Edited by Paul Holtan
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
PO Box 7921
Madison WI 53707
(608) 267-7517
Fax: (608) 264-6293
E-mail address: paul.holtan@dnr.state.wi.us

Special Edition
A look back at a century of managing and protecting Wisconsin's natural resources

December 20, 1999

• Setting the stage for the 21st Century: Our Past Foreshadows a Bright Future
• 100 events that have shaped Wisconsin’s natural resources in the last century
• Clean Water Act a turning point in cleaning state’s waterways
• From Milk Can to Ecosystem Management
• Wisconsin in the forefront of successful management strategies that have allowed wildlife to recover and thrive
• From stump fields to managed forests
• Early wardens often lacked formal training, but still fostered respect for the badge and the laws they enforced
• Control of pollution, removal of dam leads to rebirth of Milwaukee River
• Wisconsin State Parks – 100 Years Young

By George Meyer, Secretary, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

As we look to the future in preparation of a new century – and a new millennium – of natural resource management in Wisconsin, it is important for us to also look back. The last century has clearly been one of profound changes for Wisconsin, its environment and how we relate to it.

As the articles in this special edition of DNR News point out, Wisconsin faced major environmental and natural resource challenges at the turn of the last century: our forests were nearly cut over and wildfires were rampant; waterways were seriously polluted with little or no control over what was dumped in our lakes and rivers; wildlife species were rapidly dwindling.

The turn of the last century was also significant for natural resources in Wisconsin, as some of the first conservation laws were established, such as the Congressional Lacey Act of 1900, which outlawed interstate transportation of game illegally killed or possessed. Also about this time, some of the key boards and commissions formed that would later be restructured into the Department of Natural Resources: the Commissioners of Fisheries in 1895, the Forestry Commission in 1903, the Railroad Commission (responsible for water regulation) in 1905, the State Park Board in 1907, the State Board of Health in 1911, and the Conservation Commission in 1915.

Through the dedication of literally thousands of conservation-minded individuals over the last century, we have made what can only be called incredible strides at improving the condition of our environment since that time, while also enjoying some of the highest standards of living found anywhere in the world. And that reflects a quality of life not only in economic development, but in the bountiful opportunities we have to enjoy the beautiful natural resources of this state.

Let’s look at just a few highlights from the last century:

• First state program to acquire and manage natural areas to preserve rare plant habitat (1951)
• First state to meet fishable and swimmable water quality standards (1983)
• First state to ban the pesticide DDT to protect birds and other wildlife (1970)
• First acid rain control law in the nation (1986)
• Among the first and the strongest groundwater protection laws (1984)
• Second largest bald eagle population in the lower 48 states
• Largest concentration of lake sturgeon in the world
• First wild and scenic river in the nation (St. Croix/Namekagon) (1968)
• Oldest Soil and Water Conservation District in the nation (Coon Valley) (1931)
• Pulp and paper mills reduced oxygen-demanding water pollutants 91 percent between 1972-82 and reduced suspended solids by 84 percent
• One of the nation’s first and strongest comprehensive recycling programs – 97 percent of state households participate
• One of the first rails to trails conversions -- the Sparta-Elroy State Trail -- in the nation
• Successful species reintroduction and recovery for eagles, fisher, martens, wolves, elk, turkey; we are the likely location to release and reintroduce whooping cranes
• National leaders in dam removals (73 by 1999) to improve streams and waterways fisheries
• A proud tradition of buying unique parcels of land to preserve outdoor recreation through the ORAP and Stewardship programs
• Consistently ranked among the finest places to hunt deer and fish and to watch birds and wildlife

Today, we have more forestlands than at anytime since the great cutover at the end of the last century. We have abundant fish and wildlife populations, and have even been able to restore a large number of both game and non-game species.

Certainly, much credit goes to the visionaries such as G.W. Griffith, our first state forester, Aldo Leopold, the father of wildlife management, James Nevin, our first fish manager, and John Nolan, who proposed the state park system. But it would never have been possible without the support and commitment of Wisconsin residents, who clearly treasure the natural resources of the state.

Our challenge as we look to the future is to ask what will people at the turn of the next century say when they look back at the legacy we leave?

When the Kellett Commission in 1967 incorporated the state’s natural resource management and environmental protection functions into one agency, the Department of Natural Resources, it set the stage for integrated resource management. It reflected a basic understanding that you can’t have healthy fish, wildlife, or people, without protecting the environment upon which they depend.

With the reorganization of the Department of Natural Resources in 1996, we took an even bigger step to integrate resource management and environmental protection. The dust is finally settling from that reorganization, and I am more confident than ever that our new structure will optimize our efficiency and effectiveness and improve integration of DNR programs to better serve customers. The residents of the state will have more input into the agency through our basin partner teams to set local priorities for natural resource management.

We have a new strategic plan for the agency that has received widespread support from the public as well as DNR staff. The plan emphasizes ecosystem management; increasing reliance on partnerships to accomplish natural resources goals; protecting public health and safety; and providing for outdoor recreational opportunities today and in the future.

The plan Vision states:

We share responsibility as natural resources stewards with Wisconsin’s citizens, government, businesses and visitors. We recognize the air, land and water are interconnected in sustaining all life, in protecting public health and in achieving healthy ecosystems and the sustainable economies that depend on these ecosystems. We recognize that forestry, farming and nature-based recreation – like hunting, fishing and trapping – are key to the state’s economy and quality of life. We value our dedicated staff and provide them with the tools and training needed to ensure that Wisconsin has the best-managed natural resources in the world.

We are now working to implement this strategy and also to define clear benchmarks to measure our success and progress. Starting on Earth Day 2000 we will report annually to the public about our work and progress on goals and performance measures. We will give the public the information to better participate in the important work of preserving and enhancing Wisconsin’s natural resources and environment.

This report will reflect not what this agency can – or cannot – accomplish, but what we are able to accomplish with the support and assistance of Wisconsin’s citizens and businesses, as clearly individual and organizational choices and actions will be the source of many future improvements.

The success of the partnerships we are developing with citizens through our local basin teams and through cooperative efforts with businesses and industries and with local, state, tribal and federal agencies will be a major factor in determining whether we carry on the conservation and environmental legacy that was formulated over the past century.

100 events that have helped shape Wisconsin’s natural resources in the last century

[EDITOR’S NOTE: It would be impossible to completely recount all of the major natural resource and environmental events of the past century. What follows is a timeline of major events culled from a variety of sources. While we tried to be as inclusive as possible, we certainly were not able to include all events and regret if we omitted any events readers believe should have been included. The stories that follow the timeline were prepared by the DNR’s regional Public Affairs Managers and other department staff, and again, are intended to provide a picture of the major issues they cover rather than to be definitive histories. We hope you enjoy this look back at an amazing century.]

1900

• First state park established, Interstate State Park
• U.S. Congress passes the Lacey Act, milestone legislation which diminished market hunting by outlawing interstate transportation of illegally killed or possessed game. Unregulated hunting and trapping, in addition to habitat destruction, and diseases, combined to eliminate marten, fisher, wolverine, the passenger pigeon, bison, elk, caribou, Canada lynx, eastern cougar and wild turkey from Wisconsin’s landscape. Predatory hawks, owls, and fish eating mammal populations were on the decline.

1903

• Wisconsin State Supreme Court, in Huber v. Merkel, interprets state constitution to mean a landowner could use as much groundwater as he wanted regardless of how it affected adjoining property owners. In 1974, the court overturns that decision and rules in State of Wisconsin v. Michels Pipeline Construction that state regulates groundwater for the common good of all citizens. A property owner is entitled to reasonable use of the groundwater and must consider impacts on the water table and users.
• Laboratory of Hygiene founded to respond to public health. Human and industrial wastes dumped directly into Wisconsin’s rivers and lakes contaminated those waters and contributed to widespread disease and death. Every year, 11 per 1,000 people died from diarrhea and gastroenteritis, and 1 per 1,000 died from typhoid fever.
• Department of State Forestry and 40,000 acres of forest reserve established, beginning efforts to regenerate Wisconsin’s North Woods, which had been cut over. Fires farmers and loggers set to burn slash left over from the logging burned out of control, and from 1870 to 1930, burned more than half a million acres every year. In 1908, 1,435 fires burned 1.2 million acres, the worst fire year in Wisconsin history.
• First size limits for catching fish established – 4 pounds in the round (undressed) for muskellunge; 8 pounds for sturgeon. The first length limit was set in 1905. It applied to trout (6 inches), with a bag limit of not more than 10 pounds.

1907

• First state parks board established with authority to buy and manage land for park purposes; hires noted Massachusetts landscape architect John Nolen to propose five locations for state parks and justify such a system.

1908

• Henry Ford introduces the Model T, the first mass-produced automobile, which eventually helped make cars affordable for the average American.

1909

• First fishing license: non-resident adult males only; $1

1910

• USDA’s Forest Products Laboratory established in Madison, first wood products research institution in the nation and a leader in increasing efficient use of wood.

1911

• Legislature vests the State Board of Health with power to investigate water pollution, removing responsibility from local governments.
• Legislature makes it illegal to waste natural resources, believed to be the first comprehensive natural resource law in the country.

1915

• Park and conservation functions consolidated in a 3-member Wis. Conservation Commission.
• Federal migratory bird regulations in effect.

1917

• Legislature makes it illegal to throw any manufacturing refuse or any substance harmful to fish life into streams

1919

• Legislature passes Chapter 144 of the statutes, which incorporates state supervision over public water supplies.

1924

• Referendum passes allowing state to appropriate money for the purpose of buying, preserving and developing forests

1925

• Legislature passes a law to permit establishing national forests in Wisconsin. The Nicolet and Chequamegon national forest designations followed.

1927

• Horicon Marsh acquired and slowly restored; protected as a wildlife refuge in 1929.
• Wisconsin Legislature passes the first forest tax incentive program, allowing people to reforest their land and not pay taxes on it until timber is harvested.
• State Committee on Water Pollution is created to protect the economic and social values of clean surface waters as well as provide healthy drinking water.

1929

• Law declares that the enjoyment of natural scenic beauty is a public right and prohibits issuing permits to build dams contrary to the public interest. The law stopped short of preserving the esthetics of the shoreline.

1930s

• Series of laws passes protecting private wells and home water supplies, increasing safety of drinking water.
• Soil conservation programs start.

1930

• Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co. v. Railroad Commission established that recreational activities such as sailing, canoeing, and skating are public rights.

1931

• UW Professor O.R. Zeman’s leaflet “Control Soil Erosion by Crops, Terraces and Dams” provides practical advice for stemming runoff, and starts a decade of soil awareness.

