Clean Wisconsin Defender Newsletter - Fall 2021

Defender

2021 FALL/WINTER

Clean Wisconsin wins pair of landmark state Supreme Court cases Victories were years in the making, but more work lies ahead

By Evan Feinauer, Staff Attorney

On July 8th, after nearly a decade of litigation, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued two massive rulings for Wisconsin’s waters.

The Court ruled in two separate cases, each named Clean Wisconsin v. Department of Natural Resources (DNR), that the DNR must exercise its authority to protect Wisconsin’s water resources. This is a huge victory for the environment. It is also a major defeat for a decade-long attempt by powerful corporate interests and their allies in the Legislature to advance a radical interpretation of state law aimed at preventing state agencies from protecting public health and the environment. Clean Wisconsin not only safeguarded Wisconsin’s waters, it also prevented future erosion of environmental standards.

Kinnard Farms case: Protecting drinking water from manure pollution This case began in 2012, when DNR issued a water pollutant discharge permit to Kinnard Farms, an 8000-animal dairy operation in Kewaunee County. When large farms like Kinnard continued on Page 6

MG&E agrees to lower fixed charges, expand smart thermostat program in rate case settlement

By Amy Barrilleaux, Communications Director

Clean Wisconsin 634 W. Main St., #300 Madison, WI 53703-2500

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Madison Gas and Electric (MG&E) has agreed to lower its fixed charges for electricity, which had been among the highest in the state, after Clean Wisconsin and other advocacy groups intervened in its latest rate case. The fixed electric charge for residential customers will drop from $19 to $17 per month next year, then to $15 per month in 2023. The Madison-based utility

will also expand its smart thermostat efficiency program to include low-income customers.

“This is a win for people who are working to conserve energy,” says Katie Nekola, general counsel for Clean Wisconsin. “The more an electric bill reflects the amount of energy actually being used, the better we can understand and control our energy use and bills. That’s better for our pocketbooks and for the planet.”

Clean Wisconsin and its partners intervened in MG&E’s rate case last spring

Nekola points out that high flat fees unfairly burden low energy users and lower income customers.

“Lower income households generally use less energy on average than other customers. So when the fixed charge for

Also in this issue

electricity is high, it’s really hurting people who can least afford it. People on fixed incomes or with tight budgets wind up spending a greater portion of their incomes on these flat fees. Clean Wisconsin was very concerned about that disproportionate impact, and we’re glad MG&E listened to our concerns,” she says. continued on Page 9

Nemadji Trail EnergyCenter Update | Wisconsin’s Wolves | Getting to Zero Carbon

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News, Notes

Events

By: Kaysee Beckstrom, Office Manager

Clean Wisconsin says farewell to Carly Michiels, our Government Relations Director.

Carly joined Clean Wisconsin in the beginning of 2019 as our Government Relations Director to lead strategic advocacy and support the mission of Clean Wisconsin through directing policy goals as our government liaison with Wisconsin legislators and politicians. Anyone who knows Carly knows that she is hardworking, intelligent, and passionate about environmental policy, particularly relating to water quality. She has been a strong leader and advocate for Clean Wisconsin over the last two and a half years. We cannot thank her enough for all of the great work she has done to help protect Wisconsin’s clean air and water. We wish her all the best in her new position with the Department of Administration!

Clean Wisconsin welcomes three new staff members, Amy Barrilleaux, Brett Korte, and Erik Kanter, and our new Public Ally, Dayona Rimmer!

Since our last Defender issue, we have been very lucky to welcome four new individuals to our Clean Wisconsin team!

Amy Barrilleaux, our new Communications Director Amy joined Clean Wisconsin in June after we said goodbye to our previous Communications Director of 6 years, Jon Drewsen. Amy is a highly experienced communications professional with a background in broadcast and print journalism. Previously, Amy was the Director of Communications at the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD).

Prior to DWD, she was the Public Information Officer at the Madison Water Utility, where she highlighted the value of water and its role in building safe, productive, and healthy communities. Amy has already done excellent work leading our communications team and working with staff to share our mission with Wisconsinites.

Amy Barrilleaux

Amy lives in Madison with her husband, daughter, son, cat and dog, and, true to her Louisiana heritage, enjoys cooking and eating.

Brett Korte, our new Climate and Energy Manager In August, we were lucky enough to expand our climate and energy program work by hiring Brett Korte, a mid-west native and environmental advocate! Previously, Brett was a staff attorney and department head at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C., and most recently, a Clinical Fellow at the University of California, Irvine School of Law Environmental Law Clinic. At UCI, Brett both supervised student attorneys and directly represented clients including community-based, regional, and national environmental organizations. His docket was centered around public lands protection and environmental justice, including litigation in state and federal court and administrative advocacy before local and statewide agencies.

Brett is an avid backpacker and angler, and is looking forward to taking up some winter sports in Wisconsin this year!

Brett Korte

Erik Kanter, our new Government Relations Director Erik just joined us in October, but we have already seen how his many years of lobbying experience and extensive knowledge of the Wisconsin legislature will be great assets to Clean Wisconsin. Prior to joining CW, Erik lobbied at a Madison-based government relations firm for several legislative sessions. He advocated on behalf of a diverse group of clients, including renewable energy developers and some of the state’s leading public health organizations.

His passion for environmentalism and conservation comes from a lifetime of hiking, camping, and fishing throughout Wisconsin and around the world. Erik enjoys fly fishing in the Driftless, cross country skiing, hiking, and camping with his wife, son, and dog.

Erik Kanter

And our new Milwaukee Public Ally, Dayona Rimmer!

