Environmental Concerns - Wetlands, Rare Dunes, Wildlife, Shoreline
DNR Watch Summary of Whistling Straits violations
"The average citizen could go to jail for these infractions or at least be required to come into compliance by undoing an illegal construction."
Sheboyganites voice environmental concerns at trial on Kohler golf course
Sheboygan resident Jim Buchholz, former superintendent of Kohler-Andrea State Park and a DNR employee for 36 years, said the DNR's approval process in this case was sloppy. "I feel the DNR's preliminary wetland approval for allowing the destruction of rare globally significant wetland area does not follow the agency's own wetland preservation standards," he said. "I also feel the public has not been given adequate information of the significance or scope of wetlands that will be altered or filled by the Kohler development."There are no other (rare ridge and swale wetlands) like it in Sheboygan County or anywhere else in the state."
Comments regarding Kohler's Draft EIS:
In regards to Kohler "no runoff into Lake Michigan" claim: "The consultants are continually trying to "have their cake and eat it too;" and they are continually forgetting the law of conservation of mass." Dr. Quentin Carpenter, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
For Wisconsin Environment, February was a 28-day GOP Siege
Among other things, the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board - - the DNR's 'oversight' body now dominated by Walker appointees and the 'chamber of commerce mentality' direction he installed atop the DNR from the first day of his administration - - granted a powerful Walker donor (Kohler Co.) the access rights he'd sought to public acreage inside a popular Lake Michigan shoreline state park.
Wisconsin Wetlands Association: "While it is rare for us to weigh in on project-specific proposals, we do so in cases where the proposed project poses a threat to rare or exceptionally high quality wetland resources or when the decision will establish a precedent for how regulatory agencies implement existing wetland protection laws. We chose to respond to this project because it has the potential to do both."
Wisc. Wetlands Assoc. comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Coastal Communities Tree Planting
Thanks to funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and the US Forest Service eight Great Lakes coastal communities are benefiting from 500-1,000 native trees used in both landscape and streetscape settings to provide numerous environmental, economic and aesthetic benefits including improved stormwater quality, flood prevention and habitat improvement.
Judge Rules Non-Profits Can Sue Monsanto for Misleading Safety Labeling of Herbicide Roundup
Monsanto displays a claim on its Roundup product label that states that the chemicals in the product “targets an enzyme bound in plants but not in people or pets,” when, in fact, the chemical adversely affects beneficial bacteria essential to the gut biome and normal body functions.
Judge invalidates controversial permit for sand fracking
A state administrative law judge on 5/4 invalidated a permit by the DNR for a controversial sand processing plant in western Wisconsin, saying the agency lacked adequate information when it approved the project.
Environmentalists applaud landmark Indiana Supreme Court Decision which ensures better protection of Lake Michigan and critical shoreline habitat. The decision is the most expansive state affirmation of the public trust doctrine along the Great Lakes shoreline, firmly putting the state’s Lake Michigan shore lands into public, not private, ownership.
DNR Reports Common Theme: No Build Alternative While the DNR did not feel they had to report a list of common concerns regarding Kohler’s proposed golf course to Friends of the Black River Forest, they did report them to Kohler. In an email from the DNR to Kohler Company, the DNR reported the common themes they received from the Public at a Public Meeting in Sheboygan. The opposition to the Golf Course is overwhelming. See more.
What water, wetland protection is all about, according to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1960. "A little fill here and there may seem to be nothing to become excited about. But one fill, though comparatively inconsequential, may lead to another, and another, and before long a great body may be eaten away until it may no longer exist. Our navigable waters are a precious natural heritage, once gone, they disappear forever," wrote the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its 1960 opinion resolving Hixon v. PSC and buttressing The Public Trust Doctrine, Article IX of the Wisconsin State Constitution.
DNR Watch Summary of Whistling Straits violations
"The average citizen could go to jail for these infractions or at least be required to come into compliance by undoing an illegal construction."