1933

• Aldo Leopold joins the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty as the country’s first professor of wildlife management, and founds the study of wildlife ecology, which stimulates research that eventually reveals a host of tools and principles for maintaining and restoring wildlife populations.
• Federal Civilian Conservation Corps comes to Wisconsin and builds trails, campgrounds, park buildings at Copper Falls, Devil’s Lake, Interstate, Nelson Dewey (present day Wyalusing), Pattison, Peninsula, Perrot, and Rib Mountain state parks. The corps also fought fires, and built wastewater treatment plants and helped quadruple the number of communities served by wastewater treatment plants.
• Oneida County adopts the first rural zoning ordinance in the nation, setting a model for Wisconsin and the nation.
• First resident “rod and reel” fishing license - $1. In 1947, the first general inland resident fishing license was established ($1).

1934

• Dedication of the UW Arboretum in Madison, the world’s oldest center for restoring lost landscapes.
• Works Progress Administration crews began working in Copper Falls, Wyalusing, Nelson Dewey, and Peninsula state parks and at the Kettle Moraine State Forest.
• Conservation Congress forms as a citizens group of delegates from Wisconsin counties who advise the Conservation Commission, and later the Department of Natural Resources policymaking board, on all matters under the board’s jurisdiction. The group received statutory recognition in 1971.

1935

• Law mandates teaching of conservation of resources in Wisconsin schools; 50 years later, lawmakers require school districts to develop and implement a kindergarten through 12th grade environmental education plan.
• Legislature establishes the Pure Drinking Water Law, providing for registration of well drillers and regulation of well construction and pump installation for private water systems.

1936

• The Kettle Moraine State Forest is started with an 800-acre donation of land surrounding present-day Mauthe Lake. Today, the Kettles total more than 50,000 acres.

1937

• Federal Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act levies federal excises taxes on sales of sporting firearms and ammunition to provide funds for wildlife programs. In 1950, the federal Dingell-Johnson Bill established an excise tax on fishing equipment and tackle to be used for fisheries programs. The two acts have been amended over the years to include taxes on archery equipment, certain boat motors, and gas used for boats.

1938

• The nation’s first Soil Conservation District is established in Coon Valley of Vernon County, where the first techniques to slow erosion and soil loss are tested on U.S. farms in the steeply sloped area.

1944

• Illustrator Albert Straehle invents Smokey Bear, part of a voluntary advertising campaign to protect forests. Smokey makes his first public appearance at the Fireman’s Convention Parade in Hurley on August 3, 1950.

1945

• Legislature enacted the High Capacity Well Law requiring state approval before construction of any well with a capacity of 100,000 gallons per day or greater.

1948

• Number of licensed anglers exceeds 1 million.

1949

• Publication of Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac,” which posits that man is an integral part – not separate from – a land community that includes the soils, waters, plants and animals.
• Devil’s Lake Concession Corporation took over concessions at the park, becoming the first such private nonprofit organization to partner with state parks to provide services that otherwise would not be available. Other groups followed, creating a foundation for a formalized Friends Group policy in 1989 and a Statewide Friends Group in 1996. Today, more than 60 local friends groups work on behalf of state parks.

By 1950

• Lake trout population in Lake Michigan collapses from sea lamprey predation following many years of heavy commercial exploitation.

1951

• Natural Areas Program is established to buy and protect the best remaining examples of plant and animal communities found in Wisconsin before statehood. Wisconsin’s program is the first of its kinds in the nation.

1953

• Hunters are required to start registering their deer to provide information to wildlife biologists, which becomes a critical ingredient in the state’s scientifically based deer management program.

1956

• President Eisenhower creates the Soil Bank set aside program, which paid farmers to take land out of production, and inadvertently increased the intensity of farming – and erosions – on acreage still in production. The 1985 Farm Bill created the Conservation Reserve Program, which encouraged farmers to set aside highly erodible for 10 years.

1958

• “Last” timber wolf in Wisconsin is killed; four decades later, wolf populations have recovered so that DNR seeks to re-categorize the wolf from endangered to threatened, allowing some flexibility in dealing with wolves that habitually kill livestock and pets.

1959

• Saint Lawrence Seaway opens. United States and Canada build a channel on the St. Lawrence River that allows ocean-going vessels access to Lake Ontario, and together with improved channels between the Great Lakes, links all of the lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The seaway affected shipping, but also contributed to the introduction many exotic species into Wisconsin waterways, among them zebra mussels.

1960

• Wisconsin Legislature enacts long-range program of acquisition and improvement of state recreational facilities, known as the Outdoor Recreation Action Program or ORAP. Prompts a wave of new park purchases, maintenance projects, and the era of rails-to-trails developments. Funded by a 1-cent tax per pack of cigarettes.

1962

• Overwinter population goals and antlerless deer quotas are set for the first time, laying the cornerstone of Wisconsin’s scientifically based deer management program.
• Publication of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” jolted complacent Americans with warnings of environmental threats caused by a growing dependence on chemicals.

1964

• U.S. Congress passes Wilderness Act

1965

• 36-mile Elroy-Sparta trail becomes one of the first trails in the United States to be built on an abandoned railroad bed. Wisconsin currently has more miles of “rails to trails” than any other state.
• State law requires mandatory certification of waterworks and wastewater treatment plant operators.
• Wisconsin, like all other states, lacked a formal solid waste management agency. Wastes were being improperly buried in inadequately designed dumps, creating problems that surfaced 25 to 40 years later when the materials leaked into groundwater and lakes and rivers, contaminating them; 40 such sites are still leaking.
• Wisconsin becomes the first state to pass a Wild Rivers Act, which gave the Conservation Department the power to assure rivers designed as wild were to be preserved in their free flowing condition and preserved from development. Three years later, Congress passed the National Wild and Scenic River Areas Act that included the protection of 185 miles of the St. Croix-Namekagon River system and a major portion of the Wolf River in Menominee County.
• U.S. Congress acted on Teddy Roosevelt’s vision to have parks and open spaces within reach of every citizen by creating the Land & Water Conservation Fund; $900 million per year of off-shore oil and gas revenues were earmarked for federal, state and local land acquisition and development and historical preservation. Since inception Wisconsin has received over $117 million – $53 million for federal projects such as the Apostle Islands and $64 million for state and local projects.

1966

• Wisconsin State Supreme Court decision in Hixon v. PSC recognizes the cumulative impacts of construction in navigable waters as a valid concern, and establishes that the state must consider these cumulative impacts when weighing permits to alter the shorelands.

1967

• Sale of state bonds to finance park purchases greatly expands park system.
• Hunter Safety Education Program begins, following a year in which 44 of every 100,000 hunters were involved in a firearms accident; rate is now about 4 per 100,000 participants.
• Lake Michigan fishery in decline, largely because of exotic species introduced in the previous 100 years; alewife comprise an estimated 85 percent of the mass of the fish in the lake.
• Wisconsin banned “hard’’ detergents that were carried from home washers through sewage plants and into Wisconsin rivers without sufficient treatment. The detergents caused billowing suds that smothered streams and rivers in the 1950s and early
• The Conservation Department merges with the Resource Development Department to form the Department of Natural Resources, in a move designed to increase efficiency, integrate environmental programs to better protect natural resources, and be more politically responsive. The new agency had the authority to regulate air and water quality, solid waste disposal, and is directed to develop an integrated program to protect air, land and water resources. It became the first “superagency” in the country and a model for other states.
• Statewide shoreland floodplain zoning program established.
• First coho and then chinook salmon strains from the Pacific North West are stocked in Lake Michigan; these strains did well and grew quickly by feasting on the alewives, reducing their numbers and helping spur the recovery of other species. By 1999 Wisconsin’s Great Lakes salmon and trout program involves the stocking of almost 5,000,000 fish each year, and attracts over 150,000 anglers who fish for 3,000,000 hours and spend $100,000,000 to catch 500,000 salmon and trout annually.

1969

• First rules to regulate dumps in Wisconsin take effect, followed by many other laws to define safe standards for landfill location, design, and licensing.

1970

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created.
• U.S. Congress passes Clean Air Act, establishing standards for six pollutants and giving states power to develop plans to achieve those standards.
• First Earth Day on April 21, founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, raised people’s consciousness about their utter dependence on Earth’s air, water and land, and helped build support for landmark environmental legislation to follow.
• Pulp and paper mills discharge about 290 million gallons of wastewater into Wisconsin lakes and rivers – most of it untreated. Fish and aquatic life die from lack of oxygen, pollution covers vital spawning habitat. By 1982, mills had complied with state and federal laws by reducing the amount of oxygen demanding material 91 percent and suspended solids by 84 percent, even though paper production increased more than 60 percent.

1971

• Wisconsin becomes the first state to ban DDT to protect birds and other wildlife
• Ice Age National Scientific Reserve established. First of its kind in the nation, includes 9 units: Devil’s Lake, Interstate, Mill Bluff, Cross Plains, Chippewa Moraine, Two Creeks, Campbellsport Drumlins, Horicon Marsh, and Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest
• State Endangered Species Act passes to protect against the killing, possession and marketing of endangered plant and animal species and to establish a program for conserving and restoring these species. Federal Endangered Species Act follows in 1977.

1972

• Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act passes requiring state agencies to consider the environmental effects of their actions to the extent possible. It also establishes the principle that broad citizen participation should be part of environmental decision making.
• Wisconsin Supreme Court reaffirms the Public Trust Doctrine in Just v. Marinette. The doctrine was established in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and adopted in the state Constitution. It decreed that the waterways were “common highways and forever free,” and was the basis for the state’s wetland and shoreland laws.
• U.S. Congress passes the Water Pollution Control Act, which made it illegal to discharge pollutants without permission and permits and established two goals: make the nation’s wasters fishable and swimmable by 1983, and eliminate discharges to waterways. Wisconsin in 1983 became the first state to meet the “fishable and swimmable goals.”

1974

• U.S. Congress passes Safe Water Drinking Act, which authorizes EPA to establish nationwide public drinking water standards and delegate primary enforcement responsibility to states.

1976

• U.S. Congress passes Resource Conservation Recovery Act, which prohibits open dumping of solid waste and requires small dumps either to meet environmental requirements for new landfills or close.
• Federal government bans the manufacture of PCBs, heralding the era of regulating toxic substances in the environment.
• Wisconsin issues its first fish consumption advisory, warning people not to eat Great Lakes fish contaminated with PCBs. Today, people are encouraged to limit their consumption of certain fish from about 370 lakes and rivers where those species have been found to contain PCBs or mercury.

