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Doyle made a series of stops in Wisconsin, announcing grants from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund for local conservation efforts.
The largest of the grants was $6.1 million to protect nearly 6,000 acres in the Brule River State Forest. In La Crosse, the grant was $257,000 to the Mississippi Valley Conservancy, a regional land trust located in La Crosse. It will allow the conservancy to buy 452 acres of bluffland. The land was actually purchased last year, but the grant just came through now.
To understand why this kind of stewardship is significant, a perusal of past newspaper stories going back many decades is telling.
The articles came from the MVC files, and include a Tribune story from 1909 about Grandad Bluff being purchased for the city by a group of citizens headed by Joseph M. Hixon.
Consider this quote from the story:
“For years, spasmodically, there has been public agitation about the purchase of Grandad, in which the people of the city have always felt personal interest and a sense of proprietorship not justified by legal title. From time to time the price has been advance as appreciation of the desirability of the property has grown, and in the meantime gradual demolition of the great bluff by quarrymen has continued ... ”
One old Tribune story had an accompanying photo showing Grandad Bluff with buildings of the La Crosse Stone Quarry at its base, and a chute from the blufftop south of the lookout point to the ground below.
Imagine a La Crosse without Grandad Bluff as a park, or without any bluff preservation.
The Mississippi Valley Conservancy was founded in 1997 and has played a role in much of the bluff preservation efforts ever since — working with local governments and the state Stewardship Fund, which is named after former Govs. Warren Knowles and Gaylord Nelson, a Republican and Democrat, respectively, who both had deep commitments to conservation.
Grants from the stewardship fund are matched by the private sector, and landowners can get tax advantages by selling land or easements for conservation.
The land preserved is available for recreation and use by the public. In the long run, it’s a bargain.
But not everyone agrees with the idea of public stewardship. A few years ago, the Wisconsin Legislature tried to cut the fund by 90 percent. A veto by Gov. Doyle saved it. In his budget address earlier this year, Doyle called for the Legislature to reauthorize the Stewardship Fund at the level of $105 million per year.
Wednesday’s events in La Crosse and throughout the state show the value of that fund.
