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Over the last four years, the Republican-controlled Legislature has butted heads with the state Department of Natural Resources on everything from deer hunting to snakes — scaling back the agency’s regulations and lambasting its officials as heavy-handed.
That all could change come January. Democrats wrestled back control of the state Senate in this month’s election. The GOP still controls the state Assembly, but the DNR, controlled by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration, could face a kinder, gentler Legislature this spring.
“It totally changes everything,” said George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and a former DNR secretary. “Elections matter ... when you’ve got split government, extreme positions on both sides don’t go anywhere and often don’t even get introduced.”
Republicans have controlled the Assembly since 1996. They seized the Senate in 2002, the same year Doyle won his first term.
Republicans have clashed with the DNR ever since. They say the agency is running roughshod over average citizens, interpreting state conservation statutes to such an extreme no one can do anything to their own land.
“They act like it’s their property and it’s a personal favor to let you do anything to property you pay taxes on,” said state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend. Grothman co-chairs the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, which can kill any state agency’s regulatory proposal and has often demanded the DNR scale back its regulations.
Earlier this year Republicans tried unsuccessfully to pass a bill scrapping the agency’s contentious earn-a-buck program, which requires hunters to shoot a doe before a buck. DNR wildlife officials say the program is their best weapon to control a burgeoning deer population. Republicans say hunters hate it.
In 2003 the GOP scaled back a DNR plan to ban baiting and feeding deer statewide. DNR officials said experts believe a complete ban would slow the spread of chronic wasting disease in Wisconsin deer, but Republicans felt the move was too severe.
And this fall, Grothman’s committee threatened to remove the Butler garter snake from the state’s list of endangered species because the creature’s presence is slowing construction in southeastern Wisconsin. Grothman’s panel also balked this summer at the DNR’s recommendations for limits on a herbicide byproduct after the herbicide’s manufacturer complained the DNR’s science was flawed, resulting in limits that were too strict.
Sen. Alan Lasee, R-De Pere, has likened the DNR’s tactics to the Gestapo. Earlier this year he invited people to fill out complaints against the agency on his Web site and held four public hearings around the state to let people air grievances.
“They totally trash property rights,” Lasee said. “It’s just government out of control at all levels.”
Gerald O’Brien, chairman of the Natural Resources Board, which oversees the DNR, said the agency’s enforcement decisions are sometimes arbitrary.
But the agency and the board try to do the right thing, O’Brien said. Of the myriad rule changes the board approved over the last four years, Republicans objected really only to a handful, he said.
“There are always complaints about the DNR. It’s a regulatory agency. People don’t like to be regulated,” O’Brien said. “I think it’s just a question ... of the Legislature just trying to satisfy their voters or some lobbyists.”
Now Republicans have lost the offensive.
When the Legislature reconvenes in January, the Senate Natural Resources Committee will be controlled by Democrats. That means the committee can do away with any initiatives from its counterpart committee in the GOP-controlled Assembly.
The Joint Finance Committee, which revises the governor’s budget, now will be split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. So will the rules committee. That means Democrats will have the numbers to block Republican proposals that would have flown through in the past.
On the DNR’s plate this session is a $215,000 proposal to station wardens at boat landings to encourage people to clean their boats to slow the spread of aquatic invasive species such as zebra mussels and a plan to offer farmers a financial incentive to grow sawgrass that can be used as a biofuel.
Paul Heinen, a legislative liaison for the DNR, said the balance of power hopefully will force Republicans to stop ignoring the science behind the agency’s proposals and reach compromises.
“I expect life will be easier. We get to be in a more measured conversation, not the pitched political battle conversations,” Heinen said.
Ed Harvey Jr. is chair of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, an influential group of sportsmen who advise the DNR. He hopes the stage is for the congress’ initiatives to go through.
The congress wants to see the DNR maintain a December antlerless deer hunt in the face of snowmobilers complaints — Grothman’s committee permitted the agency to allow the hunt on trial basis this fall— and find another funding source beyond hunting and fishing license fees to fuel the agency’s Wildlife Fund.
“The impact of the split Legislature will be we’ll see less potential for radical stuff,” Harvey said. “Maybe we can get something done this session.”
From deer hunting to garter snakes: notable battles
"Rednecks"? wrote on Nov 23, 2006 10:04 AM: