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State's natural resources must be carefully managed

Posted on: Sunday, 1 February 2004, 06:00 CST

State's natural resources must be carefully managed

By MIKE DOMBECK

Sunday, February 1, 2004

Gov. Jim Doyle's signing of the Job Creation Act of 2003 -- legislation designed to streamline the state process for regulating air pollution and Wisconsin's waterways -- drew the expected diverse reaction from the business and environmental communities.

The business interests operating in the state, especially the paper industry, said the legislation was long overdue and would help to create jobs. Environmental groups said that the bill would weaken Wisconsin's protections of our environmental resources.

The governor, for his part, said that the intention of the measure is to make the permitting process for businesses and landowners more timely and user-friendly and that it would not reduce any of the state's environmental standards.

While the debate over the merits of this legislation is over, the key now is to make sure that it and any other future regulatory changes are implemented in a way that strikes a reasonable balance between the needs and desires of business and the ecological limits of our air, land and water.

Decades ago, beginning with the establishment of the national forests in our state and the restoration work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, the people of Wisconsin made a conscious decision that our natural resources should exist for the benefit of all, not just for a single industry. The ensuing decades of cooperation over the management of our environment -- albeit tense at times -- has helped to make this a place where you can have a good paying job and enjoy the benefits of nature.

From a natural resources perspective, the result of this collaboration is something all Wisconsinites can be proud of. The number of acres of forested land in the state has increased by 1.2 million acres since 1980. Nearly 50% of the state's land area has trees growing on it. While many states, especially in the West, actually have experienced a decline in timber harvests, Wisconsin's timber industry has seen an increase in harvest levels since 1990 -- a little-reported fact. Much of the state's fish and wildlife are thriving, contributing to a sporting industry that now generates $8 billion in economic output each year. Wisconsin lags only behind Florida when it comes to the number of fishing licenses sold each year.

The productive cooperation between competing interests that has led to the successful management of our natural resources should not come as a surprise to anyone living in Wisconsin, because interwoven into our history and social fabric is a profound respect for the sustained, multiple use of our resources. It's an attitude born out of generations having grown up and around the logging industry, hiking and hunting in our forests, fishing and boating on our rivers and lakes, and being surrounded by the diverse beauty that only nature can provide.

Yet the effort that has created this success story has been anything but easy. It's required years of vigilance at both the state and federal levels. It's meant lots of hard work, personal sacrifice, controversy and learning from mistakes. Keeping Wisconsin's lands and waters healthy and thriving so we can continue the balance between nature and economics won't be effortless either; yet it's what we must do if we want our state to remain the special place that it is.

Wisconsinites -- all Wisconsinites -- must remain watchful because many challenges remain. Consider just a handful of examples. Biodiversity continues to decline. Only 7% of the state's surface water is free of pollution. In urban areas, arsenic levels in water from runoff are rising, and groundwater tables are declining. Of the 2,406 wild-growing plant species in the state, 734 are exotic. Sprawl continues to eat up and fragment forestlands, and we need to restore at least some vestiges of our once majestic white pine forests.

It's in everyone's interest that we guarantee future generations that our state remains a place that is healthy from both economic and environmental perspectives and that the productivity of our lands and waters serve multiple uses. Any effort to reverse that practice jeopardizes the health of our forests and waters, fish and wildlife, recreational opportunities, public safety and clean drinking water.

There will be no "free lunch" even with the Job Creation Act. It's vital that Wisconsin resources be managed carefully and with an eye toward the long-term health of the land, nourishing and enhancing all that it supports. This will continue to be hard work. But it will be worth it.

Mike Dombeck is professor of global environmental management at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and UW System Fellow of Global Conservation. He was chief of the U.S. Forest Service and director of the Bureau of Land Management.

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