Natural resources are suffering and regulators are not able to effectively do their jobs because of political influence exerted by the Tommy Thompson Administration, according to a recent scholarly, peer-reviewed legal article in the University of California's Ecology Law Quarterly.

The public trust doctrine, a legal theory rooted in Wisconsin's Constitution, mandates that public officials protect water resources for use by the citizens of the state.  Yet, this research indicates that under Governor Tommy Thompson's Administration, policy changes, such as making the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) a political appointment and the dissolution of the Public Intervenor's Office, combined with a small group of overworked natural resource managers, have greatly hampered the protection of water resources in Wisconsin and have led to a variety of politically-motivated decisions and lax enforcement of state regulations.

The research was based on in-depth interviews with most of the state's Water Quality Specialists.  "These are the people who are in the field managing competing uses of water," according to Melissa Kwaterski Scanlan, Madison attorney and author of the article.  This project was designed to find out how well non-lawyer field staff understood the legal requirements they were implementing.  "My research interviews contained no questions about political influence over the field staffers' decisions.  Yet, most people interviewed volunteered graphic descriptions of how political pressure has undermined their ability to carry out their legal mandates."

One of the interviewees observed that, "We are a political agency now, not a natural resource agency.  There is a big difference."

Another observed that, "Supervisors used to support field staff decisions.  But ever since the Secretary became a cabinet position, supervisors have supported the applicants."

"Most people interviewed volunteered graphic descriptions of how political pressure has undermined their ability to carry out their legal mandates." - Melissa K. Scanlan

This sentiment was echoed by another DNR employee who stated that before the Secretary became a cabinet position, "our central office did not second-guess our decisions.  Now what is happening is that our supervisors are giving away the resource.  Wardens cannot enforce the laws anymore because the supervisors rarely sign off on an enforcement action."

According to Scanlan, "The field staff are trying to make the best of a bad situation.  Their hands are really tied by this structure.  We should hold the trustees of our water resources to the same standards as a financial trustee and get rid of these conflicts of interests."

In the conclusion of her article, Scanlan suggests that Wisconsin could protect the public trust by implementing several structural changes, including:

• restoring the independence of the DNR by removing the Secretary from the Governor's cabinet,
• restoring the Public Intervenor's Office,
• eliminating procedural barriers to denying permits and initiating enforcement actions,
• increasing the number of citations issued for violations of water laws, and
• increasing the fines and penalties issued for damaging public trust resources.

Scanlan, originally from Menasha, Wisconsin, is the founder and legal director of Midwest Environmental Advocates, the first and only environmental law center in Wisconsin.  Scanlan received a law degree and master of science from the University of California at Berkeley.  Because of her research on Wisconsin's public trust management, she was the recipient of the Harmon Prize for the best environmental law writing at Berkeley, as well as the Alvin and Sadie Landis Scholarship in Water Law.

The article, The Evolution of the Public Trust Doctrine and the Degradation of Trust Resources: Courts, Trustees and Political Power in Wisconsin, can be downloaded from Midwest Environmental Advocates' website.