.25 million to the Stewardship program. That’s down from the current $33 million, and slightly up from the original $23 million budgeted in 1990. Of course, what $23 million bought 36 years ago equals roughly $57 million today.

     Wisconsin’s hunters, anglers, trappers and other conservationists have benefited the past 36 years from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program, which is now in jeopardy because of a partisan fight in the Legislature.     — Patrick Durkin photo

   Heading into the current stalemate, Gov. Tony Evers requested $100 million for Stewardship in his budget, and Democrats in the Legislature recently proposed $72 million.

   In an unprecedented move, however, the $28.25 million GOP bill provides nothing for buying land, except $1 million designated for the Ice Age Trail. Everything else in the GOP billl would fund maintenance work and habitat restoration by the Department of Natural Resources, private organizations and local governments.

   State Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc, and state Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point, conceded during the Feb. 3 hearing that the GOP bill isn’t perfect, but they think it’s the only way to keep the Stewardship program alive after current funding ends June 30.

   Gov. Evers, meanwhile, said he will veto any Stewardship bill that doesn’t budget land purchases. Democrats also say any bill without such funding abandons a core principle of the Stewardship program. Yes, maintaining and improving habitat is essential, but the Stewardship program must also preserve threatened habitats and increase access to outdoor recreation.

   The Feb. 3 hearing also revealed what’s motivating the GOP's land-buying boycott. They’re pouting because the powerful Joint Finance Committee can no longer anonymously block funding for programs they dislike.

   They got away with 27 such blind-side blocks after Evers took office in January 2019. Evers finally sued in October 2023, and the state Supreme Court ruled 6-1 in July 2024 that the JFC’s “legislative vetoes” violated Wisconsin’s Constitution by blocking budget items properly OK’d by the executive branch. Those illegal blocks included $4 million in Stewardship land purchases for the Pelican River Forest in Forest, Oneida and Langlade counties.

   That 6-1 rebuke stung. Losing is bad enough, but it’s humiliating when two of the Court’s three conservative justices side with the four liberals. And to salt that sore, a conservative wrote the majority opinion. And not just any conservative. The writer was Rebecca Bradley, a justice prone to writing dissents and decisions that sometimes resemble rage-bait from White House press secretary Karoline Levitt.

   But instead of accepting the ruling like statesmen and honoring Wisconsin’s tradition of bipartisan support for conservation, GOP lawmakers kneecapped the Stewardship program to punish its supporters. Two senators revealed as much Feb. 3 by asking questions that, in reality, were confessions.

   When Charles Carlin of Gathering Waters, a nonprofit organization representing 40 Wisconsin land trusts, told the Senate hearing his group’s concerns with the GOP bill, he learned two senators hadn’t forgotten Gathering Waters signed onto Evers’ lawsuit in April 2024.

   Sen. John Jagler, R-Watertown, asked Carlin: “Do you as an organization regret intervening in that lawsuit, knowing where we’re sitting here today?"

   Say what? Should Gathering Waters have not represented its members in court? Should it have cowered in a foxhole, fearing petty retribution from state senators?

   Cody Kamrowski, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, received a similar rebuke after telling the committee his group couldn’t support a bill that didn’t provide money to buy land for public access. Committee chairman Sen. Rob Stafsholts, R-New Richmond, asked Kamrowski: “Have you thought about where we’re at and the political reality of where this program is at?”

   Sigh.

   Is it the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation’s fault when senators spin “political reality” from childish grievances over a Supreme Court spanking 19 months ago?

   As the Legislature neared the end of its floor sessions, the Senate’s Sporting Heritage Committee voted 3-2 on party lines Feb. 13 to move the GOP’s Stewardship bill to the full Senate, with the committee’s two Democrats opposing it. GOP leaders could still reach a compromise with Democrats to write a bill Evers would sign. But the GOP seemed committed Feb. 13 to provide nothing for new land purchases, and Evers and Democrats have said they won’t back any bill lacking those funds.

   Whatever that outcome, voters will decide this fall which candidates are most committed to making our air clean, our water pure, our natural resources rich, and our public lands productive and accessible. Even though most Wisconsinites know little about the Stewardship program, 90% of those surveyed by telephone in early February by New Bridge Strategy and FM3 Research said they support public funding for conservation.

   But if you wonder why the Stewardship program matters, hit this link, https://knowlesnelson.org/toolkit/, and click on the “Explore Impact Sheets” tab. Whether you search by county, Assembly district, Senate district or “Ice Age Trail” community, you’ll learn how many projects, how many acres, and how much taxpayer money Knowles-Nelson has invested in Wisconsin.

   That $1.3 billion investment helps all Wisconsinites, even those still “asleep in the womb of time.”