1977

• Nonpoint Source Pollution Program is created to protect Wisconsin waters from runoff pollution by offering to share costs with landowners and communities that take steps to keep soil, fertilizer, street debris and construction site dirt from washing into streams and lakes. Nonpoint source pollution is now considered to be the state’s greatest water quality concern, degrading or threatening about 40 percent of the streams, about 90 percent of inland lakes, many of the Great Lakes harbors and coastal waters, and a substantial portion of groundwater resources in the state.

1980

• Federal Superfund program created to provide federal funds to clean up worst hazardous sites. Eventually 41 sites in Wisconsin are placed on the list.

1983-84

• Abandoned landfill and environmental repair law passes to provide state money when a responsible party could not be found for contaminated sites.

1984

• Wisconsin enacts Chapter 160, establishing the most comprehensive program in the U.S. for managing and protecting groundwater; helps protect 16,000 public water supplies and 750,000 public wells from contamination in Wisconsin, and serves as a national model.

1985

• First off-reservation spearing harvest by Chippewa Indian tribes following federal court rulings that the tribes retained the rights for off-reservation harvest in treaties signed in 1837 and 1842 that ceded the northern third of Wisconsin to the federal government.
• Great Lakes Charter, U.S. and Canada identified 42 Great Lakes harbors and communities where toxicants are contaminating aquatic life and water. Wisconsin began preparing remedial action plans for handling dirty sediments in polluted harbors in Green Bay, Superior, Menominee, Sheboygan and Milwaukee.

1986

• Wisconsin becomes first state to pass law to control acid rain to protect sensitive lakes in northern Wisconsin and surpasses the goal of cutting sulfur dioxide emissions by half; partnership among state, utilities, university to research acid rain’s effects on natural resources becomes a model for research and policy-setting. Only a few years earlier, combined sulfur dioxide emissions from communities and businesses regularly exceeded health standards in several regions of Wisconsin.

1987

• Wisconsin sues the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to require Illinois and Indiana to reduce ground-level ozone, which forms when emissions from burning fossil fuels combine on hot, humid summer days, and which can make breathing difficult for children, the elderly, people with asthma and other respiratory conditions.

1988

• Six peregrine falcons released by DNR on UW Madison campus, marking the return to Wisconsin of a bird that was nearly extinct by the 1970s because of pesticides.

1989

• Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program established and authorized to issue up to $250 million in state bonds to buy and develop land for recreational uses, wildlife habitats, fisheries and natural areas. Program reauthorized in 1999 for 10 years and allowed issuing $46 million in state bonds to buy recreational and other valuable conservation lands and pay for recreational improvements.
• Comprehensive recycling law is passed, banning a list of recyclable materials from landfills in 1995 and paid for municipal recycling programs with a broad-based tax on business. Within the decade, 97 percent of Wisconsin households said they recycled.

1990s

• Era of increasing involvement by individuals, civic groups, and others in helping tackle natural resources problems and make the most of opportunities. This shift is spurred by the growing realization of the collective impact that individuals’ decisions and actions have on the environment, and that state agencies have limited money and staff to carry out the work.

1993

• Breach in treatment at a Milwaukee water treatment plant leads to a waterborne disease outbreak that sickens more than 400,000 people, sends more than 4,000 to the hospital, and contributes to the deaths of at least 69 people. Also opens new era in monitoring drinking water drawn from lakes or rivers for microbial contaminants.

1996

• DNR becomes a cabinet agency, with Gov. Tommy G. Thompson appointing the Secretary instead of the Natural Resources Board. The Public Intervenor’s office is abolished.
• Amendments to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act establishes a new charter for public water systems including new prevention approaches, improved customer information, changes to the regulatory program and the first revolving loan program to fund local water systems.

1999

• The Karner Blue Butterfly habitat conservation plan is signed, providing for the continued existence of the endangered butterfly while allowing local economies, commerce, private enterprise and municipal activities to operate and remain healthy with no loss of jobs.
• The bald eagle is removed from the federal endangered species list, and Wisconsin was one of the prime reasons for the strong recovery. The state was the first to ban DDT, which was implicated in the bird’s listing as endangered in the early 1960s, and its population has recovered to more than 500 breeding pairs.
• Recycling program made permanent
• Wisconsin takes first steps toward reintroducing whooping crane, which has been extirpated for 100 years

Clean Water Act a turning point in cleaning state’s waterways

By Dave Crehore, DNR Northeast Region Public Affairs Manager

Even the name Wisconsin, which comes from a native term meaning “gathering of the waters,” highlights the importance of this bountiful resource to the people who live here. The story of Wisconsin’s waters began thousands of years ago, when the glaciers melted and left the area that is now Wisconsin with a lot of water and places for it to flow. But with the arrival of Europeans settlers beginning around 1700, the land and water began to undergo a major transition from wilderness to the Wisconsin we know today.

Prior to European settlement, the native people of Wisconsin lived in a working balance with the wild world. In today’s terms, the native people could be considered biologists whose survival depended upon their knowledge of the plants and animals and how they interacted with the land and water.

But the immigrants who displaced native people brought different concepts of land ownership and use. With the arrival of immigrants to Wisconsin and rapid development of the new nation creating a huge demand for raw materials, the pineries of the upper Midwest were cut almost to the last stick, to feed the growing cities in the region and in the East.

A result was that hills that had been forested for centuries turned into barren raceways for rain and melting snow. Every kind of terrain, from sand blows to cedar swamps, was plowed up to see what it would grow. Vast marshes and bogs were drained, and the water they had once trapped was free to race downstream, washing good soil with it.

The state was in a ferment of growth, and the waters that had carried the canoes of native people now transported the produce, building materials and the wastes of a growing nation: soil, manure, sawdust, offal from slaughterhouses, mine drainage, brewery waste, domestic sewage, disease organisms, paper mill waste.

The state’s rivers were “harnessed” to power mills, and the impoundments created by the dams often became waste pools. By 1900, water pollution was rampant.

Initial attempts were made beginning in 1911 to control water pollution when the State Board of Health was given the power to “investigate” water pollution. In 1927, the first scientific survey of river pollution was conducted, following fish kills on the Flambeau River. A State Committee on Water Pollution was formed, although it had no director, no staff and precious little authority. The state Legislature passed a law that authorized local governments to tax themselves to raise the money for sewers and sewage treatment plants.

Some sewer construction began, and pulp and paper mills began to look into ways to recover and re-use chemicals usually discharged to rivers. But these efforts were self-financed and essentially voluntary, and progress was slow.

After World War II, prodding from citizens and groups like the Izaak Walton League forced the pace of cleanup to pick up a bit. In 1949, the Committee on Water Pollution was granted money to hire a staff, which promptly “ordered” municipalities and paper mills to treat the wastes they discharged to the Fox River.

It was during the ‘60s, however, that public concern about water pollution galvanized following a series of major environmental events. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” raised the specter of neighborhoods without robins, or even earthworms. The bald eagle was extirpated in some areas and endangered almost everywhere else. People talked about rivers catching fire, cattle guts clogging the Missouri. The oil spill in the Santa Barbara channel appeared on the six o’clock news every night for weeks. Finally came the first Earth Day, the brainchild of Wisconsin’s Sen. Gaylord Nelson.

These factors built up considerable public support for meaningful water pollution control, which translated to legislative support for tough new national laws with penalties and deadlines for states, municipalities and industries to meet. And to get the job done, federal funds were made available for water pollution control projects.

In 1972 Congress passed the Clean Water Act Amendments, otherwise known as Public Law 92-500, over a presidential veto. And almost overnight, environmental protection had a strong legal basis.

Before 1972, water pollution control was almost a civil matter; to stop it, aggrieved citizens or agencies had to claim injury and sue the polluters, hoping for a court injunction or a consent decree.

After the Clean Water Act, the tables were turned. It became a felony to discharge wastes to the waters of the United States without a permit granted by the U.S. EPA or a state with Federal authority to grant permits. And the permits set specific numbers, deadlines and national standards.

In 1973, Wisconsin received Federal authority to grant permits, and by 1974 the state had a working water pollution control program with penalties. Federal and state grants paid more than half of the cost of new municipal sewage treatment plants, and hundreds of millions of matching grant dollars were paid out.

Also in 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. The act set federal standards for drinking water quality and required the states to assure compliance with those standards. Wisconsin was one of the first states to gain federal approval to run its own drinking water program, and in 1984 became the first state to pass a comprehensive groundwater law to protect the aquifers that supply three-quarters of all Wisconsin residents with their drinking water.

On the Fox River, results were obvious as early as 1976 and ’77, when – for the first time in years – there were no fish kills on the river, despite two of the hottest, driest summers on record. Overall, biological pollutant loadings to the lower Fox were reduced 15 to 20-fold by the late 1980s, and other major rivers posted similar recoveries.

Despite the success of such programs problems remain with toxic chemicals on riverbeds, “non-point” pollution from rural land and city streets, and the continued pressure to develop the shores of our rivers and lakes.

Those are the next big water challenges, and in many ways they are proving more difficult to address. To meet these new challenges, the trend is to seek public-private partnerships. These include initiatives such as:

• the Fox River Intergovernmental Partnership, under which federal, state and tribal governments are working to advance the cleanup and restoration of the Lower Fox River and Green Bay, including removal and cleanup actions and the assessment of damages to natural resources. The partners have also pledged to negotiate with seven companies that are potentially responsible for the PCB pollution in the river and bay.
• the Paper Mill Pollution Prevention Partnership, under which the DNR and 28 Wisconsin paper companies have agreed to work cooperatively to reduce the amount of pollutants discharged into the environment to levels even lower than what is required under state laws.

These new innovative solutions seek to foster cooperation in not only cleaning up decades of accumulated pollution problems but in developing new technologies and solutions to prevent pollution and live more in balance with the waters that give Wisconsin not just it’s name but it’s character.

From Milk Can to Ecosystem Management

By Ron Poff, retired DNR Fisheries Biologist and Greg Matthews, DNR South Central Region Public Affairs Managers

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Ron Poff, who retired in 1996 as Chief of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Section in the DNR Bureau of Fisheries and Habitat Protection, wrote ‘From Milk Can to Ecosystem Management: A Historical Perspective on Wisconsin’s Fisheries Management Program 1830’s – 1990’s in 1996. The following was excerpted from that book by Greg Matthews, DNR South Central Region Public Affairs Manager.]

Wisconsin’s fisheries management has come a long ways from its milk can and rail car stocking days.

The century was young when, in 1908, the word “conservation” replaced “preservation” in matters relating to natural resources. The first state Conservation Commission was established in 1915 while the Commissioners of Fisheries (authorized in 1895 by the state legislature) would continue overseeing fish management until 1915.