Dayona began working with us in September and will continue with us through July of 2022.

She will work closely with the Milwaukee Program to provide resources and survey residents to better understand any barriers that may exist to underserved communities participating in the transition to cleaner, more efficient energy and transportation systems, transitions that are necessary to fight climate change. Moreover, she will be collecting information to share with residents on energy savings programs and researching initiatives across the U.S. and abroad to provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure to populations in multi-family housing or other households without garages.

Dayona is planning on attending college next year to study public service work in environmental science or public health. She wants to help people grow, learn and heal in their environment and community. Her hobbies include playing music, dancing and gardening.

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Dayona Rimmer

2021 Fall/Winter

from the President & CEO In the May Defender, I said the one word that aptly describes Clean Wisconsin at that time was change. Did change ever arrive at Clean Wisconsin: new staff members, new knowledge, new financial resources, new partnerships, and new program victories!

New resources are here to address drinking water and climate crises, but I believe that along with the expertise Clean Wisconsin has acquired over 50 years of work, these new resources will allow us to improve the lives of people and our environment in Wisconsin like never before.

In this big issue of The Defender, you’ll read more about our organization’s potential to impact Wisconsin’s water and air, and to address climate change in our communities. You’ll see how listening to and engaging with community members makes our work better; how building nontraditional partnerships can bring hope and bridge partisanship and ideological divides; how careful legal strategies are essential to protecting our state’s cherished resources and places; and how science informs everything we do.

This month, I ran my second Boston Marathon. It was the hardest race of my life, and I was a little demoralized after finishing it, until a good friend texted me and said, “I think what I love about the marathon is it’s like you KNOW it’s going to be freaking hard and you do it anyway. You bring with you your plans and preparation and goals, then you adjust as you need to. You keep your loved ones with you on the route and you gain inspiration from them. You rely on your own perseverance and discipline to keep going. Then

you accept some help when you need it. And you’re a little wiser when you’re all done.”

I don’t want to be a Pollyanna: Wisconsin is facing big environmental and climate challenges, and there are too many forces working against the necessary solutions.

We will need far more Mark Redsten resources and help than we President & CEO currently have; however, our work is like a marathon (also a sprint!) and literally everything my friend said about a marathon is equally true for our work to protect Wisconsin’s air and water. Yes, It’s freaking hard, but we have good plans, and we are prepared.

As we endeavor, we hold close all those people impacted by pollution and the beautiful places of this state that are at risk, while working thoughtfully and tenaciously to pass new protections, or keep in place existing protections for our air and water. And yes,absolutely, it’s worth it.

As always, thank you for your role in making Clean Wisconsin a success!

Fate of rare wetland at stake in upcoming court decision

By Amy Barrilleaux, Communications Director

Nestled near a former cranberry bog in rural Monroe County, Wis., there is an unusual 16.25-acre untouched patch of land. It’s a dark, damp place, where ferns, skunk cabbage and sedge take root in sandy soil, shaded by towering red maples, eastern white pines, tamarack, yellow birch and black ash trees. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has designated the site as an “imperiled” white pine and red maple swamp, one of only a handful left in Wisconsin.

“DNR has classified white pine-red maple swamps as being under severe threat,” explains Clean Wisconsin staff attorney Evan Feinauer. “This is a high-quality and rare type of wetland.”

Despite the special designation by its own ecologists, the DNR granted a wetland-fill permit for the area in 2017 to Atlanta-based Meteor Timber, allowing the company to cut down the trees and fill in groundwater flows and streams. Clearing the land would make way for a $75 million frac sand loading facility, allowing the company to transport sand from a mine in western Wisconsin down to natural gas fracking sites in Texas.

“They want to mine the sand in Jackson County, put it on giant trucks, and drive it to Monroe County, where they will load it onto trains at this new transloading facility to be built along the existing Union Pacific rail line,” Feinauer says. “It’s a perfect example of trying to destroy something that we need, this untouched pristine wetland, to facilitate fossil fuel infrastructure that we don’t need and that’s making our climate problems even worse.”

Meteor Timber wants to destroy a rare white pine and red maple swamp to build a frac sand depot. (Image: Hardwood swamp in the Black River State Forest, Jackson County. Eric Epstein, DNR)

Clean Wisconsin and the Ho-Chunk Nation sued the DNR in 2017 to block the permit and ultimately won. Meteor Timber appealed that decision to Monroe County Circuit Court, and in September of 2020, Clean Wisconsin and the Ho-Chunk Nation won again.

The Georgia company has since taken the case to the Court of Appeals, where another ruling could come by the end of this year.

Feinauer acknowledges it has taken years of work protect the small, largely unseen wetland that sits on private property, a place few people will ever visit.

Continued on page 9

www.cleanwisconsin.org

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Under the Lens: Wisconsin’s wolves

A closer look at threats to our state’s wolf population and the important role wolves play in our eco-system

Before Europeans arrived, Wisconsin was home to 3,000-5,000 wolves. By 1960, the entire wolf population in our state was gone.

By Paul Mathewson, Staff Scientist

Wolves have been in the news recently with the controversial quota-setting process for Wisconsin’s wolf hunt. Here we take a look at wolves in our state.

Gray wolves are the largest Canid (the dog family, including coyotes and foxes) in Wisconsin, measuring 5 to 6 feet long nose to tail and weighing 50 to over 100 pounds.

Wolves can be distinguished from the more widespread coyote by their size (wolves are about 30% longer and taller and twice as heavy) and by facial features. Wolves have wide faces with blocky snouts and relatively small ears. Coyotes have narrow faces with pointy snouts and relatively large ears.

