Conservation groups actively opposed such a merger, fearing that conservation staff of the new Department would be overwhelmed by the powerful development arm of the Department.  Conservationists felt the merged agency could not be an effective advocate for resource conservation if it was also charged with “developing” Wisconsin’s resources.  Hunters, anglers, trappers, and other outdoor recreationists held large “red shirt rallies” at the Capitol in Madison to protest the merger.  The red shirts symbolized Wisconsin’s hunting and outdoor conservation traditions.

As a result of the public outcry, a bipartisan majority of the Legislature and Governor Knowles agreed to a compromise.  They required the new Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to be under the direction of an appointed 7-member citizen commission called the Natural Resources Board.  This Board would help insulate the DNR from day-to-day political pressure or special-interest lobbyists. 

The Legislature also created the Wisconsin Public Intervenor Office as an independent watchdog agency charged with intervening when necessary to protect public rights in the water and other natural resources.  The Public Intervenor was expected to ensure “fair play and due process” in environmental decision-making and continue the deliberate adversary process which had occurred between the old conservation and resource development agencies. 

The Office was housed within the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Intervenors were lawyers apppointed by the state Attorney General.  They served as Assistant Attorneys General.

The Center for Public Representation, commissioned by the Wisconsin Department of Administration, said in a report entitled, The Public Intervenor in Wisconsin, published in November 1975:

“There is substantial evidence that the function assigned to the Public Intervenor by the legislature – acting as an advocate for such public rights – is as important as it was perceived by the legislature in 1967.  Those who pollute water or air, dam streams for a recreational development, and take other actions which affect public rights in water and other natural resources usually have a substantial economic stake in the outcome of administrative and court proceedings affecting their activities. They are represented by counsel and an array of experts.  The beneficiaries of “public rights,” on the other hand, are diffuse, often unorganized and have only small economic stakes as individuals.  Public rights will ordinarily go unrepresented unless the Public Intervenor is there.”

In November 1983, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 5 to 2 that the Public Intervenor did not have authority to take the DNR to court for review of an administrative rule.  Critics of the decision felt the high court misread the 1967 law and the Legislature’s intent in passing it to establish the Public Intervenor. 

To address this interpretation problem, the Legislature quickly passed a bill in early 1984 which clarified the Legislature’s intent and gave the Public Intervenor “authority to initiate actions and proceedings before any agency or court in order to raise issues, including issues concerning constitutionality, present evidence and testimony and make arguments.”  This bill had bipartisan sponsorship and support.

A few times over the life of the Office, at the request of the Citizen Advisory Committee, the Attorney General “loaned” an extra attorney from the Dept. of Justice to serve part-time as short-term Intervenors on special projects which threatened to overwhelm the already large workload of the two existing Intervenors. 

For example, during the mid-1980s, a special Intervenor (Waltraud Arts) watchdogged the Crandon mine permitting process, but after a few years the company decided to withdraw their permit application.  Again, in 1991, a special Public Intervenor (Laura Sutherland) was appointed part-time to challenge, under Wisconsin’s navigable water preservation laws, unconstitutional local bills that authorized illegal structures in waterways.  Then, in 1994, a quarter-time Intervenor (Laura Sutherland) was appointed to watchdog another round of permit applications for the Crandon Mine.

In the 1995-96 state budget cycle, the Governor included a provision eliminating the Public Intervenor Office.  He also turned the Secretary of the DNR into a Governor-appointed position, effectively taking agency control away from the Natural Resources Board.  He succeeded with the second action, but the Legislature passed a compromise version of the Intervenor change.  They cut the Public Intervenor Office to just one attorney, eliminated the secretarial support, moved the office away from the Dept. of Justice and into the DNR’s legal bureau, and took away the Intervenor’s power to sue. 

The old Citizen Advisory Committee was eliminated and replaced with an 8-member “Public Intervenor Board.”  The Board was made up of 2 members appointed by the Attorney General, 2 by the Governor, and 1 member appointed by the majority and minority leader of each House in the Legislature.

These changes were included in the Budget Bill, which passed by a straight party-line vote, with the Republicans in the majority.

This new Public Intervenor Office was widely criticized as fraudulent.  The longtime existing Intervenors refused to participate or be transferred to the DNR, and were instead reassigned to other work within the Dept. of Justice.  A DNR attorney was assigned as the new Intervenor.  She attempted to assist citizens, but without the former stature of the office and the right to sue, the office was quickly seen as powerless and irrelevant.  A few years later, the Legislature quietly abolished even this limited Public Intervenor Office.

Since then, several bills have been proposed to restore the Wisconsin Public Intervenors Office, but the bills have been blocked in legislative committees.

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