The next year, 1909, nonresident adult males were first required to purchase a hook and line fishing license costing $1. The trout limit was 40 per day.

In 1912, Conservation Commissioner E.A. Birge argued in a paper titled The Regulation of Fisheries that the state should make a provision for investigation and study of Wisconsin’s waters similar to that already in place for agriculture.

“The position of the state regarding fisheries has gradually, but inevitably, undergone a radical change…no one thought that the annual crop of our waters would come to be a planted and cultivated crop, as much as (the crop of) our soils…the state has recognized the fact by establishing new hatcheries,” Birge wrote.

At that time, state hatcheries operated at Madison (Nevin, the first state owned trout hatchery), Bayfield and Woodruff and the Spooner and St. Croix hatcheries opened within seven years.

A three-man paid Conservation Commission was created in 1915, with James Nevin in charge of fisheries. Nevin was a fish management pioneer, who early on recognized that stocking was not the panacea for promoting recreational angling.

He wrote in 1921 that “the artificial propagation of fish alone will not save our fish. Undoubtedly the foremost factor in the preservation of game species…is cooperation and understanding by the general public. Any law that is not favorably recognized by the public can never be law enforced. The education of the fishing public and particularly the younger generation in matters of conservation and fish life is the basis on which we must build.”

Still, over the next eight years, the state established 10 more hatcheries at Lakewood, Hayward, Osceola, Birchwood, Haugen, Brule, Eau Claire, Hebron, Crystal Springs and Burlington.

In 1925, the legislature set up an interagency committee on stream pollution with a ‘generous’ budget of $10,000. Two years later, the legislature went a step further, passing the Conservation Act of 1927, which formed a six member Wisconsin Conservation Commission and the State Committee on Water Pollution to “provide an adequate and flexible system for the protection, development and use of…fish…and other outdoor resources of the state.”

The 1930-32 biennial report of the Commission recognized a weakness common to conservation efforts throughout the country: Practically all effort had been expended on fish culture and none on fish habitat protection and development.

The Great Depression brought creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In the Badger State the CCC initiated waterway improvements under supervision of state conservation warden, and crews worked on programs such as hydrographic mapping, installing lake and stream fish structures, and streamside tree and shrub planting.

In 1933, the legislature gave the Commission authority to set all fish and game seasons. That same year, a resident rod and reel license for persons over 18 cost $1.

Dr. Edward Schneberger became the first Ph.D as well as the first biologist in the Wisconsin Conservation Department (WCD) when he was hired as a “biological aid” in March 1934.

During the 1930s, the scientific community was struggling with ways to study the complex relationships that exist between living organisms and their environment, or ecology. This signaled a step forward for biologists who chose not to isolate themselves in a single science. Biologists who opted to adopt ecology now gained greater respectability.

In 1935, Oxford botanist A.G. Tansley introduced the “ecosystem as…the basic units of nature…” He observed that there was constant interchange within each system, involving both organic and inorganic compounds. Tansley insisted that human beings were also a part of the ecosystem as evidenced by the impact of human activities.

By 1937, Wisconsin hatcheries were handling 17 fish species, and that year the state set a national record for fish propagation, with over one billion fish reared and planted.

That same year, a Biology Division was created within WCD, eventually headed by Dr. Schneberger. Dr. Schneberger felt the role of commission biologists was to “seek information on the many phenomena of nature in relation to fish production in lakes, streams and hatcheries…Our aim is to obtain unbiased, unprejudiced and ‘both sides of the picture’ facts…The importance of factual data in a proper fish management program cannot be over stressed and new data will most likely result in some radical changes in past propagation and stocking policies.”

By 1949, Lake Michigan lake trout were virtually extinct due to sea lamprey predation in combination with historic overfishing. By the end of that year, sea lamprey spawning was confirmed in at least 79 Lake Michigan tributary streams.

Electromechanical barriers, under the direction of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, were used extensively from 1950 to 1958 to control sea lamprey in Lakes Michigan and Superior.

The 1948-1950 biennial report lists an additional section in the Fisheries Division – Watershed Management – developed to cooperate with the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, agriculture agencies and local groups to create an awareness of needs to stabilize streambanks, protect watersheds and demonstrate instream habitat improvements.

Fish habitat development was revitalized in 1950 as a management tool and given a $35,000 budget. Also, electrofishing (shocking) became a standard process in stream surveys during the 1950s.

By 1952, the Fish Management Division had grown to 185 permanent personnel. There were 49 fish managers, 21 biologists, 92 conservation aids, 13 maintenance men, 3 mechanics, 3 store keepers, 1 bacteriologist, an account examiner and an administrative assistant.

The next year, the Conservation Commission, building on the Wisconsin Fish Policy of 1946, established a Trout Management Policy which recognized the importance of watershed management and that the future of trout fishing in streams would largely depend on natural propagation.

The legislature’s Natural Resources Committee on State Agencies published a report in 1956 on ‘The Natural Resources of Wisconsin.’ It contains the following statement about fisheries: “The science of fish management is a young one. The complete and abiding faith in fish culture as the cure-all for every ill affecting the management of natural waters is slowly giving way to better methods of controlling fish populations.”

Modern programs such as “lake rehabilitation,” “rough fish control,” “liberalized fishing” and “watershed stabilization” denote the change in emphasis from simply stocking more fish in a lake and restricting the catch.

A major boost for fisheries took place in 1961 when the legislature approved ORAP, the Outdoor Recreation Act Program, funded by a cigarette tax. In its first 17 months, ORAP funds bought over 210 miles of stream and lake frontage and 60 miles of easements. The major thrust was for fish management stream improvement and public access, giving a large boost to the program originally funded in 1950 at $35,000, and later supplemented with Dingell-Johnson federal aid in sport fish restoration dollars.

The Wisconsin Conservation Department and environmental protection functions from other state agencies were incorporated into the Department of Natural Resources by the Kellett Commission in 1968. The Conservation Commission and the Resource Development Board went out of existence July 1, 1968, when the Natural Resources Board was created as the policy-making body for the new DNR.

As an aside, of four Commission members who were reappointed as board members, one, Herbert F. Behnke of Shawano, remained as a Natural Resources Board member until March, 1972, and once again became a Board member in 1989, with his term extended to 2001.

The resident annual fishing license was increased to $4.25 in 1973 and the fish management program hired Betty Les as the first female fish manager in 1974.

In 1976, the fisheries program was party to the issuance of the first formal fish consumption advisory by the state Division of Health. Thus began a series of advisories continuing to the present, identifying those species and sizes of fish subject to consumption advisories in waters around the state. The focus is on mercury and PCBs.

The Trout Stamp was established in 1978 at $2.50, with funds dedicated to supplementing trout stream habitat improvement. The Great Lakes Trout and Salmon Stamp, costing $3.50, followed in 1982 and funds were used to stock the Great Lakes and administer the program. Wisconsin first stocked coho salmon in Lake Michigan in 1968.

Moving into an area that had received scant attention, the department initiated an urban fishing program in 1983 for the metro Milwaukee area. This program, still active today, provides fishing in urban ponds – most in local parks – for anglers who don’t have opportunities to leave the urban environment. The program uses rainbow trout and other species to provide seasonal and year-round fishing.

Indian treaty fishing rights in northern Wisconsin and the resultant walleye spearing, which began in 1985, provided an opportunity to learn more about walleye and muskellunge fisheries. Wisconsin now has the most comprehensive database for walleye management in the country.

From 1987 to 1995, DNR developed or assisted with the construction of more than 160 boat launching facilities throughout the state using Sport Fish Restoration funds. An aggressive aquatic resources education program, begun in 1987, incorporating junior and master angler skills programs and materials, as well as displays at DNR facilities, has created an awareness among state anglers of the need to protect our aquatic resources for future generations.

Beginning in 1996, many traditional fisheries management policy initiatives were put in a new Bureau of Fisheries Management and Habitat Improvement, in a new Water Division. Field fisheries biologists and managers, responsible for implementing policy, are members of Basin Teams to ensure that their activities are evaluated by an integrated team of specialists concerned with all aspects of natural resource management and protection in a particular geographic region.

Wisconsin in the forefront of strategies that have allowed wildlife to recover and thrive

By Jen Patterson, DNR outdoor heritage communications specialist

We are very fortunate that as we travel through Wisconsin we are able to see wild turkeys, deer, raccoon, hawks, geese, and a whole gamut of other wild critters. People who have experienced raccoons in your garbage or deer snacking on your landscaping might disagree. Yet, consider this: only 100 years ago many of these any seem, wildlife that are today very common were at one time seriously threatened.

Throughout this century, wildlife management philosophies and practices have evolved considerably. At one time, wildlife management meant “game” management and hunting regulations. Gradually, the focus shifted to include wildlife research, habitat conservation, and non-game species protection. Today, Wisconsin is working toward a holistic approach of ecosystem management that integrates wildlife, air, water, soils, and plants as one system. Without doubt, wildlife managers have learned a great deal. In Wisconsin, we can be proud that our state has been at the forefront of these changes and continues to set the standard in wildlife management.

Serious declines in wildlife populations began in the 1800s as the countryside was settled. Habitat degradation, market and bounty hunting, and, in some cases, disease transmission from domestic livestock caused declining wildlife populations until few native animals were considered plentiful. Wisconsin’s successes in bringing many of these populations back in the state are truly remarkable.

At the turn of the century, Wisconsinites rallied to save wildlife that are today very common, such as deer, beaver and waterfowl populations. Concerns for plummeting wildlife populations concentrated almost solely on game species. To save these hunted animals, Wisconsin established regulations on hunting and trapping. Game wardens, the first wildlife managers, enforced the new laws. Nationally, in 1900 Congress passed the Lacey Act, which outlawed interstate transportation of game illegally killed or possessed. This legislation succeeded in diminishing market hunting across the country. In addition, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 established protection and regulation of migratory birds, like ducks and geese, internationally. Together, the Lacey Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Wisconsin’s hunting regulations continue to protect wildlife from overharvest.

These regulatory tactics worked quite well. In fact, the deer population, which was all but obsolete in 1900, grew so quickly that the state began reimbursing farmers for deer-caused crop damage by 1932. Large-scale feeding and stocking campaigns also helped increase some wildlife populations. At this point, many preferred game species, like the white-tailed deer, had begun to prosper, while other non-game species, like the pine martin or piping plover, were still rarely, if ever, seen.

Managers realized that their wildlife management practices were not entirely effective. Research was necessary to understand various habitat requirements, population dynamics, and reasons for population declines. In the field, wardens began documenting their observations and conducting more formal studies.