Wolves are highly adaptable to different ecosystems and ranged throughout the country prior to European arrival. Here in Wisconsin, an estimated 3,000-5,000 wolves lived throughout the state prior to Euro-American settlement. In the southern parts of the state where prairie and open savannahs were the dominant ecosystem, wolves likely preyed on bison and elk. In forested central and northern areas of the state, white-tailed deer, caribou, and moose were the primary food source.

Years of persecution fueled by conflicts with livestock and fear of human attack followed Euro-American settlement, leading to the elimination of wolves from the state

by 1960. In the Great Lakes region, the only remaining wolves were found in the far northeastern Minnesota wilderness and Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Wolves were killed off in large part due to governmental bounty programs and deliberate poisoning campaigns. Indirect impacts such as habitat loss (forest harvesting, conversion to agricultural land) and overhunting of prey also contributed to the loss of wolves in Wisconsin.

legislature mandated a recreational wolf hunting program. This hunt was carried out for a couple years before the wolf was again relisted in 2015 but not before wolf numbers had been reduced by 20%.

Following renewed legal protection, the population increased to 1034 individuals in 2020 before a final, current, delisting of all wolves in the lower 48 states occurred in 2019, handing management over to the states.

Wolves were listed on the Endangered Species Act in 1967, and following this legal protection, wolves began recolonizing their former range, returning to Wisconsin by the mid-1970s. The combination of legal protection, more favorable public opinion and a rebounded white tailed deer population, has allowed Wisconsin’s wolf population to expand. In 1980, there were 25 individuals, and this number grew slowly to 83 individuals by 1995. Between 1995 and 2012, the population grew by over 12% annually up to 815 individuals.

In February 2021, Wisconsin allowed a wolf hunt intended to kill 119 wolves, a number determined by State officials to be a sustainable harvest that would not affect the state’s population. In less than three days, 218 permitted kills were recorded, overshooting the target by 80%.

A published analysis also estimated that another 100 wolves were killed (e.g., by poaching) that would not have occurred had the wolf retained legal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Combined, these deaths reduced the population by a minimum of 30%, leaving at most 750 wolves alive in the state as of April 2021.

This population growth was accompanied by legal wrangling over the protected status of the species. In 2003, gray wolves were briefly upgraded to “threatened” before being relisted as “endangered” in 2005. The population unit that includes Wisconsin’s wolves was delisted and then subsequently relisted in response to legal challenges in 2007 and 2009. Another delisting occurred in 2012, and at this point the Wisconsin

Wisconsin wolves are found in forested areas with low human density in the central and northern parts of the state, where there is sufficient deer and other prey like beaver and hare. An analysis of preferred wolf habitat found that the two primary predictors of wolf habitat are low Continued on page 15

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2021 Fall/Winter

Working with farmers to build a more sustainable future

By Scott Laeser, Water Program Manager

When Clean Wisconsin started talking to key agricultural and conservation organizations almost two years ago about how to address agricultural and water quality challenges in Wisconsin, we knew we wouldn’t solve these complex problems overnight. We identified a series of shorter term action items our groups could work on while also committing to the more difficult but necessary discussions about how to change Wisconsin’s approach to addressing agricultural water pollution in meaningful ways that could chart a course towards a brighter future for both agriculture and clean water.

Last spring, Clean Wisconsin, in conjunction with the Dairy Business Association, the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association, and The Nature Conservancy put forward to budget proposal to spend $50 million annually to fund an aggressive statewide well testing program and provide help to families that have wells contaminated with nitrate pollution while investing heavily in agricultural conservation efforts

to prevent and reduce nitrate pollution.

We were pleased to identify a series of bold investments Wisconsin could make to move towards delivering on the clean water promises that have received much lip service in the last few years but little action. This proposal built on those offered by the Governor in his biennial budget as well as proposals put forward by the Legislature as part of the Water Quality Task Force.

Regrettably, the budget sent to the Governor by the Legislature fell far short of anything resembling a bold commitment to combat Wisconsin’s agricultural and water quality challenges.

Our groups are continuing to engage key legislators and the Governor’s office to explore other opportunities to address agricultural runoff in the coming months, but we are also turning our attention to other important opportunities to confront these challenges.

We’ll be engaging in deeper discussions about how we can improve Wisconsin’s large farm permitting (CAFO) program to get better outcomes for farmers and

families with contaminated drinking water and talking about what changes are necessary to ramp up conservation efforts on more farms across the state, with the goal of seeing every farm meeting the state’s minimum conservation standards. We’re also exploring ways our organizations can work together to address climate change by improving agricultural practices that keep carbon in the soil and reduce fertilizer use, which pollutes water and contributes to climate change.

If we get this right, we can work towards a future where farmers are helping fight climate change and protecting our water while growing food and running successful businesses. To realize that future, we need people across Wisconsin, from rural residents and farmers and elected leaders in Madison, to recognize this future is possible, but not without hard work, innovative thinking, and bold investments.

When we announced our partnership, we committed to working towards a future with clean water and resilient farms, and all of us are committed to staying the course.

Federal judge strikes down Trump-era water rule

By Amy Barrilleaux, Communications Director

broader definition of protected waters of the U.S. (WOTUS), but the old rule still remained in place until the recent order from the U.S. District Court in Arizona.

