Yesterday morning, Ron and I arrived at work to find a white board propped up near the back door of the building. It read, “DNR Employees, don’t believe Scott Walker! You are being fooled!!!”
“I wonder what that’s all about,” I said. After all, there are so many options these days—so many reasons why Department of Natural Resources employees might be angry with Governor Walker. Could this be about phosphorus? Land stewardship? Recycling? Hunting regulations? Who knew! We would soon find out.
We’d been away from the office for two days, teaching 120 middle schoolers about stream ecology. This is our favorite part of our job.
Each morning, we had collected buckets of water and bugs from Black Earth Creek and sat the kids down along the stream bank to sort through them. With little plastic spoons, the kids fished out the mayflies, scuds, and midge larvae and looked at them up close, proclaiming ”Gross!” and ”I hate bugs!” and ”Cool!” and ”What’s that one?”
We’d picked up rocks from the stream bottom and showed them all the life clinging to the underside. And we’d used an electroshocking backpack to stun trout, suckers and sculpin so the kids could see them up close. It was a success—the kids walked away knowing more about stream life than most adults, and they gave us big thank yous and even a hug or two. Now we were returning to our cubicles and the sanitized office air, satisfied that we’d spread our love of streams to many young people.
So it was a little unnerving to be brought down from our high by this ominous whiteboard.
Catching up on work email, we discovered the source of the angst: an announcement that Governor Walker may make the DNR a charter organization.
This was first reported to us in agency-wide emails by Cathy Stepp, the (Walker-appointed) Secretary of the DNR. But the proposal was also reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Gov. Scott Walker’s administration is developing a plan that it says will streamline the Department of Natural Resources to make it more responsive to the public and help speed reviews of environmental permits sought by industry…
Walker would use the DNR as a “charter agency” and would advance the proposals as an executive order…
But the proposal drew fire from environmentalists who worry that Walker – a critic of the DNR during his gubernatorial campaign – wants to retool the agency to benefit business, but sacrifice environmental protection.
I don’t understand the ramifications of making the DNR a charter organization. I don’t think many people do, although it sounds like a move towards privatization.
And if this proposal had come at a different time, or from someone I trust to actually care about the environment, I believe I’d react with an open mind. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with charter organizations, I do believe the DNR is bogged down by bureaucracy, and I feel it’s important for conservation agencies to work well with business.
But given the actions of Walker and his administration over the last several months, I feel certain that this is bad news.
Despite some rhetoric about balancing the needs of business and natural resources, Walker has made it clear that his first and only priority is boosting business, at the expense of natural resources (as well as public health, education, and everything else except roads).
As a citizen and as a DNR employee, what I’ve seen of Walker has me convinced that this is yet another move to weaken the DNR, healthy environment be damned.
Not many details have emerged yet, but the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters (WLCV) has commented strongly against the proposal.
They point out that the charter approach doesn’t have a great track record: “Iowa is the only other state that has ever attempted implementing the concept of a charter state agency. The model was discontinued after a state audit found it was ineffective in achieving the cost cutting and revenue generating goals.”
The WLCV also highlights one worrisome detail that has emerged: “Job retention and pay for DNR employees would be based on the satisfaction of customers rather than on the employee’s success in protecting natural resources and public health, making DNR employees beholden to the entities they are supposed to watchdog, rather than Wisconsin citizens.”
As Kerry Schumann, WLCV Executive Director, puts it, “It appears that the DNR will now serve at the pleasure of polluting special interests. It’s a classic example of the fox guarding the henhouse.”
Since Walker came in, the DNR has indeed been focused on streamlining permits, making it easier for businesses to build and pollute. And there’s been a lot of rhetoric within the agency about better serving our “customers.”
I’m so tired of hearing Walker and his followers talk about the need to protect these “customers,” because they’re confused about exactly who the customers are.
As Schumann states, “If Governor Walker’s goal is to improve customer satisfaction, he would do well to remember that the customers of the state of Wisconsin are those of us who breathe air, drink water, and hunt, fish and hike… Not the polluters who are interested in making a profit, even at the expense of Wisconsin families.”
When all you pay attention to is business, business, business, you might have the impression that the DNR’s sole function is to issue permits to business. But businesses are not the most important part of our work.
And if you take the blinders off, businesses aren’t even the most visible part of our work. The DNR has over 2000 employees and something like eight different bureaus. I work in the Bureau of Watershed Management. Permitting is one of our sections. Shall I name the rest? Runoff, Wastewater, Dams and Floodplains, Monitoring, Sediments, Water Evaluation, Waterway Protection, and Lakes and Wetlands.
We monitor water quality. We clean up polluted waterways. We manage wastewater and dams. We educate the public about how to protect lakes, wetlands, streams, and rivers.
I’m a stream scientist and an educator. As Kerry Schumann so eloquently said, my customers are the citizens of Wisconsin, for whom I monitor our water quality. My customers are the students, anglers, and naturalists who I teach to protect these resources. My customers are the mayflies, the mottled sculpin, the watersnake, the rocks with life clinging to them, the clean water.
As my friend Matt says, “Just who in the hell do they think their clients and customers are, as the Department of NATURAL RESOURCES? Certainly the Blanding’s turtle, as much as Gogebic Taconite and Menard’s?”
The mission of the DNR is, in full:
To protect and enhance our natural resources:
our air, land and water;
our wildlife, fish and forests
and the ecosystems that sustain all life.To provide a healthy, sustainable environment
and a full range of outdoor opportunities.
To ensure the right of all people
to use and enjoy these resources
in their work and leisure.To work with people
to understand each other’s views
and to carry out the public will.And in this partnership
consider the future
and generations to follow.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t see “streamlining permits” anywhere in that mission.