In academia, the study of wildlife began with the very first wildlife course, Game Management, taught by Aldo Leopold at the UW-Madison in 1933. Since this first class, the study of wildlife ecology rapidly expanded to include not only game species, but also endangered species, songbirds, and reptiles and amphibians.

With this beginning trend in research and the realization that many non-game species were still terribly threatened, new funding was necessary for habitat acquisition and research personnel. In response, the Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act was passed in 1937 to generate money for state wildlife programs. This act created an excise tax of 10 percent on sporting arms and ammunition, which was raised to 11 percent during WWII.

Later, in 1970, the Dingell-Hart Bill established an excise tax on handguns, and in 1972, the Dingell-Goodling Bill created an 11 percent excise tax on archery equipment. In 1996, Wisconsin received $6,451,849 from the Wildlife Restoration Program. This money is directed toward acquisition and improvement of wildlife habitat, reintroduction of extirpated wildlife species, wildlife population surveys, technical guidance to landowners, research, hunter education, and management of wildlife areas.

Wisconsin led the nation in non-game protection when it adopted the state Endangered Species Act in 1971, two years before Congress enacted the national Endangered Species Act. The protection of endangered species was now required by law. The Department of Natural Resources, established in 1967, was responsible for implementing the act. Initially, the Bureau of Wildlife management supervised the administration of the ESA until the Bureau of Endangered Resources was created in 1981. The ESA established listing criteria and research initiatives that led to the revival of several endangered populations. In fact, to our knowledge no species in the state of Wisconsin has gone extinct since the adoption of the ESA.

The growing shift in focus from game management to habitat conservation and non-game species protection may have been influenced most by the teachings and writings of Aldo Leopold. In the ’30s and ’40s, Leopold conveyed the importance of our connection to the land, and expressed how intricate the environment is. In his much-lauded collection of essays in A Sand County Almanac, he describes land health as encompassing soils, sun, water systems, flora and fauna. Only recently have wildlife managers been able to integrate his ideas of land health into management practices. Today, Wisconsin touches upon his concept of land health with a model of ecosystem management. In the DNR’s recently published strategic plan, the Department of Natural Resources outlines as a priority for future management:

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.

No longer is wildlife considered an entity in and of itself. Wisconsin has entered a more sophisticated era of ecosystem management in which all elements of the environment, like air, water, plants, wildlife and soils, are regarded as a single unit.

Over the past 100 years, Wisconsin has had enormous successes with wildlife. Yet, many challenges remain. As we enter a new century, ecosystem management is vital for those species that continue to decline today. Hundreds of species of plants and animals remain on the state’s endangered species list, most of which are unfamiliar to us. The wing snaggletooth (a snail), the snuffbox (a mussel), and the mat muhly (a plant) may not have the charisma of the wolf or the eagle, but they need the same kind of attention to ensure their survival.

The future does look promising, however. The people of Wisconsin have a strong history of commitment to the environment, and while we celebrate our successes of the past, we constantly look ahead for ways to improve into the future. “This is an exciting time in resource conservation…very similar to 100 years ago,” said the Division of Land Administrator, Steve Miller. “We have got a small window of time, maybe a decade, in which we are able to save significant blocks of habitat for threatened species, and I am confident we will do it.”

So, the next time you swerve to miss hitting a raccoon, or lose a bird feeder to a black bear, remember how fortunate it is that these animals exist on our landscape. Had it not been for the foresight of wildlife managers a century ago, wildlife we see often today may easily have been allowed to disappear forever. As we approach a new century, we are responsible for saving today’s threatened populations while enhancing and preserving those species that are doing well. Perhaps one hundred years from now the people of Wisconsin will look back and honor our successes.

Wildlife Success Stories

• In 1900, white-tailed deer populations were estimated at less than 500,000 nationwide. Today, the Department of Natural Resources estimates 1.57 million deer in Wisconsin alone.
• Black bear populations have more than tripled in the last 20 years from about 4,000 in the state to 14,000.
• The wild turkey, once extirpated from Wisconsin and brought back through reintroduction in 1976, now has an estimated statewide population of 200,000.
• The wood duck, one today’s most common breeding waterfowl in the eastern U.S., was nearly extinct in 1920.
• Finally, who could forget the triumphant recovery of the once rare trumpeter swan, osprey, elk, martin, fisher, bald eagle and the timber wolf to sustainable populations?

From stump fields to managed forests

By Jim Bishop, DNR Northern Region Public Affairs Manager, Spooner and

Kirsten Held, DNR Forest Public Awareness Specialist

A number of years ago during Wisconsin’s deer gun season a young man named Jeff Theiler from Tomahawk sat in a hollow stump waiting for his companions to scare a buck his way. Theiler fit easily into the stump, its core hollowed by time. Nervous, his eyes surveyed the newly emerging aspen forest where deer liked to call home.

Theilers’s temporary ambush place had once been a massive white pine tree that at the time of its cutting around the turn of the century had been king of the forest in northern Wisconsin. A number of such stumps littered the landscape across the north. The term “stump farm” became common.

Had Theiler’s stump been able to talk it would have told a remarkable story about a forest that came and went by human hands. Of fires flamed by the logging slash that destroyed cities and took hundreds of lives. And of humans learning by their mistakes. That learning process continues and the forests of the next millennium will look far different than that encountered by the pioneers and those early loggers.

A map of presettlement vegetation shows forests stretching from Lake Superior to the Illinois line and from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers.

During the 19th century, entrepreneurs realized that they could sell timber from the Wisconsin forests to supply building materials for major cities that were developing in this region of the country. The first sawmill in Wisconsin is said to have been built at DePere on the Fox River in 1809; by 1860, there were forty sawmills in Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Kewaunee counties alone with most of the lumber produced going to the fast-growing cities of Milwaukee and Chicago.

After the Civil War, the demand for lumber increased by leaps and bounds. By turn of the century, Wisconsin was the world’s largest harvester of timber, producing 3.4 billion board feet annually. One mill could produce up to 500,000 board feet of lumber daily – enough lumber to build 50 modern, 3-bedroom homes.

By 1915, the annual lumber cut had dropped to 1.4 billion board feet as the great pineries of the Wisconsin Northwoods were cut and the, newly built railroads began transporting the big stands of maple, beech, aspen, birch and ash hardwoods to waiting mills.

Right behind the saw and ax was the plow. In the process of clearing the land, farmers and loggers burned the limbs and tops of the trees, known as slash, sometimes with devastating results. State foresters have estimated that from 1870 to 1930, roughly 2,500 fires occurred annually and about half a million acres burned each year. Fires burned whole towns, like Peshtigo, where 700 persons lost their lives.

By this time, many people realized that conservation was necessary to provide for current needs and, even more importantly, for future generations.

Wisconsin enacted its first comprehensive forestry law in 1903, providing for a Forestry Commission composed of the secretary of state, state treasurer, and attorney general (these three comprised the State Land Commission) and two members appointed by the governor ( John M. Olin of Madison and T.S. Cunningham of Chippewa Falls).

Among its duties, the Commission was to appoint a state forester. In 1904 the State of Wisconsin hired its first professional forester, E.M. Griffith, who played a key role in beginning the practice of sustainable forestry in Wisconsin. Gov. Robert “Fighting Bob” LaFollette and Griffith worked closely together for the advancement of forestry over the next decade.

Griffith’s first duties were to appoint fire wardens for control of the forest fires and to examine some 40,000 acres of trust fund lands that were held in public ownership from the time of statehood. These lands formed the nucleus for the establishment of a system of state forests, which began to take shape in 1931.

In 1905 Governor LaFollette and the legislature passed a new law creating the State Board of Forestry and expanding forest reserves to include all federal grant lands north of township 33. Griffith bought and sold land for the state to consolidate its ownership, while providing some income for the school fund from forest land ownerships through the practice of forestry. In this practical way, Griffith began to sell the idea of sustainable income from forestlands. Recognizing the potential recreational value of the lakes area in Vilas and Oneida counties, he took advantage of every opportunity to increase the state’s holdings there, And he was right. The Northern Highland / American Legion State Forest alone now hosts over two million visitors per year.

Another achievement of Griffith’s was to secure Madison as the location for the U.S. Forest Products Lab, which opened in 1910. Aldo Leopold, another leader in Wisconsin forestry and a 1909 graduate of the Yale School of Forestry, was assistant director of the Forest Products Lab from 1924-28.

A red pine plantation was established in 1913 at Star Lake northwest of Eagle River. By 1926 industry got into the act when Nekoosa Edwards Paper Company started their own pine plantation.

In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled that forestry work was unconstitutional since the court felt that it fell into the classification of “works of internal improvement” which were prohibited by Section 19, Article VIII of the state constitution. All forest management was halted. (Forest fire prevention and control were unaffected by the court decision since they were functions of the police power.) Discouraged, Griffith left Wisconsin and the state forestry agency had little authority for nearly a decade.

In the general election of 1924, the people of the state, by a referendum vote of more than 2 to 1, adopted the second forestry amendment to the state constitution. It provided that the state could appropriate money for the purpose of acquiring, preserving and developing the forests of the state. This constitutional amendment was again challenged in the courts but this time the Supreme Court approved its validity. For the first time, forestry work in Wisconsin was backed by full legal authority. In large part, Wisconsin’s progress in sustainable forestry must be credited to the legislature, which recognized that a long-term program couldn’t function in the public interest without stable funding.

In 1927, the legislature passed the first forest tax incentive program, the Forest Cop Law, which treated land as capital, but timber as income. This meant that people could afford to reforest the land and not pay taxes on the timber until it was harvested. A companion law, the Woodland Tax Law of 1954, gave similar benefits to owners of smaller parcels. The two laws were combined in 1985 into the Managed Forest Law. Currently 21,000 landowners controlling more than 2.5 million acres are enrolled in this program.

From 1933 to 1939 the Civilian Conservation Corps with 104 million seedlings planted 237,242 acres of pine. Nearly all plantings took place on county and state lands acquired from abandoned and tax delinquent farms and homesteads. Forests began to grow anew protected know by an emerging sense of wildfire protection, replanting, and wise land use practices encouraged by state and federal foresters.

A federal program in the 1950s known as Soil Bank helped private landowners increase pine plantings on their property. Foresters worked closely with farmers and other landowners to develop planting plans tailored to individual needs. Soil Bank was replaced in 1960 with the Agriculture Conservation Program that provided money for woodlot improvement and soil protection.

DNR began an urban forestry program in 1990 in recognition of the important role trees play in maintaining our quality of life in our cities and villages. A staff of seven DNR urban foresters provide technical assistance to communities. Nearly 200 Wisconsin communities have ongoing tree management programs.