An Arizona judge has tossed out a controversial Trump Administration rule that withdrew protections for vital streams “Why leave the bad rule, which the EPA now agrees is bad, in place? This judge and wetlands in Wisconsin and across said that if you’re going to remand the the country. Known as the “Dirty Water case back to the EPA, you have to vacate Rule,” the policy dramatically restricted it in the meantime,” which waterways are explains Evan Feinauer, safeguarded under staff attorney for Clean the Clean Water Act, This is why Wisconsin.“So the rule is putting an estimated Clean Wisconsin vacated everywhere going 3.5 million acres of works with other forward, including here in Wisconsin wetlands at environmental Wisconsin.” risk. groups across

the country to Feinauer notes that the Along with other file challenges in case in Arizona shows conservation groups, multiple places. the importance of filing Clean Wisconsin multiple challenges to took the Trump harmful policies.

Administration to federal court in 2020 “This was a parallel case to challenge the rule as both insufficient that we weren’t a party to, but it still to protect Wisconsin’s waters and impacts Wisconsin. Now more of our illegal under the federal Clean Water wetlands and waterways are protected Act. In June, the Biden Administration than they would have been. This is announced plans replace the policy with a why Clean Wisconsin works with other

www.cleanwisconsin.org

environmental groups across the country to file challenges in multiple places,” he says.

The Arizona case was filed by environmental groups and American Indian tribes represented by Earthjustice, including the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Quinault Indian Nation, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Tohono O’Odham Nation, and Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa tribes in Wisconsin.

Even with the court win, federal protections for these waterways aren’t assured. Feinauer expects the decision to be appealed and the new Biden rule, when it does come, to face hurdles as well.

“The Biden rule will be challenged immediately,” he says. “Clean Wisconsin and our partners will be working once again to ensure that any new rule implementing the Clean Water Act will preserve and protect our waters. And we’ll fight to make sure it stays in place.”

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Supreme Court continued from cover spread manure, nitrates and pathogens It was at this point that Clean Wisconsin often run off fields and can end up in and our co-litigant Midwest Environmental drinking water wells, causing risk of serious Advocates (MEA) took DNR to circuit health impacts. The federal Clean Water court, seeking to enforce the ALJ’s Act requires these farms to get permits to ruling and require DNR to place the two spread the vast quantities conditions in manure they produce, the permit. The and state law requires circuit court DNR to place conditions judge ruled High-capacity wells in those permits to in our favor, pose a serious concern ensure farms meet water agreeing with for boaters, anglers, quality standards. Clean the ALJ that the Wisconsin argued DNR conditions were and anyone who uses should have required necessary and and enjoys Wisconsin’s offsite groundwater chastising DNR monitoring and imposed for abandoning surface waters. an animal unit limit as its initial conditions of the permit position without to protect nearby drinking justification. The water resources. circuit court also rejected the argument that Act 21 barred inclusion of the two Following a contested case hearing at conditions. The case was then appealed which residents and experts provided to the Court of Appeals, which certified extensive evidence of the widespread the case for direct appeal to the Wisconsin groundwater contamination in the area, Supreme Court. an administrative law judge (ALJ) ordered DNR to add the conditions to Kinnard While these appeals were playing out, Farms’ permit, describing the situation as a and following the 2018 elections, DNR “crisis” and DNR’s failure to issue stronger returned to its initial, position, again permits a “massive regulatory failure.” agreeing with Clean Wisconsin that it DNR said it would add the conditions, possesses the authority to include the two but then changed its position without conditions. Around the same time, the meaningful explanation and refused to Legislature sought to intervene in the case, follow the ALJ’s orders. DNR said it now relying on a new law passed during the agreed with the farm, claiming it did not lame duck session at the end of Governor have the authority to require large animal Walker’s final term that sought to impair operations to conduct offsite groundwater incoming Attorney General Josh Kaul’s monitoring or limit the number of animals. ability to represent state agencies in court, This new position was based on a strained as every attorney general before him had interpretation of a state law known as Act done without controversy. While Clean 21, which describes DNR’s permitting Wisconsin argued that the Legislature’s authority. motion to intervene violated the state constitution, the Court nonetheless granted

Animal manure spread on farm fields carries pathogens that can contaminate nearby drinking water wells

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the motion, but without explaining why intervention was lawful or appropriate. The Legislature then hired private attorneys using taxpayer money to argue against Clean Wisconsin and DNR, and in favor of corporate interests who saw an opportunity to roll back Wisconsin’s environmental standards.

Central Sands high-capacity wells case: Protecting Wisconsin’s lakes and streams This second case concerns eight high capacity well permits DNR issued in 2016 to farms in the Central Sands region for large-scale irrigated agriculture operations.

Consuming groundwater for irrigation can reduce lake levels and stream flows, harming aquatic and plant life and impairing recreational use of these waters.

Excessive groundwater withdrawals can even cause streams to dry up altogether and lakes to recede so much that docks no longer provide boating access and instead hover over dry land. High-capacity wells pose a serious concern for boaters, anglers, and anyone who uses and enjoys Wisconsin’s surface waters. Indeed, scientists and residents have known that these harmful impacts have been happening for decades in the Central Sands as the number of wells in the area has proliferated.

In October 2016, Clean Wisconsin and colitigant Pleasant Lake Management District challenged DNR’s decision to approve eight permits for new wells in the Central Sands, pointing to DNR’s own statements that the wells would harm nearby lakes and streams by consuming groundwater that would otherwise feed those waters. DNR’s approval of those wells violated a provision of the state constitution known as the Public Trust Doctrine. As the Court reaffirmed in the 2011 Lake Beulah case, the Wisconsin Constitution requires DNR to act as trustee of navigable surface waters, protecting and enhancing them for the use and enjoyment of all Wisconsin residents.

