from Wausau's News & Entertainment Weekly Magazine

With A Statewide Computer and Communications System, Environmental Leaders in Wisconsin Hope To Find Supporters Behind Every Tree

STORY BY TAMMY STEZENSKI · COVER ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN STIFLER
May 31-June 6, 1996

Environmental groups in Wisconsin say this past year has not been a good one. The state budget eliminated the Public Intervenor's Office, an office of the Justice Department that provides legal service to protect the public's rights in water and other natural resources. It was created by Gov. Warren Knowles in 1969.

After public outcry, the governor created a new public intervenor, but placed it within the Department of Natural Resources. This new intervenor. however, has no authority to sue the state on citizens' behalf. Said former public intervenor Thomas Dawson, "People were willing to deal with us on a respectable basis because we had the power to sue. She (DNR public intervenor Edwina Kavanaugh) has less authority than an ordinary citizen."

Others are equally as disheartened with the governor's move.

"The DNR and other departments don't always do the job they're supposed to because of political pressure," Pam Porter of the Environmental Decade in Madison, said. "This office helped watch-dog government. It had the ability to sue other government offices, and it did."

The Public Intervenor was instrumental in passing the groundwater law in 1983, which limits the pollutants that can be put into drinking water. It was also the first governmental office to help stop the widespread use of DDT. Citizens have received help from the Public Intervenor when their wells have become contaminated or when regulatory agencies do nothing about illegal wetland development, Porter said.

Losing the Public Intervenor's help was considered a serious blow to environmental groups.

The second hit came when Gov. Tommy Thompson took the Department of Natural Resources under his wing. Formerly the DNR was run by a citizen's advisory board that appointed the DNR Secretary. Thompson changed the Secretary of the DNR to a position appointed by the governor. Critics say environmental decisions – such as mining and wetland development permits – will now be based on political pressures, not natural resource preservation.

"It’s politicizing the DNR," Porter said. "We’d rather have a professional biologist or scientist rather than a crony in that office. Last week the Environmental Decade released a year-long study on the anti-conservation movement in the Midwest. The study, done by the Decade’s general counsel, Larry Classen, concluded that environmental groups need to be more organized. "What we hear in general is that the public cares about clean air, clear lakes. Poll after poll says that," Porter said. "Then why are we losing on environmental issues so badly? What we think it meant was that we need to do a better job of communicating. To build bridges."

The action has begun with the help of a $215,000 grant. Environmental groups in Wisconsin are in the middle of a large scale re-grouping.

In November of last year, about 100 representatives from environmental and conservation groups came together in Stevens Point for their first statewide meeting. They decided unanimously on a plan: to find new allies from the hundreds of wildlife, gun and conservation clubs in the state, and to set up a communications network linked by computer and the Internet.

Wisconsin environmental groups won a $215,000 two-year grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation in Michigan to put their plan to action.

In March, the Environmental Decade (which acts as the administrative headquarters, being the largest and best-funded group) sent out a mass mailing throughout the state to Run clubs, fishing clubs, Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, hunting clubs, sport clubs; and all sorts of groups with conservation interests. The Decade so far has received 215 responses from groups that want to take pan in this organizational movement.

This week, five regional offices of environmental groups throughout the state received a computer and on-line system. The grant will pay for the computers, the training, and for the first time in the history of many areas, a paid employee to staff an office. Environmental leaders say next year should be a good year for conservation.

In many respects, Jim Wise and ECCOLA, Environmentally Concerned Citizens of the Lakeland Area, represent the typical environmental group.

ECCOLA’s mailing address is a post office box in Minocqua; but much of the work and information is carried out through an informal network of friends, because the organization has no office. Madison’s Environmental Decade people, for example, call Wise personally, at his home or small business in Tomahawk Everything environmental groups like ECCOLA accomplishes is done in between jobs, on the weekend or in the evening time of its members. Earlier this year, while trying to inform Lincoln County residents about Crandon Mine Company's proposal to pipe mine wastewater into the Wisconsin River, Wise took time off from his work to make presentations at Lincoln County Board and committee meetings. He had traveled to libraries in Wausau and Rhinelander to pore over DNR and Crandon Mine Co., documents on the mine. He led and organized several citizen meetings, and eventually became a founder of POWR, Protect Our Wisconsin River, a citizen group that opposes the pipeline.

Wise, a handsome man with sandy brown hair and blue eyes, speaks calmly and professionally His materials. some-times on hand with him while he's running the Tomahawk Surplus Store, are well organized. His statements are well documented. DNR Secretary George Meyer knows Wise personally. Many people have come to rely on Wise for information, including Lincoln County land conservationist Diane Hanson."

He researches well. Everything he's told me has turned out to be true," Hanson said of Wise and his work to alert !he county. For example, Wise had said that Crandon Mine Co would save $14 million by piping wastewater to the Wisconsin River instead of cleaning it up for discharge into the Wolf River. Company officials had publicly denied money was an issue, until Wise produced a copy of company’s own reports that stated money indeed was a deciding factor.

"I have to make sure everything I say is accurate," Wise said "We don't have the big money. We don't have the public relations department. All we have is our credibility. Wit what makes me mad is why do I have to give up my evenings with my daughter? Why do I have to use all my time off for this when the DNR is supposed to be protecting the environment?"