Today, 46 percent of Wisconsin is forested and our forests have recovered remarkably, thanks to the planning of the legislature, foresight of leaders, and hard work of hundreds of unsung heroes who replanted and nurtured the second-growth forest. Tens of thousands of acres of red pine plantations, public and private, can be found throughout the state. A continuos supply of softwoods and hardwoods provide raw product for pulp, paper, lumber mills. But more pressure is being put upon the land and timber resource.

A Strategic Plan for Wisconsin’s State Forests found that the demand for wood fiber will double in the next few years. It found too that the amount of commercial forestland in Wisconsin is on a steady decline. Nearly 900,000 acres were converted to other uses in Wisconsin between 1956 and 1977. While the total forestland today stands at 16 million acres, projections show another 400,000 acres will be lost by the year 2030. And private landowners, who collectively own the majority of the forestlands in the state, will be asked to contribute more.

Because of the wide variety of demands on our forests today, conflict over their use and management is almost inevitable. The demands on our forests continue to increase – both for “traditional” products and services as well as for a range of more recently appreciated values such as biological diversity. A big challenge facing the forestry profession is the need to adapt management to meet the new array of forest values on our public lands. This is challenging not only because of the competing demands placed on our forests, but also because there is still so much we need to learn about some of these forest values and the forest itself.

Jeff Theiler never got his buck that year but the aspen stand around the stump was recently harvested. The new aspen shoots are providing food for deer and grouse. And Theiler’s son Oscar filled an antlerless permit with a doe this past deer season, not far from the old stump.

Early wardens lacked formal training, but still fostered respect for the badge and the law

By Dave Weitz, DNR West Central Region Public Affairs Manager

I remember H.W. MacKenzie well.

He sat in his home in Poynette, not far from the MacKenzie Environmental Center that bears his name – and told me what it was like to be a game warden in the “early days.”

“Mack” witnessed the development of the Wisconsin Conservation Warden Force from the field and later, in the 1920s as Chief Warden and then Director of the Wisconsin Conservation Department he helped form it into a professional law enforcement force.

But Mack wasn’t the first. Even in the 1920s he was following traditions others had set down.

Rolla Baker was first. In 1879, he was appointed as Wisconsin’s first warden because of rampant fishing violations on the Great Lakes. He was to serve Ashland, Bayfield and Douglas counties and attempt to bring market fishing under control. Without enough wardens to enforce the laws the state Legislature, in 1882, empowered sheriff’s officers, constables and marshals to enforce the game laws.

Complaints persisted, however, about the volume of fish taken illegally for commercial markets and the Legislature took action in 1885 to appoint three wardens, one for Lake Superior, one for Green Bay and one for Lake Michigan.

By 1903 there were 85 special deputy wardens in Wisconsin and in 1905 the general civil service law was extended to wardens. The first warden training school was created in 1912.

Mack was one of the best of the wardens.

He was stationed at Antigo. It was common, yet illegal, for hunters then to use dogs for deer hunting though it was illegal. It wasn’t uncommon for a violator listening to his dogs to see a drab shape approaching, be affixed by piercing brown eyes, and then be asked eagerly: “Have you got one running?” To the dismay of more than one violator, the newcomer would await a deer and the dog, and then announce to the violator when he could appear in court.

Once Mack even got a dog to testify.

He took the dog with him when he saw it chasing deer in the woods for hunters. A hunter arrested denied in court, under oath, that the dog was his or that he’d been hunting with deer a dog. Companions backed up the hunters. But Mack, who had seized the dog as evidence, had it in court. The dog quietly got up from beside Mack and lay down at the feet of the accused.

The judge took the “testimony” of the dog. After an investigation the man who’d denied under oath that he owned the dog was sent to prison for two years for perjury. The other violators paid fines for hunting with a dog illegally.

Mack was working in the Antigo vicinity too, when he came upon three men digging mink from a den. It was a profitable, and highly illegal venture. Mack told the men they were under arrest and to gather their axes and shovels together.

That was when one of them hit him in the head with the ax.

With blood streaming down his forehead he pulled a 9mm Luger from his shoulder holster and emptied the clip at the men. He didn’t hit them but they didn’t stick around to finish him off, either. Somehow he dragged himself to the road where he was found. Two of the three violators were killed in shoot-outs with law officers, one by federal agents raiding a still in Kentucky. The third was lucky. Wisconsin wardens were tipped he was hiding in a logging camp in Watersmeet, Michigan. They found him in the camp and brought him back to Wisconsin for trial. He was sent to prison and eventually paroled to the MacKenzie’s custody.

Mack wasn’t the only warden hurt, either.

Stu Hayner, warden at Eagle River, went over to two men stopped by the road and was beaten and thrown on an ice shelf on the river and left for dead; Like MacKenzie, he survived.

Warden Einer Johnson wasn’t so lucky. He and Warden Swede Hanson confronted a fur buyer who had illegal fur only to have him pull a .45 Colt. Johnson was similarly armed and he and the fur buyer shot it out while the unarmed Hanson took cover. When the smoke cleared Jensen and the fur buyer were both wounded. MacKenzie was Chief Warden then. When he heard of the shooting he started driving north.

As he told me about it, nearly 40 years later, tears came to his eyes as he remembered visiting Johnson in his hospital bed before he died.

He told, too, of going to Chicago to bring back a game law violator. He had to get a Chicago officer to serve the warrant and they found the miscreant in a downtown bar. Mack remembered the moment.

“He had his hand in his pocket (on a pistol), and I had my hand in my pocket. But he decided to come along.”

The violator was brought back to Antigo, and paid his fine.

I asked Mack why he wanted to be a game warden. He paused and then looked at me sharply. “Because I liked hunting men!”

Game wardens were mostly foremen from railroad gangs, CCC crews or lumber camps. They were men who’d led other men and who had hunted, fished, and spent their lives in the swamps and woods of the state.

Their education often was one from the “School of Hard Knocks.” They had a common virtue, though. They had the ability to enforce respect for the badge, and the game laws they enforced. They might have to fight. They might prevail or might be beaten – but they wouldn’t back up.

When a warden was hospitalized in Price County in the late 40s by some deer shiners the Chief Warden and Assistant Attorney General ordered field wardens to tame the county. They did.

There were times, especially in the Great Depression, when more than one warden dug into his own pocket for groceries for a hard-pressed family or to pay a fine for the violator they arrested with the admonition “Don’t let this happen again!”

A uniform had been created once, that looked like a green version of the Mountie uniform. It was, in fact, a copy of the Canadian Mounted Police uniform. But most wardens lacked uniforms until the 1960s. Then a new uniform was created.

In Trempealeau County newly uniformed Warden Fred Gardner walked up to an astonished angler who was fishing illegally. “I’d never have let you get so close if I knew you were a warden but you looked just like a bus driver,” the surprised violator exclaimed as he was arrested.

Today the gray uniform of the warden is familiar throughout Wisconsin and in most classrooms. Conservation wardens visit fifth grade students with a conservation message.

The equipment a warden has today is vastly better than yesterday’s warden had to deal with. Snowmobiles, two-way radios, airplane patrol, boats, video cameras and even night-vision telescopes and robot deer are available to wardens who need them.

There now are 210 wardens in Wisconsin. That’s one for every 3,285 deer hunters these days.

Today’s wardens still face a huge job. And as Wisconsin’s population increases the job gets more complex. Today, Wisconsin’s Conservation Wardens often have law enforcement experience before they’re hired by the Department of Natural Resources. Most have bachelor’s degrees and many have master’s degrees.

They patrol the woods much the same way MacKenzie did – and also enforce the laws by going over tax records; fish sales accounts; and corporate records of hazardous waste shipments.

The warden force is no longer exclusively composed of men, with women in gray joining in the effort to enforce game and fish laws. Today the warden’s are better equipped, and better trained than ever before.

And like H.W. MacKenzie – they like to hunt violators.

Warden History Timeline

1787-1848 – Territorial laws regulate game, fish and trapping activities, water navigation, wildfires and timber trespass.

1851 – First statewide hunting regulations

1853 – First statewide fishing regulations

1862 – First commercial fishing regulations

1879 – Rolla Baker of Bayfield appointed as first fish warden in northern counties.

1887 – First four game warden positions created.

1897 – First deer hunting licenses – $1 for residents and $30 for non-residents – provide first funding for state conservation purposes.

1905 – Civil Service established in Wisconsin, ending political appointments to the warden force.

1915 – Major year for conservation developments:

• Wisconsin Conservation Commission created ( that later became Wisconsin Conservation Department)
• natural resource laws restructured for 1917 publication became basis of current natural resource laws.
• $1 non-resident rod & reel fishing license required.
• fish and game wardens’ titles changed to “conservation warden”

1935 – Warden Pension Fund established, becoming first retirement plan for state employees. It provided $50 per month during retirement.

1946-1958– Two-way FM radios issued, starting in northern counties, to aid communication during emergencies.

1947 – Special Investigation Section created.

1948 – State Crime Lab established, which is available to wardens investigating violations.

1955 – Warden force increased from 105 to 130 members.

1957 – Training officer position created, which started organized training for the warden force.

1959 – Boating safety and aerial surveillance programs started.

1960s – Social unrest resulted in wardens working riot control at the State Capitol, the University of Wisconsin and at military installations.

1962 - Wardens issued state cars; legislation required wardens to receive emergency preparedness training.

1966-69 – The office of Justice of the Peace is phased out, transferring fish and game violation cases to the state circuit court system.

1967 – A pivotal year for Wisconsin’s natural resources:

• Functions from the Conservation Department, Board of Health and Department of Resource Development combine to form the Department of Natural Resources.
• Wardens’ duties expand to include environmental investigations and enforcement.
• DNR begins hunter education classes
• A federal court ruling reduces wardens’ workweek to 40 hours.

1970s – Wardens started coordinating a 500-volunteer effort to protect sturgeon spawning runs on the Winnebago Watershed.

Mid-1970s – Wardens were given additional duties of enforcing Native American treaty rights and the Endangered Species Act.

1976 – Most natural resource law violations were decriminalized, reducing charges from criminal to civil citations.

1979 – A fish and game violation hotline is established, 1-800-WDNR-TIP

1981 – The state legislature expanded warden authority to include general law enforcement in some circumstances.

Mid-1980s – New laws dramatically increased fines for fish and game violations.

1985 – Environmental warden positions created.

1998 – The number of credential wardens increases from 191 to 209.