The Court was crystal clear that this includes protecting surface waters from harm caused by overconsumption of groundwater. The Public Trust Doctrine is a critical component of Wisconsin’s environmental heritage, and the Court’s decision was merely a straightforward application of longstanding legal

2021 Spring

Kate Golden, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

principles. Following Lake Beulah, DNR began reviewing applications for new wells to determine whether they would cause impacts to surface waters and, if so, deciding whether those wells could be approved, conditionally approved, or instead must be denied.

The Public Trust Doctrine came under siege in 2016, however, when thenAttorney General Brad Schimel published a poorly reasoned and inaccurate advisory opinion stating that DNR did not have the authority to act to protect Wisconsin’s waters. This advisory opinion was again based on a strained interpretation of Act 21, the same state law that was invoked by our opponents in the Kinnard Farms case. DNR followed the Schimel opinion and began issuing permits for new wells, without conditions, despite knowing those wells would harm surface waters that must be protected under the Public Trust Doctrine. When these wells were approved in 2016, Clean Wisconsin sued. DNR at first defended its decision to approve these harmful wells but following the election of Governor Evers and Attorney General Kaul, the Department recanted and agreed that it should never have approved the challenged applications. Attorney General Kaul rescinded the erroneous Schimel opinion. After DNR came back around to its original, correct position, the Legislature sought to intervene in the case to oppose DNR’s authority to protect public trust waters, relying on the same lame duck law described above. Over Clean Wisconsin’s objections, the Supreme Court allowed them to intervene in this case as well.

A Ruling on Act 21 While the cases concern different water issues, what they have in common, and the reason the Court wanted to decide them together, is the 2011 law known as Act 21.

www.cleanwisconsin.org

In both cases, our opponents argued Act 21 prohibited DNR from acting to protect Wisconsin’s waters. However, Act 21 simply says that for DNR to include conditions in a permit, there must be “explicit” authority in a statute or administrative rule. Clean Wisconsin argued that in each case DNR did have this explicit authority and Act 21 was no obstacle to DNR taking steps to protect the environment through reasonable permit terms. Our opponents read Act 21 differently, arguing that it requires DNR to point to a statute that states verbatim the condition DNR wants to place in a permit.

By rejecting that argument, the Court not only protected Wisconsin’s waters from runoff pollution and overdraft of groundwater, but also declined to accept a radical reinterpretation of state law that would have touched Wisconsin’s residents in countless ways in their daily lives. The threat is of course not gone, as we have already seen bills introduced this legislative session that would attempt to undo our Court victories, but for today, basic environmental permitting standards and the rule of law remain intact.

The Court in both cases rejected our opponents’ view of Act 21, agreeing that DNR has explicit authority to both impose the monitoring and animal unit limit conditions in Kinnard’s permit to protect water quality and to deny or condition high capacity well permits to protect surface waters. The Court further reaffirmed that the 2011 Lake Beulah case remains good law and that DNR cannot allow high-capacity wells to harm surface waters without violating the state constitution.

Victories this big do not come easy. It took years of work from several Clean Wisconsin lawyers to litigate these cases, supported by scientists, fundraisers, communication experts, and countless other staff and supporters who made this work possible. In addition, Clean Wisconsin benefitted from crucial partnerships with MEA and their talented lawyers in the Kinnard Farms case and Pleasant Lake Management District in the high-capacity wells case. Several groups also wrote “friend of the court” or amicus briefs to the Supreme Court, urging the justices to side with Clean Wisconsin. These briefs highlighted the disastrous effects a bad ruling could have on the environment, public health, and the economy. Those groups and the lawyers who helped write their amicus briefs should be commended for putting in the work to make sure the voice of all Wisconsinites, and not just well-financed business lobby groups, was fully heard.

These holdings alone merit celebration, but the Court’s reasoning is worth emphasizing as well. The Court agreed with Clean Wisconsin’s argument that when a statute clearly and unambiguously confers authority on an agency it has “explicit” authority within the meaning of Act 21, even if the law conferring the authority gives DNR some discretion in how to implement that authority in specific cases. This point is critical because many, if not most, environmental laws are structured in this way. Given this, if the interpretation urged by corporate interest groups requiring the verbatim statement of permit conditions in statute had prevailed, then innumerable environmental standards would have been rendered unenforceable.

Victories years in the making

As noted above, the struggle to protect the environment is not over, and tough legal challenges surely lie ahead. We will rely again on our staff, allies, and engaged citizens to protect and preserve Wisconsin’s natural heritage for future generations.

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Fighting for Clean Water USDA study exposes Wisconsin’s failure to protect families from water pollution Manure runoff linked to hundreds of illnesses in Kewaunee County every year contamination which presents different but equally concerning health risks, like blue baby syndrome, developmental risks for fetuses, and increased risk of certain cancers and thyroid disease for all ages.”

Water contaminated with pathogens from manure can cause a variety of gastro-intestinal illnesses

by Amy Barrilleaux, Communications Director

Researchers with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture have unveiled a new study examining the health impacts of water pollution in northeastern Wisconsin. The results are eye-opening—hundreds of people in Kewaunee County alone are getting sick with gastrointestinal illnesses each year primarily because manure runoff from nearby farms is leaching into their drinking water.

“We always talk about these things in the hypothetical—'It might make people sick. It’s a risk.’ And now researchers have put numbers to those risks,” says Clean Wisconsin Water Program Director Scott Laeser. “These are real people missing school, missing work, going to the hospital, bearing medical costs.”