Since Walker came in, this agency has gotten weaker and weaker, and our mission is getting lost in the shuffle. Making us a charter organization would surely be more of the same.
There are other state agencies charged with boosting business and protecting the state’s economy, which are valuable, important goals. But clean air, clean water, and healthy wildlife are equally important. If the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources doesn’t protect Wisconsin’s natural resources, who will?
UPDATE FROM JULY 2011: I’ve posted more recently about this subject here.
Thank you for your well written perspective. As a teacher and former recipient of the type of education you are providing for our youth, I thank you for voicing your concerns about another of Mr. Walker’s poor ideas. You are doing what we need more of. Streamlining the process for big business to muddy that stream you wrote about is all Walker and his money hungry cronies care about. Keep teaching our youth about the importance of the “little things” in that stream and sharing more of your concerns about Walker’s big ideas!
The same thing is happening in Florida. Despite campaign promises to the contrary, our Republican governor (who bought the election with the fortune he ‘earned’ through Medicare fraud and then avoided prison by invoking the 5th amendment 75 times) and Republican legislature are gutting education, environmental protection, and state programs intended to help the poor/disabled/elderly. Their claimed intent is to improve the economy – a laudable goal. But they are doing it on the backs of the non-wealthy, the environment and the quality of life, and they are demanding no shared sacrifice by big business and the wealthy.
They are striving mightily to change the law so as to saddle citizens with the burden of proof to show how development projects would hurt the environment, instead of the other way around. They are cutting corporate taxes and regulation, especially land use, while setting a cap on taxes for yachts costing over $250,000 and making luxury sky boxes and other amenities for the wealthy tax free. They won’t enact a state income tax (which would cut into wealthy folks’ high incomes), but they are talking about raising the sales tax (which is regressive, in that it overly punishes the poorest consumers).
They have also demonized state workers (despite the fact that Florida has the lowest cost per resident of any state), blaming them for most of our financial problems. They have cut these underpaid workers’ salaries by 3 %, after 5 years of no pay raises, fired over 3,500, and intend to fire thousands more. They are trying to destroy the unions. They are especially angry at teachers for their ‘greed’. I never realized how many people choose teaching as a career to get rich! They are telling the citizenry that, if they see a decrease in the quality of service from state agencies or schools, it will be due to spitefulness on the part of the remaining workers, and not because they are understaffed and overworked. They are also trying to ‘privatize’ (sell to for-profit businesses) over 50 state parks. If history is a good teacher, unregulated capitalists almost always abuse the “village green” (everyone’s air, water & other resources), frequently to a criminal extent, for their own profit. Making state parks ‘for profit’ will result in over-development of the nicest areas and neglect for any noncommercially profitable areas. We need to reinvigorate the environmental movement before the already questionable qualities of our state’s resources are undermined further, to the detriment of all, including posterity.
I could go on, but you get my drift. By the way, my understanding of a ’charter agency’ is that it’s a state department of whatever that is exempted from much bureaucratic and legislative oversight, allowing administration to have more control over department operations & policy.
I have lived my whole life in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. I will say Wisconsin is a different animal from its neighbors. Very liberal. Social economic systems (welfare). Education (UW – monopoly). Doesn’t place much emphasis on jobs or industry. Minnesota generally has the best economy and highest wages in the nation. Michigan was close until the car industry tanked. The WDNR has too much power still. The are too involved. They place way, way, way too much emphasis on rule making and enforcement. Ask any sportsman, which Im sure your not, if this state has too many and too complicated hunt/fish rules and Im sure the answer is “yes”. This state has state owned land closed to hunting and fishing. They praise their ‘public trust doctrine’ clause for water; lots of private lakes and access fees for boat launch. They, overall, have a ‘us against them’ mentality when dealing with ‘Joe Public’. The union busting is over. I am a federal employee and will have less benefits or pay as a WI state employee. Get over it.
The voters spoke. We wanted a new governor. I voted for him because he promised to change the WDNR. I hope he does.
Not quite sure where you’re going with all that, Anonymous, but I can respond to a few things.
1) I didn’t grow up hunting and fishing, but greatly admire these activities and am slowly learning to fly fish through Trout Unlimited. I appreciate the work of sportsmen and -women over the last century to preserve our natural resources for wildlife and public use. I think that natural resource management is integral to use of resources, and that responsible sportsmen will appreciate the DNR’s mission.
2) I agree that rules can be complicated, and that the DNR needs to improve its relationship with resource users such as farmers and sportsmen. Working with farmers, over and over I heard them complain that the DNR was heavy-handed while other organizations like the county land conservation department were more interested in listening to their situation and working with them.
Part of the problem is that many people who work in natural resources don’t have enough contact with landowners and thus are out of touch with the realities on the ground. And part of the reason for that problem is lack of support from above. When administrations like Walker’s dismantle infrastructure within the DNR, demoralize employees, and take away funding, it’s very hard for resource managers to get out of the office and meet with the public. We’re stuck inside shuffling papers and trying to wrap our heads around all the confusing rules ourselves, and we’re focused more on keeping our own heads above water and less on what’s good for resources and those who use them.
3) The voters did speak, and I’m disappointed at what Wisconsin voters have chosen. I believe change at the DNR is necessary, but not the kind of change I think you’re picturing. I will be leaving the DNR soon, partly because I’m disillusioned with the current leadership in state government.
If you’d like to see the DNR start working better for the people, businesses, AND the resources of Wisconsin, you shouldn’t be so quick to support measures that make it undesirable for quality employees to stay.