(Antigo, WI) In what can only be described as an extortion scheme, some northern Wisconsin politicians plan to ransom their approval of a conservation project in exchange for cash and land. The plan was hatched by a gang of politicians from Langlade and Oneida Counties.
The Chair of the Oneida County Board, Scott Holewinski and fellow Board Member Robert Briggs, conspired with Langlade County Board Chair Ben Pierce and Vice Chair John Medo. This ring came up with a plan to demand cash payments and land acquisitions from a private forestland owner in exchange for a favorable resolution to support a 56,000-acre forest that the landowner wants to place a conservation easement on. The project is called the Pelican River Forest.
The forest with its easement would stay privately owned and ensure Wisconsin’s forest products businesses and workers would have reliable supplies of timber and fiber to support one of Wisconsin’s most important industries. The forest would also provide a place for residents and visitors to ride snowmobiles and ATVs, hunt, fish, hike, canoe, mountain bike, cross-country ski, and enjoy all other forms of outdoor recreation. This isn’t any kind of government takeover of land. It is private land open to the public for recreation while still providing all the benefits of a working forest.
The politicians consider any type of public land a burden placed upon the local population. They consider the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and other State Forests as having negative impacts on the region. They think a better use of the land would be for housing developments, shopping centers, industrial parks, and open-pit metallic strip-mines. So the gang figured they had something to bargain with if they were going to approve of the forest project.
For their scheme to work, the politicians had to stick to their falsity of claiming that the local taxpayers were the ones who were going to pay for the $15-million conservation easement that the landowner was going to receive from Federal and State Governments in exchange for conserving the forest. They are trying to convince the public that if this forest gets established it would prevent ambulances and fire departments from coming when citizens call for help.
More falsities came in the way of claiming that the costs of education would rise and the forest would take away from employment potential. None of the claims have any basis in reality but the politicians realized they had to leverage whatever misrepresentation they could come up with in order to apply pressure to the landowner.
A law signed in 2020 called “The Great American Outdoors Act” directs monies earned from oil & gas drilling on Federal Lands and Waters to States that have forestlands still worth conserving. Wisconsin is one of those few lucky States that still has large stands of forests. Therefore the cost of the easement is paid for by companies like Chevron and Shell. Taxpayers will not pay for the easement.
Wisconsin has 135,000 people employed that benefit from the timber and fiber that is only available from sources in the northern forests. The Forest Products Industry is a $38-billion annual contributor to Wisconsin’s economy. Many Towns and Counties would crumble if the forests get converted to housing developments and strip-mines.
Then there is the rapidly growing Outdoor Recreation Industry. Snowmobiling, ATV-ing, camping, paddling, fishing, hunting, skiing, hiking, and bicycle recreation employ hundreds of thousands of people and contributes over $10-billion dollars to Wisconsin’s economy each year. The politicians don’t want the public to understand the benefits the forest brings because that wouldn’t play into their scheme. They have to keep telling the citizens the forest is a burden.
Neither forestry nor outdoor recreation is able to exist if there are not places like forests and rivers to do those things in. The Pelican River Forest has both forests and waters where forestry workers can earn a living by supplying timber and fiber needed to the rest of the State, and where recreation enthusiasts can enjoy the outdoors.
Nevertheless, the politicians wanted something in exchange for their approval, so they decided to hold their support and ransom their approval for cash payments of over $500,000 per year. They are also asking the landowner to hand over at least 5,000-acres of forestland upfront. Demands include giving the politicians favorable financing and first rights to purchase land the owner might want to sell.
The full extortive resolution outlining the details of the scheme is being circulated by both Langlade and Oneida Counties for consideration to Townships to go along with their get-rich-quick plot.
The growing cycle for taking care of trees is very long. A forestland owner has to wait 50 or more years before they benefit from all the expenses they incurred over the long growing period. Where the forestland owner is supposed to come up with half-a-million dollars each year to pay-off the politicians is a mystery. The politicians are making the assumption that while the trees are growing, the landowner can benefit from carbon credits and the politicians want to leverage a 25% size piece of that action away from the landowner – every year. There has never been any indication that some sort of carbon credit system is part of the plan for the forest. The politician’s plot pays now and forever into the future.
If news of the extortion scheme got out to the rest of the timber industry there would never be another timber company operating in Wisconsin again. The message is that if you are going to operate in Wisconsin, you are going to have to pay to play.
Unfortunately, while the politicians are playing an extortion game with the forestland owner, the citizen’s interests are being squandered. The people who live in northern Wisconsin rely on forests, rivers and lakes for recreation and employment. The Federal Government is offering Wisconsin a great opportunity to conserve everything the people want. Tragically, a small group of opportunistic politicians sees it as an opportunity to leverage away cash and land before they approve of the project.
