Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/tag/wetlands/)
A golf course proposed by Kohler Co. along the Lake Michigan shore was approved by the state Department of Natural Resources — despite serious concerns by DNR staff about its potential impact on rare habitat.
Republicans in the state Legislature have unveiled a long-awaited bill to revamp state wetlands policy. The proposal, the subject of a Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism report published in November, would make it easier for developers to infill wetlands in exchange for what’s known as “mitigation,” the creation of new wetlands.
On Feb. 2, 2011, the Legislature voted to exempt a little patch of land, less than a mile down the road from the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field, from the state’s wetlands rules, once called “the strongest wetland protections in the country.” The bill, passed on World Wetlands Day, will let up to three acres of the so-called Bergstrom wetland be filled with no additional permits or process.