Clean Wisconsin has long been advocating for clean water protections for families across the state impacted by agricultural runoff. In 2014, we joined other environmental advocacy groups to file a Safe Drinking Water Act petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which eventually led the DNR to develop new standards for manure application in northeastern Wisconsin. While these new manure spreading guidelines are an important step, the study found that many of the illnesses are occurring in areas with deeper soils that the new rules only minimally impact. Laeser insists more action is needed to protect families from pathogens found in manure and nitrates from fertilizers.

“Manure needs to be carefully applied to fields or it can make its way into drinking water, especially in vulnerable areas of the state that have thinner topsoil. The pathogens it carries cause the gastro-intestinal illnesses researchers are seeing,” explains Laeser. “In other instances, agricultural runoff causes nitrate 8

Laeser, who operates a vegetable farm in southwest Wisconsin, believes protecting families will take aggressive action from state lawmakers who have acknowledged that agricultural pollution is an enormous problem, but so far have failed to deliver meaningful action to address it. While the rules adopted a few years ago do help, and farmers in Kewaunee County and elsewhere are taking steps on their own to address agricultural runoff and drinking water contamination, there is much more work ahead.

“This study only reinforces the reality that our efforts to prevent water pollution from agricultural runoff are falling far short of what families deserve. We can have clean water and thriving farms, but we need to change the way we farm in order to achieve that goal,” he says.

In 2019, Gov. Tony Evers directed the DNR to develop more rules to protect vulnerable areas of Wisconsin from nitrate pollution. Laeser says it’s important that those rules are finalized and approved by the Legislature as soon as possible.

“To prevent agricultural practices from polluting our drinking water, we need new protections, like the NR 151 nitrate rules proposed by DNR, and significant and lasting investments by the Legislature to give farmers and state and local agencies the support they need to protect our drinking water,” Laeser says.

“We want to work with farmers to solve this difficult problem.

We want to help them innovate and find solutions to our drinking water contamination challenges and we want the state to support their efforts to reduce runoff.”

Clean Wisconsin is also advocating to expand eligibility for the Well Compensation Grant program along with greater investment in the program to help people who have contaminated wells drill new ones or install filtration systems.

“We can pat ourselves on the back when every Wisconsin family can safely drink their water,” he says. “Until then, we need to keep our foot on the gas and continue to come together, thinking creatively and acting boldly to deliver on the promise of clean drinking water.”

2021 Fall

Clean Wisconsin case study: Finding policy success in Wisconsin’s difficult political climate

By David Tipson, Program Manager

How can advocates continue to advance change in the face of a divided, politicized state government? It’s a key question for environmental policy advocates in Wisconsin as we take on the urgent climate crisis. But you need only look to the Milwaukee area to see that change is not only possible, it’s happening. Over the last four years, Clean Wisconsin has partnered with state and local leaders to create a promising new strategy that combines local lawmaking with state oversight to achieve lasting regional impact.

In 2017, our Milwaukee team began working with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) to encourage municipalities to embrace green infrastructure practices, like building bioswales around parking lots and streets to capture polluted storm runoff, using permeable pavers in parking areas, and installing rain gardens, cisterns, rain barrels and green roofs. But getting the dozens of towns and cities across MMSD’s service area to implement green infrastructure was a tall order—it meant changing local codes and ordinances.

Our Milwaukee Program Director, Pamela Ritger de la Rosa, and Water Resources Specialist, Ezra Meyer, began meeting with staff from local municipalities to talk about the importance of green infrastructure to help mitigate flooding and reduce water

Wetland continued from page 3 “When you think of Wisconsin’s natural treasures, this place probably doesn’t come to mind because it’s so rare and so inaccessible. But these wetlands develop over hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and this one is on the verge of being destroyed. Clean Wisconsin and the HoChunk Nation have to step in to preserve it,” he says.

pollution to local waterways. Staff from local municipalities were receptive, but progress on adopting code and ordinance changes was slow. As discussions continued, Pam and Ezra learned about the challenges municipalities were facing in meeting new Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) water pollutant limits required by the federal Clean Water Act. Listening carefully to their concerns and constraints, they realized municipalities needed smart, costeffective options to make progress on new TMDL goals, as well as more motivation to implement code and ordinance changes that would support green infrastructure in their communities.

Around this same time, these municipalities were coming up on the expiration of their Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permits to limit stormwater pollution. Their next MS4 permits from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) would need to include tangible, measurable actions to advance their progress towards reducing stormwater pollution, as required by the new TMDL limits.

Clean Wisconsin seized the opportunity.

Pam convened meetings with DNR staff and municipal stormwater engineers and showed them how green infrastructure could go a long way towards capturing many pollutants that would otherwise flow into storm sewers and local waterways. Pam convinced DNR staff to treat the adoption storing carbon, even filtering harmful pollutants out of water.

“Nitrates, for example, are the most widespread groundwater contaminant in the state,” Mathewson says. “One of the proposed solutions for nitrate pollution is for farmers to build artificial wetlands along field edges as a way of filtering out those pollutants that natural wetlands used to filter out, but those natural places aren’t there anymore.”

Clean Wisconsin staff scientist Paul Mathewson says the rare swamp is a relic of an older Wisconsin, one that existed before half of the state’s wetlands were lost to urbanization and agricultural development in the past century.

In Monroe County, Meteor Timber has proposed building new, artificial wetlands to replace the natural one it wants to destroy. But Mathewson cautions that there is no way to fully replace any natural wetland, let alone one as rare as a White Pine-Red Maple swamp.

“We lost so many of our wetlands, we have to work to protect every bit that we can now, even this relatively small bit,” Mathewson explains. “Protection is particularly important when it comes to rare wetlands like this one, since diversity of our landscape is key to resilience in the face of climate change.”

