THE ANTI-CONSERVATION MOVEMENT IN WISCONSIN

Wisconsin is widely regarded as a leader in conservation and environmentalism in the Midwest. Nonetheless, Wisconsin has not been bypassed by the Anti-Conservation Movement. The anti-regulatory, anti-environmental, private property rights sentiment which began in the wide open spaces of the American West has come to the home of John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Gaylord Nelson and has found kindred souls in certain pockets of rural Wisconsin.
Wisconsin has its share of public lands - a total of 4.3 million acres set aside as national, state and county forests and another 1.1 million acres of "state land" in the form of parks, natural areas, etc. Wisconsin's forests, and minerals underlying them would seem to be a prime area of conflict between conservation and environmental protection on the one hand, and Anti-Conservationists on the other. And to a certain extent this is the case. One example is forestry management. Conservationists, forestry industry representatives and Department of Natural Resources foresters worked for two years to craft a Biodiversity Bill intended to put habitat preservation and species protection on an equal footing with timber production among the state's forest management priorities. At the last minute a faction within the forestry industry withdrew its support of the bill, but intense negotiations and modest drafting changes seem to have saved it.
Mining is currently a hot issue in Wisconsin due largely to the proposal by an EXXON subsidiary to dig a huge mine (The Crandon Mine) on land sacred to Native Americans and prized by thousands of other Wisconsinites for its environmental and recreational value. The project threatens the Wolf River, a state-designated Outstanding Resource Water with a rich fishing, rafting and canoeing tradiition, and sacred to the Menominee and Chippewa Tribes. Exxon is actively pursuing the project through the administrative permitting process.
In the 1993-94 legislative session, the Wisconsin Legislature rejected a takings bill that would have required payment when law or rule enforcement reduced property value by 50% or more. Shortly thereafter, in the following election, Tommy Thompson, a popular two-term Republican Governor was re-elected and, for the first time in twenty years, there were Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature. In the 1995-96 legislative session a handful of conservative legislators introduced a takings bill which would require compensation for as little as a twenty percent reduction in property value. This bill was supported by an alliance of anti-regulation special interests including lobbyists for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, The Realtors Association, the Builders Association, the Timber Producers' Association, cranberry growers, and the professional associations representing developers and bankers. Sympathetic committee chairs scheduled the bill for a hearing in what they believed would be a supportive area of the state. No one testified in favor of the bill except the aforementioned lobbyists, who were outnumbered almost three to one by citizens opposed to it.
Other Anti-Conservation issues which have received legislative attention include a "right to farm" bill, an audit privilege bill and the elimination of the Public Intervenor within the Department of Justice.
The audit privilege proposal contains predictable language which would allow polluters, violators of public health and safety laws and even those who cheat on government contracts to audit their operations and keep their findings secret, without any requirement that violations be corrected. The right to farm bill essentially makes agriculture the supreme land use and leaves persons injured by agricultural activities with severely limited remedies.

For over twenty-five years Wisconsin's natural environment benefitted from the existence of the Office of the Public Intervenor. A small (two lawyers), independent office within the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the Public Intervenor was created out of a fear that interests regulated by government might, over time, develop a relationship in which government became less of a protector of resources and more of a partner in doing business. The Public Intervenor acted as a watch dog to protect the public's interests.
The Intervenor was singularly effective, but that success proved to be its undoing. In the spring of 1995 Governor Thompson, acting on the urging of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (a business trade and lobbying organization) and the association representing road builders (long-time supporters of Gov. Thompson), included among his biannual budget proposals a recommendation to kill the Public Intervenor by eliminating its funding. The Republican-controlled legislature was unmoved by the resulting statewide public outcry and rubber stamped the Governor's plan on a party-line vote. Now, the work of the Public Intervenor must be done, to the extent it can be, by non-profit organizations, private citizens and attorneys able to work on a pro bono basis.
Except for orchestrating the loss of the Public Intervenor and public shows of support for Takings and other legislation which operates to their financial advantage, the usual corporate/Anti-Conservation/special interest suspects have been mainly silent in Wisconsin. In their place the banner is being carried by a few small, regional "grass roots" groups. An examination of these groups, however, reveals that they are small and they have only local appeal.
There are nominally a half dozen groups around Wisconsin which have been identified, by either themselves or others, as singing from the Anti-Conservation songbook. However, only two have demonstrated sufficient staying power, organization and/or commitment to even approach being a player on the state stage. Both may owe their continued existence more to the self interest of their original organizers than to any other factor.

