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Outdoors: Hope fading in bid to let Natural Resources Board name DNR secretary

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  3/06/2008 8:40 am

There is only a glimmer of hope that Wisconsin will get its independent natural resources secretary back.

George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, explains that an important bill in the State Assembly that would restore authority to the Natural Resources Board to hire and fire the secretary of the Department of Natural Resources is not scheduled for a vote by the full Assembly.

Assembly Bill 504, introduced by Representative Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford) plus 41 other representatives and seven senators, needs to be scheduled for a vote to return appointment of the DNR secretary from the Governor to the citizen board.

"This is a critical time, because the legislative session ends March 13," Meyer said. "Most issues of importance to conservationists still remain unpassed."

"Our number one priority is to get a bill passed restoring the authority of the Natural Resources Board to appoint the secretary," Meyer said. "The State Senate has passed one version of this bill by a margin of 21 to 12."

With 99 members of the Assembly, 42 (23 Republicans and 19 Democrats) have signed on as co-sponsors, more than any other co-sponsors of any bill in the Assembly in this session.

The Assembly Natural Resources Committee held a public hearing on the bill in October and 132 people registered in favor, with only eight against. The committee passed the bill on a 13-1 vote.

Even though it passed favorably out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, and was co-sponsored by Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem), Meyer said that the bill is "on life support." Some of the groups against the bill, and lobbying aggressively, include Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Wisconsin Realtors, and the Wisconsin Builders Association.

"The groups have spent almost $4 million this session lobbying. They are a powerful force and legislators don't want to take them on," Meyer said.

These pro-business organizations want to have influence over environmental regulations and they feel they will have more say when the governor appoints the secretary.

The board, a citizen committee appointed by the secretary, selected the head of the DNR from 1927 to 1995. But since 1995, the governor has selected the DNR secretary. That power by the governor opens the agency to pressures from political interests and causes what should be long-range environmental thinking to be replaced by short-range decisions influencing the next election.

The bill was scheduled to come up before the Assembly Republican Caucus yesterday, and Meyer said that a majority of that group has either voted for the bill or are already co-sponsors.

Meyer urges conservationists to call their state Assembly representative and ask him or her to call the speaker of the Assembly and ask for the bill to be scheduled and vote for it.

Several other pending bills that Meyer highlights as important to conservationists include:

• Assembly Bill 703 -- Requires that at least three of the seven members of the NRB have held a hunting, fishing or trapping license in at least seven of the 10 years before their nomination to the board. It also requires that as of 2014, at least one member of the board must have an agricultural background, which Meyer said is critically important.

This bill passed the Assembly last week and is headed for the State Senate.

• Assembly Bill 672 and SB 529 -- These bills change the hunting age from 12 to 10 in the state, without requiring hunter education if they hunt under the guidance of, and are within arm's reach of, a mentor and there is only firearm involved. AB 672 is ready for scheduling on the floor of the Assembly and SB 529 had a hearing last week.
• Great Lakes Compact -- Senate Bill 523 would approve this agreement between the eight states and two Canadian provinces that border the Great Lakes to restrict the ability of diversions of water out of the Great Lakes. Meyer said that other parts of the country are having problems with water and are looking at ways to siphon off Great Lakes water. The bill has support in the Senate but not as much in the Assembly, and it is very important for Wisconsin to approve the compact.

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  3/06/2008 8:40 am