“It takes so much time for land to build up as a wetland and provide all those environmental benefits. Research shows that artificial wetlands just can’t perform as many functions,” he says. “Even for the functions they do have, they don’t perform as well as natural wetlands. So it’s not as easy as saying, ‘We’ll just make more.’”

and enforcement of recommended changes to local laws as an important step towards reducing pollutant loads for the MS4 permit. More green infrastructure equals less stormwater-runoff pollution!

Pam then went back to the local government leaders she started with— sharing the new DNR policy along with information about other potential benefits. Over the next six months, Clean Wisconsin and Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust (“Sweet Water”) drafted comprehensive memoranda to ten municipalities carefully explaining these benefits.

The following year DNR took the next logical step and began requiring the ten municipalities within the Menomonee River Watershed-Based MS4 Permit group to enable green-infrastructure provisions in their codes and ordinances in order to comply with their permit. More recently, DNR required another bundle of towns— the North Shore MS4 Permit group—to do the same, bringing the total number of municipalities to 17.

Clean Wisconsin is proud to have innovated this new approach to regional policymaking. In the years to come, Pam, Ezra and other water experts will work to expand these critical protections to scores of new local governments

MG&E continued from cover Clean Wisconsin, along with the Citizen Utility Board (CUB), RENEW Wisconsin and Sierra Club intervened in MG&E’s rate case last spring and worked with the utility to include a number of rate and program changes, including a bill incentive to help businesses that were forced to close during the pandemic, ending customerfunded utility payments to energy trade associations, and the development of an energy bill relief program for low-income customers.“We’re very pleased that MG&E was willing to address these issues in a meaningful way, and we look forward to working together on future programs to fight climate change and keep energy affordable for all,” Nekola says.

The agreement will now go before the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin for final approval.

He ticks off the many benefits of wetlands— protecting from floods, soaking up rainfall to replenish aquifers and maintain water levels in rivers and streams, wildlife habitat, www.cleanwisconsin.org

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Fighting Climate Change Court ruling on Nemadji gas plant could come this year Amy Barrilleaux, Communications Director

Clean Wisconsin has filed a Circuit Court brief in our lawsuit fighting construction of a proposed 625-megawatt gas plant along the Nemadji River near Superior.

The $700 million Nemadji Trail Energy Center was greenlit by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in 2019, but the massive new facility would come with an enormous environmental cost.

“This facility would emit 3 million tons of carbon every year for at least 30 years if it's built. There's just no way to get to zero carbon if we keep building things that emit carbon,” Clean Wisconsin General Counsel Katie Nekola said in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio.

Construction of the plant would also harm more than 20 acres of wetland habitat along the Nemadji River.

The case brief details how the PSC turned away from its own responsibility to consider environmental impacts of the plant, instead relying on future permitting processes of the DNR to protect wetlands and water resources. The commission

also failed to require information from applicants proving the new plant could meet state environmental standards.

In her dissenting comments during the approval vote, If built, the Nemadji Energy Center would emit 3 million tons of carbon a year current PSC Chairperson Rebecca with us,” Valq wrote. “The Legislature Cameron Valq noted that relying on assigned this duty to the Commission DNR permitting does not meet the because it wants all of these factors Commission’s mission to ensure utility considered together, not in isolation, and services are environmentally responsible. the Commission is the only entity with the “While I understand that certain expertise to do so.” environmental permitting authority rests In the lawsuit, Clean Wisconsin and the with the DNR, the larger question of Sierra Club are asking the court to send whether a generating facility taken as a the Nemadji case back to the PSC for whole is in the public interest rests solely reconsideration.

Putting ideas into action: Update on the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change

By Chelsea Chandler, Climate Solutions Director

Late last year, the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change produced a report recommending dozens of promising climate solutions for Wisconsin. As an active member of the Task Force, Clean Wisconsin played a pivotal role in developing these bold priorities for equitable climate action. A thousand Wisconsinites from across the state weighed in, sharing personal stories about how climate change is already impacting their lives—harming the health of their families and hurting their businesses. But they also highlighted opportunities to chart a new path to a brighter future.

While this process of brainstorming solutions, incorporating input from diverse stakeholders, and agreeing on priorities is a momentous achievement, it’s not a final outcome. It’s a launching pad. Representing youth, farm groups, academics, environmental advocates, and legislators from both sides of the aisle, the Task Force shared a vision for how we can act in a way that addresses the urgency of the climate crisis, centers equity in solutions, and meets the unique needs of Wisconsin residents and businesses from all walks of life. We now have a vast 10

repository of ideas to draw on and the hard work of putting them into action in a variety of venues is underway.

Focusing on the big picture, Clean Wisconsin is weighing in on important state-level planning processes to help move this vision forward. In consultation with experts and stakeholders, our organization included, the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy is finalizing a Clean Energy Plan this fall. The plan will serve as a roadmap to implement many of the items related to energy that were developed as part of the Task Force on Climate Change, such as expanding energy efficiency and renewable energy and modernizing buildings and our transportation system.

We have also intervened in the Public Service Commission’s “Roadmap to Zero Carbon” docket, supporting detailed investigation into strategies that will help our state achieve its 100% carbon-free electricity goal.

In line with the Task Force recommendations and this clean energy transition, we’re helping to advance renewable energy projects. For example, we’re submitting testimony in support of the Koshkonong Solar Energy Center, a proposed utility-scale project in Dane County that would represent a big step in our shift to carbon-free electricity.