Control of pollution, removal of dam leads to rebirth of Milwaukee River

By Kathleen Wolski, DNR Southeast Region Public Affairs Manager and

Will Wawrzyn, DNR Southeast Region Fisheries Biologist

It took more than 150 years to nearly destroy it, but recent restoration and protection efforts have revitalized the Milwaukee River. Over the last decade, the most dramatic and controversial changes to the river focused on the North Avenue Dam and its impoundment.

Almost 100 miles in length, the Milwaukee River flows from its headwaters in Fond du Lac County to the City of Milwaukee and Lake Michigan. Efforts to clean up the river provide outstanding examples of regional cooperation, and citizen and community involvement. Thanks to the Milwaukee River Revitalization Council, an advisory group appointed by Gov. Tommy Thompson, and the Milwaukee River Basin Priority Watershed program, there has been a growing focus on the problems of the river, their solutions and the river’s cultural, environmental, recreational and economic benefits.

Thousands of students from area high schools participate in the Testing the Waters program to monitor and learn about water quality in the river. Landowners in rural areas are working with the state on cost-sharing programs to help reduce runoff pollution from their farms. Each year, business groups and nonprofit organizations join together for river cleanups. Municipalities are developing riverwalks and parks, and sponsoring festivals and activities celebrating the vitality of the Milwaukee River.

Once used as a dumping ground for sewage and industrial waste, the Milwaukee River is now embraced as a natural resource treasure. With the rebirth of the river, downtown Milwaukee and city neighborhoods that abut the Milwaukee River are enjoying a natural beauty and economic prosperity. And much of the river’s recovery in Milwaukee can be linked to the removal of the North Avenue dam, located a few miles upstream from downtown Milwaukee and the Lake Michigan harbor.

Much of Milwaukee’s past, present and future is the story of the Milwaukee River.

Prior to the European immigration, the Milwaukee River was a leisurely stream with wild rice beds, wetlands and Indian settlements along its banks.

Solomon Juneau, regarded as the first European settler of the Milwaukee area, arrived in 1818 and established his home on the east bank of the river at Water Street and Wisconsin Ave. During Milwaukee’s formative years, the dominant geographic feature was the Milwaukee River contributing to the city’s transformation from a pioneer town to a major transportation, economic and industrial center.

With the opening of the Erie Canal the first trading vessels arrived in Milwaukee in 1932 and demand grew for improved water transportation. A Milwaukee canal was considered by some as the answer to this demand and a catapult for economic growth.

The Milwaukee and Rock River Canal was an ambitious plan to link the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers with a man-made waterway. The route would follow the Menomonee River west, cut through to the Rock River and the four lakes in Madison, on to the Wisconsin River, and eventually to the Mississippi.

In 1835, a timber dam across the Milwaukee River, just south of North Avenue, was built to control the flow of water in the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal. Only about one mile of the project, along the west banks of the Milwaukee River, was completed before the project was abandoned. The Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company went bankrupt and ceased operation in 1866, the same year spring floods washed out the dam, its timbers damaging or destroying five Milwaukee River bridges on their way downstream to Lake Michigan. In 1884 the city of Milwaukee filled in the canal and built Commerce Street on the site.

A new dam was built in 1891 to regulate water between the upper and lower portions of the river and control flooding. It’s 2.5-mile impoundment created a source of leisure for many Milwaukeeans. Swimming schools, beaches, passenger ferries and boat liveries, rowing schools and commercial icehouses thrived above the dam. Ships and barges continued to use the lower river for the transportation needs of the machine shops, breweries, tanneries, paper mills, factories and other industries located along the river.

But in addition to recreation and commerce, the river was also being used as a dumping ground. Industries and residents were using the river as a sewer, and stormwater runoff from developing urban areas and agricultural lands upstream added to the eroding water quality of the river. Water pollution closed the beaches in the 1930s and a common complaint from city residents was the foul odor coming from the river.

For the most part, Milwaukeeans turned their back on the river during the post-WWII years. New families were moving out of the older neighborhoods along the river for new housing on the city’s geographical fringes and in the suburbs. Public parks and lands bordering the river fell into disuse and disrepair.

Railroads and trucks replaced freighters, and in 1959 the last commercial vessel navigated the Milwaukee River upstream of Buffalo Street. Factories and warehouses along the lower river closed, leaving behind abandoned and blighted buildings.

Downtown Milwaukee, once the heart of evening entertainment, became a ghost town after offices closed for the day. Ornate movie theaters were torn down and replaced with parking lots.

The federal Clean Water Act of 1972 placed stricter limits on industrial discharges to the river and aging sewer and stormwater systems were beginning to receive some much needed attention. But it wasn’t until the late 1980s that we began to see a renewed interest in the river from both the public and private sectors.

In 1984 the Milwaukee River Priority Watersheds Program was created to look at how to reduce nonpoint source pollution; a few years later the first members were appointed to the newly created Milwaukee River Revitalization Council.

Beginning in 1988, the North Avenue dam and its impoundment became a focus of how to best manage the Milwaukee River. In late 1990 the dam gates were opened, lowering water levels in its impoundment to facilitate the repair of a water main and bridge.

Anticipating the drawdown, the Department, along with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, did sediment and water quality monitoring upstream of the dam before and after the drawdown. Based on the information collected, the DNR recommended that the dam gates remain open until the completion of a feasibility study to study alternatives to managing the impoundment or removing the dam to allow the river to return to a natural state.

The extended drawdown created dramatic changes to the physical features of the river’s impoundment and caused heated debate on the dam’s future. Now free-flowing and on a natural course, the 2.5 miles of river from the Estabrook Dam to the North Avenue Dam narrowed considerably. The newly exposed banks were seeded to cover the exposed mud and sediments, but canoeists lost this portion of the waterway during low flow times. A long-establish rowing club had to be relocated and a local industry needed to find an alternate source of water.

The drawdown also exposed more than 150 years of accumulated garbage. During the summers of 1991 and 1992, Youth conservation Corps members and numerous volunteers removed and recycled 2,000 tires and about 600 yards of other debris including auto parts, shopping carts and appliances. Water quality was improving and new fish species were showing up on surveys. Downstream the City began building a downtown riverwalk system and holding annual festivals to celebrate the river

The feasibility study determined the best alternative to managing the river was to remove the dam and it came out in 1997.

Today, you can walk along the former impoundment and see herons and osprey, red fox and river otters. A fish survey in 1990 before the dam was opened found an abundance of common carp and white suckers with a few other species present. Since the dam has been removed, over 30 native species have been documented. Lake Michigan stocked salmon and trout are now moving upstream, sometimes as far north as Thiensville in Ozaukee County.

City parks along the river are benefiting from a renewed interest through groups like the Riverside Urban Environmental Center and neighborhood coalitions. The city, county and state are working on a stream bank restoration project to stop erosion, establish hiking trails, and create canoe and kayak access.

A canoe trip along the Milwaukee River from North Avenue to downtown presents a beautiful urban perspective. Luxury apartments and condominiums have replaced old warehouses. During the warmer months, outdoor tables in restaurants and pubs that have located on the river are at a premium and pontoon and paddleboat rentals are available.

The city has nearly completed the downtown phase of the riverwalk, and future development will focus on the north and south ends, possibly extending from the North Avenue bridge to the Third Ward and Lake Michigan harbor.

The removal of the North Avenue Dam is cited as a major factor in the rebirth of the Milwaukee River and the revitalization of its neighborhoods. Rich in history, the Milwaukee River may never again be pristine. But it is finally receiving respect and recognition as a treasured natural resource.

Wisconsin State Parks – 100 Years Young

By Deborah Proctor, State Parks Customer Relations

In the late 1800s, when most of Wisconsin was still a vast forest wilderness, far-sighted citizens saw the danger of immigrants, farms, and settlements eating up our natural heritage. At the behest of these early nature lovers, the Legislature, in 1878, became one of the first states to establish a state park system, with the creation of “The State Park,” 50,000 acres in what was then Lincoln County. Unfortunately, that first state park was lost when, by legislative action, the land was sold to lumber companies in 1897.

A few years later, in 1899, Governor Edward Scofield rekindled an appreciation for preserving Wisconsin’s natural heritage when he appointed a commission to investigate park possibilities along the Dalles of the St. Croix River, in Polk County. In1900, the majestic bluffs along the St. Croix River became Interstate Park – Wisconsin’s first state park was born!

Since that day, Wisconsin’s state park system has grown to include nearly 100 state parks, forests, trails, and recreation areas, encompassing thousands of acres. The natural scenic beauty of the state is preserved for future generations, while providing camping, picnicking, swimming, nature education, and scores of outdoor recreational opportunities to over 14 million visitors annually.

Famed landscape architect, John Nolen, was hired, in 1907, by the newly created State Park Board to develop a plan for the state park system. Nolen’s report, completed in 1909, recommended parks in four locations:

• Door County - Peninsula State Park was established in 1910
• Devil’s Lake - Devil’s Lake State Park was established in 1911
• Grant County -Wyalusing State Park, then known as Nelson Dewey, was established in 1917, and
• The Dells of the Wisconsin River – The Dells of the Wisconsin River Natural Area, established in 1994, will become an official member of the state park system in 2000 – 2001.

Nolen, felt strongly that “simple recreation in the open air and amid beautiful surroundings contributes to physical and moral health, to a saner and happier life”. His report listed many benefits of state parks, notably:

• “State parks are the only means of preserving, protecting and appropriately improving places of uncommon and characteristic beauty.”
• “…parks would make, as no other agency can, adequate and permanent provisions for wholesome outdoor recreation and pleasure.”

These benefits are as true today as they were when our first state park was born 100 years ago. Would John Nolen be proud of what Wisconsin’s State Park System has become? Would it meet with his 1909 vision? The answer is overwhelmingly, “Yes!”

Here’s to 100 years, Wisconsin State Parks, and hundreds more to come!

State Parks through the Years

A decade by decade look at the State Park System

By Diane G. Schwartz and Deborah Proctor

1800s: Planting the Seeds

1878-1897

• “The State Park” State Legislature approves “The State Park”, a 760-square mile state park in northern Wisconsin (most of Vilas County.) Proposal was ill fated from the start. The state owned just 10 percent (50,631 acres) of the total acreage within the boundary, there was no population in northern Wisconsin to support the project, and the primary power brokers in Northern Wisconsin were lumber barons. The state sold two-thirds of its land to lumber interests for $8/ acre in 1897. (George Rogers, The might-have-been State Park, Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine, December 1995)

1895

• Ad hoc Park Commission appointed
• State legislature approves act to authorize the governor of Wisconsin to appoint commissioners to examine certain lands in Polk County (The Dalles of the St. Croix River), Wisconsin to become a state park. (Chapter 315, Laws of 1895, April 19)

1899

• Money Approved for Interstate
• State legislature approves act to provide money to acquire land for an “interstate park.” (Chapter 102, Laws of 1899, March 30)

1900s: First Park & A Vision

1900

• Interstate Park established
• Land acquisition begins September 20, 1990

1903

• Commission appointed by Governor Robert LaFollette to examine Devil’s Lake (1903) and the Dells of the Wisconsin as potential state parks (1905).

