Thursday night, September 17th, the Washburn County board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt the most protective shoreland zoning ordinance in Northern Wisconsin.  Ushering in a lake classification system to prioritize the level of protection given, increased set-backs, lot sizes, bigger buffer zones, tougher prohibitions on clearing sensitive lake-shore habitat and specific language to plug the loop-holes that allow homeowners to keep on expanding buildings too close to the water, this surprising 18-0 vote is the culmination of more than two years' work.

At our Thursday night County Board meeting, even the opposition was meek, suggesting that they really weren't saying the lakes didn't need protection.  Oddest of all, supervisors were getting about as many letters in support of the more protective ordinance as opposed to it.  At the meeting though the sobering news came from Randy Champeau of UW-Stevens Point.  He said  that because of all the cabins and everything else that our careless presense brings, many of our most developed lakes had in the last 20 years jumped from adolescense to old-age.

After the surprising vote, board chair Hugh Smith turned in my direction, smiled and said;  "Shows what can happen if you do things right," sharing his pride in the knowledge that the study, the hearings, and the hours of listening to constituents rant about property rights had paid off in not just a consensus, but a mandate to pass on to our grand children something of this northern magic of clear water, loon-songs, those moment when nature seems to be speaking to just you alone, a magic which we see so speedily slipping away.
 

Bob Olsgard is a Washburn County Board supervisor and the new Northwest Wisconsin hub coordinator for the Wisconsin Stewardship Network.