PRIVATE LANDOWNERS OF WISCONSIN (PLOW)

The first of these groups, in both longevity and persistence, is Private Landowners Of Wisconsin - PLOW. This organization was originally established for the sole purpose of opposing the Lower Wisconsin Riverway.
The Lower Wisconsin Riverway Project was first proposed in the late 1970s to preserve and protect the lower 92 miles of the Wisconsin River in a more or less wild, natural state. From the last (farthest downstream) of the hydroelectric dams on the river at Prairie du Sac, to the Wisconsin's confluence with the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien, the Wisconsin and all land visible from the river (except in incorporated municipalities) were to be subject to various restrictions aimed at keeping the river valley as natural and wild as possible under the circumstances.
Certain counties along the lower Wisconsin have no zoning at the county level. Predictably, even the suggestion of land use restrictions provoked a negative response in these counties where "do as you want with no regard for others" was a way of life for some. And when local residents learned that they faced limitations on farming activities, timber cutting, and the size, location and color of buildings their reaction was probably equally predictable; they resisted this intrusion on their God-given right to do as they pleased with their land.
Private Landowners Of Wisconsin first made headlines in 1983. At that time it was composed of five residents of the Town of Wauzeka in Crawford County - one of those counties along the Wisconsin River without zoning. These people organized as an "informational group" in response to local meetings of the Citizens Advisory Council (CAC), a group appointed by the Department of Natural Resources to recommend a final environmental impact statement for the creation of the Riverway. The tactics employed by this early incarnation of PLOW to express the members' discontent, including disruptive and intimidating behavior at CAC meetings, are favored by today's PLOW as well.
In late 1988, PLOW was formally organized as a non-profit corporation by Alan Russell, Sr. and Gene Luebker, members of the Town Boards of Wauzeka and Woodman (in Grant County), respectively. Both owned property within the proposed Riverway and subject to its various restrictions.
PLOW's original goal was to prevent creation of the Riverway. That effort failed with the Riverway's formal legislative designation in 1989. Since then PLOW has directed its energies to attempting to repeal the Riverway Law and any and all statewide or regional land use restrictions applicable to private property in the Riverway area. Their tactics include outreach through letters to the editors of local papers, yard signs and bumper stickers. Their physical presence comes in the form of attendance at monthly meetings of the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board - the body created to oversee the operations of the Riverway through the administration of a permit program to control land use and development. PLOW's contribution to these meetings has consisted primarily of disruption in the form of semi-organized demonstrations and verbal abuse of Board members, staff and politicians who supported creation of the Riverway.
PLOW's attention is not strictly limited to the Lower Wisconsin. Organizers Luebker and Russell have participated in at least two of the annual Fly-Ins for Freedom in Washington D.C. These annual road shows cum lobbying junkets have been sponsored by the national Anti-Conservation group Alliance for America. The point of the Fly-Ins is to manufacture grass roots support for anti-environmental deregulation by bringing "real people" to Washington to register their opposition to Federal programs such as the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and river protection.
The leadership of PLOW sees a threat in the proposed Mississippi River National Heritage Corridor. The goal of Heritage Corridor designation, according to the Mississippi River Corridor Study Commission, is "...to strengthen recognition of the national significance of the Mississippi River and to promote the river valley for the benefit of the communities along the river and the benefit of the American people." This, and a similar proposal for designation of a Fox River-Wisconsin River Heritage Corridor11, is viewed by PLOW as unacceptable intrusion on the property owner's right of "absolute ownership, without recognizing any superior to whom any duty is due..." This argument rests on the rather spurious claim that, in those parts of the nation in which title to land derives originally from a land patent from the Federal Government, the practical effect of that original patent was a total abdication of federal authority over the land. This left state and local (county) governments as the only levels of government that can legitimately exercise regulation over the land. Therefore, federal legislation, like the "obstructions" attributable to the Endangered Species Act, do not apply. This logic applies to privately owned land, land owned by the state and by municipalities (including counties). Extension of this argument to federally held public lands is achieved via logical gymnastics which go something like this: Because title to such federal holdings as National Parks, National Forests, etc., etc. was not specifically reserved at the time of patenting (200 years ago and more in some cases) the federal government cannot now impose the effects of federal legislation on that land. By giving state and territorial governments the authority to record title to land, the federal government lost forever the authority to regulate activity on that land.
The extremism of PLOW's property rights advocacy is apparent in its position on the Takings bill introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature in the summer of 1995. That bill seeks to radically expand the 5th Amendment protection against regulatory taking of private property. Supreme Court decisions have limited compensation to situations where regulations deprive a property owner of virtually all of the value of a piece of land. The Wisconsin bill would lower the compensation threshold to as little as a twenty percent diminution in market value. Gene Luebker has stated that PLOW could only support this bill if it was amended to provide compensation for any diminution in value. Not only is the Constitution not good enough for PLOW, neither is this bill's radical attempt to modify it.

CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE ZONING AND LANDOWNER RIGHTS (CRZLR)

The other active Wisconsin group purporting to represent grass roots support for the Anti-Conservation agenda is Citizens for Responsible Zoning and Landowner Rights (CRZLR). Based in Maiden Rock, a tiny settlement of only a few hundred people on the Mississippi in Pierce County, this group was organized by Marilyn and Milton Hayman in the early '90s in response to Pierce County's initial efforts at county-wide land use planning. But CRZLR's interests are not limited to this issue; any sort of governmental involvement in land use is seen as inherently undesirable, if not downright evil. Predictably, CRZLR joins PLOW in actively opposing the Mississippi Heritage Corridor, seeing it as part of "the NPS (National Park Service) agenda of total land control."
Area residents characterize CRZLR as primarily driven by the Haymans. They own property in the Maiden Rock area, and apparently perceive a direct threat to themselves and their property from any sort of governmental land use restrictions or planning.
This group has become involved in Pierce County's land use planning efforts, and that participation is described as disruptive. Opposition to comprehensive county planning has included inflammatory rhetoric and newsletter articles claiming that , under comprehensive planning, farmers would be prevented from selling their farms when they retire. Nearby, north of Pierce County in St Croix County, a similar county-wide land use planning initiative has recently begun. Although CRZLR has not openly participated in St. Croix County's planning process, there are those who believe that the group is monitoring developments and may soon enter the debate. Both Gene Luebker and Marilyn Hayman are identified in the Alliance for America's directory of core Anti-Conservation activists.

CITIZENS ALLIANCE FOR RESOURCE EQUITY (CARE)

A group calling itself Citizens Alliance for Resource Equity (CARE) appeared on the scene in August or September of 1995. At this point in time it is too early to tell whether CARE is actually an Anti-Conservation group, but its rhetoric includes references to property and business owners who will suffer if the Menominee Tribe gains hunting and gathering rights equivalent to those of the Chippewa Nation.
CARE's declared purpose is to raise money to fund intervention in a law suit brought by the Menoninee Tribe to interpret its treaty rights. The Chippewa Tribe previously filed a similar law suit to interpret its natural resource rights under language found in mid-nineteenth century treaties. The settlement negotiated between the Chippewa Tribe and the Department of Natural Resources is held up by CARE as an example of how the DNR sold out sportsmen. The implicit message is that DNR will not protect the interests of non-Indian hunters and anglers. The stated goal of CARE is to raise $1.5 million dollars, largely from sporting and conservation groups, so the sportsmen and women of Wisconsin have a seat at the table when a settlement of the Menominee litigation is negotiated.
Although its message and tactics are different, CARE's goal is the same as that of Stop Treaty Abuse (STA) and Protect American's Rights and Resources (PARR), grassroots groups which organized in opposition to the earlier Chippewa litigation with blatantly racist appeals: Interpretation and enforcement of treaty rights to give Native Americans preferential access to natural resources is to be opposed.

OTHERS

Other Wisconsin groups which have purportedly networked to further Anti-Conservation goals include Lake States Resource Alliance, in Port Edwards; Wisconsin Watchdog, in Cashton; Wisconsin Land Improvement Contractors Association (LICA), and Women in Agriculture, in Manitowoc. These organizations are identified in The Directory, a 1993 compilation by the Environmental Conservation Organization (eco), a right wing Anti-Conservation organization which claims in its publications "to protect your property rights and economic opportunity while...promot[ing] responsible environmental stewardship." Attempts to contact these groups have been unsuccessful.
Finally, there are two other players on the Wisconsin scene identified by some as parts of the rightward turn in state policy. Those are the Militias and the Radical Christian Right.
The Town of Tigerton Dells, in rural northeastern Wisconsin, is regarded as the birthplace of The Posse Comitatus, a fringe paramilitary group essentially dedicated to resisting and undermining legitimate governmental authority; in short, a prototype for today's militias. Although absent from the scene for the last ten years or more, the Posse seems to have been replaced by a group calling itself the Family Farm Preservation Institute, operating out of the same area. It is not known what connection the present group has with other groups openly identifying themselves as militias, or whether it is connected in any way with alleged skinhead training activities observed in a state park in the summer of 1995. However, those in law enforcement who do remember the Posse's sometimes violent anti-government activities are alert to any indications that its ideological descendants have allied themselves with Anti-Conservationism.
A connection between Anti-Conservationism and the Christian Right is more obvious.12 The primary proponent of private property rights and principal author of takings bills introduced in the 1993-94 and 1995-96 sessions of the Wisconsin Assembly, Rep. Sheryl Albers, is directly linked to The Christian Coalition, an organization dedicated to taking working control of the Republican Party and electing "Christian candidates" to public office.13 Albers is identified as aligned with or backed by the Religious Right in a November, 1994 report issued by People For the American Way.14 Albers has been a featured speaker at a Christian Coalition Leadership School and has openly opposed a plan to include "domestic partners" for coverage under insurance available to University of Wisconsin employees. In addition to authoring the current takings bill, Albers' Anti-Conservation credentials include outspoken support of the Right to Farm bill, and introduction of the Audit Privilege bill in the Assembly; support of recent Budget bill provisions which weakened the Department of Natural Resources and eliminated the Office of the Public Intervenor, an independent environmental advocacy office within the state Department of Justice; and opposition to the Forestry Biodiversity bill and the Lower Wisconsin Riverway.