Wisconsin’s conservation legacy is at risk as state funding falls short for state parks, wildlife management, and conservation. Learn more in this note from NRF’s Executive Director, David Clutter.
How much do tax dollars support conservation in Wisconsin?
When we reserve a campsite, cast a line, hike through a State Natural Area, or watch a flock of migrating cranes, most of us probably assume our tax dollars are paying the public servants who care for these resources. For the most part, they are not.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Fish, Wildlife and Parks Division manages our state parks and campgrounds, monitors and stocks fish populations, manages wildlife and responds to diseases such as chronic wasting disease or the highly pathogenic avian influenza. Its staff also cares for our State Natural Areas and works to ensure that Wisconsin’s threatened and endangered species—and the natural communities they depend upon—remain healthy for generations to come.
Yet only a tiny fraction of the division’s funding—about 2 percent—comes from your tax dollars. Most comes from federal taxes on firearms, ammunition and fishing equipment, along with fees paid by hunters, anglers, campers and park visitors.
People fishing on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin at sunset. Photo by Paolo Veglio
Funding is not meeting the demand
Those fees have not kept pace with the cost of doing the work, however. A resident fishing license still costs $20, the same price it was in 2005. Adjusted for inflation, that license would cost ~$34 today. Many hunting-license fees (which are set by the Wisconsin State Legislature) have likewise remained unchanged for decades, even as the costs of equipment, fuel, staffing and habitat management have steadily increased.
The consequences are increasingly visible. The DNR has lost roughly 500 positions since 2003. The agency struggles to hire enough people to maintain parks, manage wildlife areas and care for our State Natural Areas. Important habitat work is delayed. Facilities deteriorate. The professionals who remain are asked to do more with less, year after year.
Fog rolling in over the tops of trees in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. Photo by Bill Petersen
Wisconsin state parks need more support
Our state parks illustrate the problem particularly well. Wisconsin eliminated tax funding for state-park operations in the 2015–17 budget, leaving the system almost entirely dependent upon admission stickers, camping fees and other user-generated revenue. Sadly, in the most recent complete national comparison available, Wisconsin ranked last among all 50 states in state-park operating spending—just $1.08 per visit—and 49th in spending per resident. We are essentially asking our parks to function like commercial enterprises accessible only to those who can afford it, rather than public resources held in trust for everyone.
The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin was created 40 years ago to help the DNR accomplish more by providing opportunities for private citizens to invest in Wisconsin’s lands, waters and wildlife outside the state budgeting process. We are proud of what our members and partners have made possible. But philanthropy cannot—and should not—be expected to fill budget holes that have widened over decades.
Adult and young person hunting. Photo courtesy of USFWS Midwest
Support Wisconsin’s conservation legacy
Wisconsin has been blessed with extraordinary beauty and abundant biological diversity, and a conservation tradition shaped by people such as Aldo Leopold, Gaylord Nelson, John Muir and Fran Hamerstrom. Once, Wisconsin helped lead the nation in conservation. Today, we are losing ground, and quickly.
If you care about the future of Wisconsin’s natural resources—and the clean water, wildlife, recreation and quality of life they provide—please let your legislators know that conservation deserves adequate, dependable public funding.
Wisconsin can do better. We must do better. Not only for ourselves, but for the generations that follow.
Written by David Clutter, executive director