For Immediate Release: 5/3/98
For more information call:  Bob Olsgard
                                            888/281-1735

FREE GEORGE MEYER?  "NOT GONNA HAPPEN," SAYS TOMMY.

A group of Northwest Wisconsin residents took the occasion of the Governor's Fishing Opener, Saturday, to launch a petition drive to restore citizen control over the state's Department of Natural Resources.  Governor
Thompson didn't sign on.

After a rainy morning on the Dairyland Flowage near Ladysmith, Governor Thompson made a hasty exit from a by-invitation-only lunch at a nearby county park, to the Rusk County Airport.  There, as he crossed the tarmac
to his waiting plane, he spotted a group of demonstrators carrying signs that said; "FREE THE DNR" and "TOMMY, PRACTICE CATCH AND RELEASE, RELEASE THE DNR."

From a distance, Thompson read out loud from one of the signs .  "Free George Meyer," Thompson shouted.  Then, he surprised the group by replying:  "That's not gonna happen."

The group wasn't expecting the Governor's blessing.   But spokesman Bob Olsgard says he was "flabbergasted by Tommy's candor."   Olsgard was one of the sign-bearers demonstrating at the airport.

He adds,  "The Governor didn't have to say anything.  We were there to put him on notice about a change that has overwhelming public support, one that needs to happen in order to assure the public that the DNR is going to write tough, fair rules to implement the mining moratorium.  To accomplish that, they'll need to be independent from the Governor's office," said Olsgard.

Citizens for an Independent DNR spent their day touring Ladysmith with their signs and gathering signatures from area residents.  The CIDNR group is made up of residents from Barron, Washburn, Burnett and Rusk counties that hopes to build on the success of a state-wide effort that pushed for passage of Wisconsin's mining moratorium,  a new law that requires metallic mines proposed in the state to show examples of other, similar mines that have operated without pollution. Governor Thompson signed the new law on Earth Day.

The CIDNR initiative is prompted in part by a recent Conservation Congress vote of 2,797 to 130 that favored restoring Natural Resources Board authority over the DNR's chief executive.   Each year the DNR's "Spring
Wildlife Hearings" held across the state, poll local residents on issues affecting state management efforts.

Citizens for an Independent DNR is sponsored by the Wisconsin Chapter, W.A.T.E.R. (Watershed Alliance Tracking Environmental Responsibility) PO Box 31, Springbrook, Wisconsin 54875