Sheboyganites voice environmental concerns at trial on Kohler golf course
Sheboygan resident Jim Buchholz, former superintendent of Kohler-Andrea State Park and a DNR employee for 36 years, said the DNR's approval process in this case was sloppy. "I feel the DNR's preliminary wetland approval for allowing the destruction of rare globally significant wetland area does not follow the agency's own wetland preservation standards," he said. "I also feel the public has not been given adequate information of the significance or scope of wetlands that will be altered or filled by the Kohler development."There are no other (rare ridge and swale wetlands) like it in Sheboygan County or anywhere else in the state."
Comments regarding Kohler's Draft EIS:
- Atty Westerberg's comments regarding DNR's draft EIS
- "...The DNR will have allowed Kohler to complete a significant regulatory hurdle, in a premature fashion that is virtually without precedent, in a way that defies the purpose and requirements of the Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act." 8/24/16
- Vicki Hubert Menuge, Adjunct Prof, Dept. of Natural Sciences at Concordia U and former Naturalist at Kohler-Andrae state park
- Federally listed threatened Pitcher's Thistle, Marlin Bowles of Morton Arboretum and Timothy Bell, botany prof Chicago State U
In regards to Kohler "no runoff into Lake Michigan" claim: "The consultants are continually trying to "have their cake and eat it too;" and they are continually forgetting the law of conservation of mass." Dr. Quentin Carpenter, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
For Wisconsin Environment, February was a 28-day GOP Siege
Among other things, the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board - - the DNR's 'oversight' body now dominated by Walker appointees and the 'chamber of commerce mentality' direction he installed atop the DNR from the first day of his administration - - granted a powerful Walker donor (Kohler Co.) the access rights he'd sought to public acreage inside a popular Lake Michigan shoreline state park.
Wisconsin Wetlands Association: "While it is rare for us to weigh in on project-specific proposals, we do so in cases where the proposed project poses a threat to rare or exceptionally high quality wetland resources or when the decision will establish a precedent for how regulatory agencies implement existing wetland protection laws. We chose to respond to this project because it has the potential to do both."
Wisc. Wetlands Assoc. comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- WWA comment on the Draft EIS
- WWA comments on DNR Scoping
- Why No Wetland Permit Should be Granted, PhD Student Forest Science
Coastal Communities Tree Planting
Thanks to funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and the US Forest Service eight Great Lakes coastal communities are benefiting from 500-1,000 native trees used in both landscape and streetscape settings to provide numerous environmental, economic and aesthetic benefits including improved stormwater quality, flood prevention and habitat improvement.
Judge Rules Non-Profits Can Sue Monsanto for Misleading Safety Labeling of Herbicide Roundup
Monsanto displays a claim on its Roundup product label that states that the chemicals in the product “targets an enzyme bound in plants but not in people or pets,” when, in fact, the chemical adversely affects beneficial bacteria essential to the gut biome and normal body functions.
Judge invalidates controversial permit for sand fracking
A state administrative law judge on 5/4 invalidated a permit by the DNR for a controversial sand processing plant in western Wisconsin, saying the agency lacked adequate information when it approved the project.
Environmentalists applaud landmark Indiana Supreme Court Decision which ensures better protection of Lake Michigan and critical shoreline habitat. The decision is the most expansive state affirmation of the public trust doctrine along the Great Lakes shoreline, firmly putting the state’s Lake Michigan shore lands into public, not private, ownership.
DNR Reports Common Theme: No Build Alternative While the DNR did not feel they had to report a list of common concerns regarding Kohler’s proposed golf course to Friends of the Black River Forest, they did report them to Kohler. In an email from the DNR to Kohler Company, the DNR reported the common themes they received from the Public at a Public Meeting in Sheboygan. The opposition to the Golf Course is overwhelming. See more.
What water, wetland protection is all about, according to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1960. "A little fill here and there may seem to be nothing to become excited about. But one fill, though comparatively inconsequential, may lead to another, and another, and before long a great body may be eaten away until it may no longer exist. Our navigable waters are a precious natural heritage, once gone, they disappear forever," wrote the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its 1960 opinion resolving Hixon v. PSC and buttressing The Public Trust Doctrine, Article IX of the Wisconsin State Constitution.