For 20 years Wise has volunteered his time for his causes. Within a few weeks, he will be a paid staff person and trained to operate the computer system that will connect Minocqua's ECCOLA to hubs based in Eau Claire, Green Hay, Madison, Milwaukee and Superior citizen groups.

"It's funny that this rinky dink network of friends connected through the telephone will have this big computer network," Wise said.

This network will help these groups mobilize more quickly. Information on legislation in Madison for example will be communicated instantly to the regional hubs. Conversely events in the outer regions of the state will be communicated and downloaded in Madison and Milwaukee.

Pam Porter at the Environmental Decade uses the Atrazine issue as an example. Atrazine, an agricultural pesticide, had contaminated many wells in Wisconsin A 1990 state law prohibited the use of the chemical wherever it was found to exist already in the groundwater. Two weeks ago, Porter said, the Department of Agriculture instructed its staff on using Atrazine in areas where Atrazine was previously prohibited, but where the wells had eventually cleaned up.

"That doesn’t make any sense," Porter said. "And if the public knew about it, they'd say it's a stupid idea to pollute where we've cleaned up. But we don't have the resources to put our 10,000 mailings."

The new network would carry this information on line for anyone on the Internet to see, and download it for the five hubs to distribute.

The computer network also will allow citizen groups to share findings. Milwaukee area residents who are trying to curb urban sprawl and poor land use developments could send reports on their situation to Green Bay, for example, Porter said.

"Numbers are everything," said the Decade's Larry Classen. "Hopefully this Stewardship Network will help us speak with a unified voice."

In the realm of public policy, communication is everything. Even environmentalists' main state nemesis, the Wisconsin Association of Manufacturers and Commerce, acknowledges conservation groups are hurting for good communication and membership.

Despite the acknowledged poverty of these groups, Wisconsin environmental groups are being heard, said Pat Stevens, director of Environmental Policy at the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. "for awhile, environmental groups have been hurting for membership and communication." Stevens said, "But the idea that they’re not having an impact is ridiculous."

What environmental groups are up against is outlined in a book entitled The News Shapers by Marquette University professor Lawrence Soley.

While Residents in this area might find people like Jim Wise credible, in general and on the national level, environmentalists are bowled over by the multi-million dollar operations of right wing think tanks and lobbyists, such as the Heritage Foundation the Political Economy Research Center and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

"Think tanks are described in the media as detached, objective analysts, while environmentalists are portrayed as vociferous highly partisan activists," Soley said. "That has an impact on the public's perception. There is research demonstrating that experts and analysts when described in such terms, have a significant impact on public opinion. Individuals portrayed as activists --even though they probably have doctoral degrees in sciences - don't have as much impact."

The Political Economy Research Center in Montana, for example, floated what Soley called a hoax through the national media that private land owners do a better job of managing wildlife and natural resources than the federal government.

Another attempt to sway public opinion was made by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Institute staff have testified and released statements saying that CFCs (fluorocarbons) are not endangering the ozone layer, and that in fact, there is no atmospheric problem, Soley said.

The difference is slick packaging and mass press releases, which environmental groups can’t afford. "The difference is merely money," Soley said.

Furthermore, much of the research done by anti-conservation groups are not subject to peer review and often state opinions from a handful of scientists who are paid to give a favorable statement, Soley's research found.

Wisconsin Secretary of State Douglas LaFollette also has come out publicly against the anti-environmental think tank media blitzes.

"Those press releases come across my desk and they are from questionable sources. They get sent to every elected official and media and somewhere, someone picks it up," LaFollette said. "I think this network is a great idea. Communication is good for the environmental groups. The sad part of it is that with big industry, like timber, mining and oil, their point of view dominates the news because they have the money."

According to Soley's research, in 1994, the Heritage Foundation had a budget of $22.5 million. Its president Edwin Fulner had a salary of $368,219.

In 1994, the World Watch Institute in Washington D.C. -- one of the few pro-environment think tanks -- had a budget of $1.9 million. Its president Lester Brown had a salary of $48,000.

Wisconsin environmental groups will have a $215,000 grant to cover two years and six cities.

While their operations might be small and unimpressive, the grassroots support mom and pop environmental groups can garnish is a formidable force, Stevens said, citing several examples.

In the legislature’s last session, a mining bill introduced by Rep. Spencer Black, almost passed. The resolution would have prohibited mining interests from Wisconsin until they demonstrate that their past operations did not pollute the environment. The bill passed the Assembly but the session ended before the bill reached the Senate, Stevens said.

"Clearly that resolution was a result of environmental pressures," Stevens said.

And although the Manufacturers and Commerce supported eliminating the Public Intervenor's Office and the governor-appointed DNR secretary post, those measures, Stevens said, were purely bureaucratic, efficiency measures.

"The environment won't go to hell in a hand basket because the DNR secretary is appointed by the governor," Stevens said.

Pam Porter predicts it will take a few years before conservationists, sports clubs and environmentalists can work together effectively. The Stewardship Network will help by fostering more communication - something that has never happened among these groups. Bird hunters and bird watchers might disagree, but ultimately both groups need wildlife habitat for their sport.

"If we don't have clean air and clean water," Wise said, "no one has fun."