1907

• Commission recommends purchase of Devil’s lake region. Legislature further investigates the Dells Region. During this time, and for several more decades, creation of each new state parks requires separate legislative action.
• First State Park Board appointed. T.E. Brittingham, E.E. Browne, W.H. McFetridge hired noted Landscape Architect John Nolen to draft a feasibility plan for a Wisconsin State Parks System. (Chapter 495, Laws of 1907)
• Brule River State Forest established

1908

• National Conservation Commission formed. President Theodore Roosevelt called a meeting of all state governors and appointed a National conservation Commission. Wisconsin Governor James Davidson carried the conservation message home and appointed a seven-person State Conservation Commission and called for support from various state departments and the University of Wisconsin.

1909

• John Nolen’s State Park’s for Wisconsin published by The State Park Board. Report provided guidelines for a state park system in Wisconsin and recommended the creation of 4 state parks at Devil’s Lake, Dells of the Wisconsin River, Door County’s Fish Creek (became Peninsula State Park) and Grant County’s confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers (became Wyalusing State Park). Of these all but the Dells of the Wisconsin River became a state park. (The Dells Natural Area opened to the public in 1997, completing Nolen’s plan.)

1910s: a Park System is Born

1910

• Peninsula State Park established

1911

• Devil’s Lake State Park established

1915

• Paid State Conservation Commission formed. (Chapter 406, Laws of 1915). The State Park Board, the State Board of Forestry, the Fisheries Commission, and the state Game Warden Department were combined to form a new agency under a paid, three-member State conservation Commission. The Commissioners were James Nevin, (fisheries), W.E. Barber (fish and game) and forestry and parks) F.B. Moody, (a respected forester). Parks became closely linked with forestry-an association that remained for many decades.

1917

• Wyalusing State Park established (Though land had been acquired years prior to this date)

1918

• Perrot State Park established

1920s: Parks Superintendent Named

1920

• Pattison State Park established

1922

• Tower Hill State Park established

1923

• First Parks Superintendent named. C.L. Harrington named first superintendent of Forests and Parks Division

1924

• First State Capitol State Park established (now under State Historical Society ownership)

1925

• Northern Highland American Legion State Forest established

1927

• Rib Mountain State Park established

1928

• Potawatomi State Park established
• Terry Andrae State Park established (now Kohler-Andrae)

1929

• Copper Falls State Park established

1930s: The CCC Legacy

1931

• Flambeau River State Forest established

1932

• Ojibwa State Park established (now locally owned)

1932

• Rocky Arbor State Park established
• Merrick State Park established

1934

• New Glarus Woods State Park established
• Civilian Conservation Corps (1934-1941)
• Camps located in Copper Falls, Devil’s Lake, Interstate, Nelson Dewey (present day Wyalusing), Pattison, Peninsula, Perrot, and Rib Mountain. CCC made tremendous contributions to State Park infrastructure and supplied the first real planning in State Parks.

1935

• Works Progress Administration (1935-1941)
• Crews worked in Copper Falls, Wyalusing, Nelson Dewey, Peninsula, and at the Kettle Moraine State Forest.
• Nelson Dewey State Park established
• 1.25 million park visitors.

1936

• Northern and Southern Kettle Moraine State Forests established
• Mill Bluff State Park established
• Brunet Island State Park established

1938

• Point Beach State Forest established
• Council Grounds State Forest established

1939

• A Park, Parkway and Recreational Plan produced. This document was similar to Nolan’s document of 1909 in that it specified future park and recreation lands throughout the state and why they should be preserved. A beautiful full color map was produced for this project.

1940s: First Public/Private Partnership

• World War II: Park development stops and use drops. After World War II, camping and recreation rose dramatically and development of State Parks once again took off.

1947

• Aztalan State Park established
• Lost Dauphin State Park established (now closed)

1948

• Governor Dodge State Park established

1949

• Big Foot Beach State Park established

1949

• First Public/Private Partnership: Devil’s Lake Concession Corporation took over concessions at the park. It was organized as a nonprofit, non-stock corporation with no general membership. The corporation agreed to pay 5 percent of its gross income over expenses for improvements to the park. From 1950 through 1995, this sum exceeded 1.2 million dollars. This was the first such organization to partner with state parks to provide services that state parks could not otherwise provide. Other groups followed, creating a foundation for a formalized Friends Group policy in 1989 and the creation of a Statewide Friends Group in 1996. Today, there are over 60 local friends groups with over 1000 volunteers working on behalf of state parks.

1950s: Recreation Booms

1950

• Lizard Mound State Park established (discontinued)
• Lucius Woods State Park established (now operated by Douglas County)
• 3.3 million state park visitors

1953

• Old Wade House established (State Historic Site)

1954

• High Cliff State Park established

1957

• Black River State Forest established

1958

• 5 million state park visitors

1959

• Blue Mound State Park established

1960s: ORAP, Development, & First Trail

1960

• Pike Lake State Park established (now a unit of Kettle Moraine State Forest)

1961

• ORAP (Outdoor Resources Action Program) established. Wisconsin Legislature enacted long-range program of acquisition and improvement of state recreational facilities (ORAP 100). Prompts a wave of new park purchases, maintenance projects, and the era of rails-to-trails developments. Funded by a one-cent tax per pack of cigarettes.
• Amnicon Falls, formerly a Douglas County park, established as a State Park

1962

• State Park Naturalist and conservation education program established
• Vehicle admission sticker established
• Fees become source of funding for park operations
• Hartman Creek State Park established
• Lake Kegonsa State Park established
• Mirror Lake State Park established
• Lake Wissota State Park established

1963

• Big Bay State Park established
• Bong State Recreation Area established

1964

• Newport State Park established
• State Parks and Recreation Division created; for the first time separated from forestry

1965

• Elroy-Sparty State Trail established. First trail in the nation established on an abandoned railroad bed; begins “Rails to Trails” program

1966

• Harrington Beach State Park established
• Kohler-Andrae State Park established
• Tuscobia State Trail established
• First Nature Centers opened
• Devil’s Lake and Peninsula State Parks; first permanent naturalist hired at Devil’s Lake

1967

• Department of Natural Resources created: Combines the Department of Conservation and the Department of Resource Development
• Willow River State Park established
• Whitefish Dunes State Park established

1968

• Lake Pepin State Park established (discontinued)

1969

• Two Creeks State Park established (closed)
• ORAP 200 - Outdoor Resources Action Program renewed. Signed into law by Gov. Knowles, ORAP 200 was a bonding program to finance water pollution abatement and recreation programs for 10 years.

1970s: Trails & Ice Age National Reserve

1970

• Yellowstone Lake State Park established
• Buckhorn State Park established
• Browntown-Cadiz Springs Recreation Area established
• Ahnapee State Trail established (county run)
• Governor Knowles State Forest established
• American Heritage Ensemble, a private theater company at Peninsula State Park, formed

1971

• Ice Age National Scientific Reserve established. First of its kind in the nation, includes 9 units: Devil’s Lake, Interstate, Mill Bluff, Cross Plains, Chippewa Moraine, Two Creeks, Campbellsport Drumlins, Horicon Marsh, and Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest

1972

• Natural Bridge State Park established
• Kinnickinnic State Park established
• Campbellsport Drumlins established (now part of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve)
• Sugar River State Trail established

1973

• Heritage Hill State Park established
• Bearskin State Trail established (later combined with Lincoln County’s Hiawatha Trail to become the Bearskin-Hiawatha State Trail)
• Red Cedar State Trail established

1974

• Sheboygan Marsh established (discontinued)
• Pecatonica State Trail established (initially DNR-operated, later operated by a multi-county commission)
• Cross Plains property purchased (part of Ice Age National Reserve)
• Chippewa Moraine property purchased (part of Ice Age National Reserve)
• Campsite reservation program begins
• Annual $2; daily $ .50

1975

• Governor Nelson State Park established

1976

• Buffalo River State Trail established

1978

• LaCrosse River State Trail established

1979

• Senior Citizen Recreation Card established

1980s: Stewardship & More Trails

1980

• Hoffman Hills State Recreation Area established

1981

• Military Ridge State Trail established

1983

• First Wisconsin Conservation Corps (WCC)
• Program initiated on the Military Ridge Trail just west of Madison

1984

• Great River Trail established
• Glacial Drumlin State Trail established

1985

• Wisconsin Explorer and Junior Ranger Program established. Program provides children with activity workbooks they can do in state parks with their parents.

1986

• Ice Age National State Trail established
• Wild Goose State Trail established (county run)
• Great River State Trail established

1987

• Lapham Peak Unit - Kettle Moraine State Forest established

1988

• Baraboo River State Trail established
• 400 Trail established
• Hillsboro Trail established (cooperatively managed)

1989

• Gandy Dancer State Trail established (cooperatively managed)
• Legislature establishes Stewardship program. Includes $6.7 million for DNR land acquisition, $3.5 million for recreational development, $1 million for trails, and $500,000 for the Ice Age Trail
• Local Friends Group policy enacted. Provides standards for group development and consistency statewide.

1990s: Automation & Record Attendance

1990

• Chippewa River State Trail established
• Old Abe State Trail established

1991

• Green Bay-Greenleaf Trail established (not open)
• Saunders Grade Recreation Trail established (county run)
• First cabin for disabled persons opened at Mirror Lake State Park

1992

• Wiouwash State Trail established (operated by counties)

1993

• Mountain Bay Trail established (operated by counties)

1995

• 13.25 million State Park visitors - a record number!

1996

• Friends of Wisconsin State Parks established
• Department of Natural Resources reorganization
• Parks teams up with Department of Tourism to improve marketing of State Parks
• Fond du Lac - Berlin Trail established (county operated)

1997

• Wisconsin Dells Natural Area completes John Nolen’s vision to preserve “best of Wisconsin’s scenic wonders” for public access

1998

• Wild Rivers Trail established (operated by counties)
• Tomorrow River State Trail established (not open)
• Fisher Creek State Recreation Area established
• Henry Aaron State Trail established
• Milwaukee Lakeshore State Park established (not open)

1999

• Parks Automated Reservation System initiated: Allows customers to dial a toll-free central phone number and make reservations at any state park in the system.
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