Another critical piece of quickly moving to clean energy is halting new fossil fuel infrastructure. Our legal team continues to fight against the Nemadji Trail Energy Center, a natural gas plant slated for construction in Superior, and is also opposing the proposed Weston Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine (RICE) gas plant in Marathon County.

In addition to our collaboration with state agencies and our legal strategies, Clean Wisconsin continues to look for opportunities to advance policy. From community and third-party solar to electric vehicle charging, several bills related to Task Force recommendations are currently under discussion. Our government relations team is at work advocating for successful legislation built on strong climate strategies and economic opportunity.

With the renewed momentum and broad engagement on climate change inspired by the Task Force, we’re building on our decades of experience and expertise to advance bold and equitable strategies for our state to address the climate crisis. At Clean Wisconsin, we’ll continue our work to propel this collective vision for a healthy future for Wisconsin’s residents and environment forward.

2021 Fall

Getting to zero carbon PSC looks at charting a course toward a clean energy future

By Katie Nekola, General Counsel

If Wisconsin is to make serious progress towards Governor Evers’ goal of reaching 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050, put forward in his Executive Order #38, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin must take quick and decisive action. Three key dockets currently under consideration by the agency examine a range of issues that could advance critical clean energy priorities in the state.

Earlier this year, the PSC launched its “Roadmap to Zero Carbon” initiative aimed at investigating how Wisconsin can make the transition to zero-carbon emissions by 2050. The agency asked the public to submit comments identifying its priorities for investigation, and Clean Wisconsin noted that a real integrated planning process, which most other states have but Wisconsin does not, is essential to reaching any goal. In addition, we recommended maximizing the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy before any consideration of new fossil fuel power plants. In September, the PSC outlined some next steps for the “Roadmap” docket, in particular a workshop to explore various options for incentivizing utility efficiency programs.

Energy efficiency will take center stage at the PSC next year as the commission embarks on its Quadrennial Review of Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy program.

Focus has been widely recognized as a for how to provide reliable, affordable cost-effective, highly-successful program energy services to their customers, that helps businesses and residents take including plans to retire and/or build new meaningful steps to save energy. More than infrastructure, and the PSC accepts public 50,000 homeowners participated in the comments on those plans. Depending on program in 2020, which provided benefits the amount and quality of the information that were valued at more than three times submitted, these plans could be used to the cost of the program. The commercial help map out a course toward decreased and industrial sectors, as well as farms carbon emissions. and schools, saw even greater benefits, While Clean Wisconsin which were eight continues to fight times the cost to for climate change More than 50,000 provide the services. considerations when Businesses all over homeowners participated participating in PSC Wisconsin said that cases related to utility in Focus on Energy in they participated rates and permits, our 2020, which provided in Focus on Energy participation in these to save money benefits that were valued long-term planning on their electric and policy dockets at more than three times and gas bills, and is also essential. customer satisfaction the cost of the program.

These initiatives was high among represent important all participants. opportunities for Clean Expanding this popular program would Wisconsin and our members to influence not only help people save on their energy the direction of energy policy across the bills, it would reduce carbon emissions by entire state. Clean Wisconsin and our reducing the need for power plants. partners will continue to encourage the Another PSC docket that could offer PSC to use its authority to advance our an opportunity to plan for a carbon-free clean energy priorities, charting a path future is the upcoming Strategic Energy for a zero-carbon future. Look for our Assessment, or SEA. This biennial action alerts with opportunities for you to assessment evaluates the state’s electric make your voice heard at the PSC in these power industry, including energy demands, important dockets. reliability and affordability. Wisconsin’s electric and gas utilities submit their plans

Climate and equity action in Milwaukee

By Pamela Ritger de la Rosa, Milwaukee Program Director

In mid-2019, Milwaukee City and County leaders passed resolutions to create a Task Force focused on the complementary goals of fighting climate change and increasing economic equity. While many local governments have created climate action plans, Milwaukee’s twin goals around climate and economic equity recognize that many people in underserved communities are living in an on-going economic crisis due to high levels of unemployment and poverty, as well as decades of disinvestment in their communities. Local elected officials understand that fighting climate change will provide opportunities to create new green jobs in the energy, construction, building, transportation, and forestry sectors, among others, and to invest in underserved communities that are already facing a disproportionate impact from climate change, such as the urban heat www.cleanwisconsin.org

island effect and more frequent flooding.

As Milwaukee Program Director, I serve on the City-County Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity (CCTFCEE), chair the Green Buildings and Climate Resilience Work Groups, and am an active participant in the Transportation and Mobility Work Group.

Following completion of greenhouse gas emissions inventories for the City and County of Milwaukee, along with initial policy recommendations from the international non-governmental organization ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Work Groups have been meeting regularly to develop Milwaukee-specific policy and project recommendations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 while increasing economic equity. The goal is to have a Milwaukee Climate and Equity Action Plan by the end of 2021. We are excited to be involved in

development of these local policies and projects, the implementation of which can be furthered by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) investments at the local level. Some of the policy and project recommendations in development from the various Work Groups, the Ten Big Ideas, include revamped energy efficiency programs that are more affordable and accessible to low-to-middle income households, reductions in vehicle miles traveled through investments in transit and bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and transition to a net zero electric grid.

Visit city.milwaukee.gov/climate/Climate-Plan for more information on the CCTFCEE and the Ten Big Ideas. We look forward to continuing our leadership on the Task Force to finalize the Milwaukee Climate and Equity Action Plan, and move to implementation in 2022, ideally with the support of ARPA funding to more quickly advance implementation of the Plan.

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Making a difference, one rain barrel at a time

By Amy Barrilleaux, Communications Director

Summer may be long over, but the benefits of Clean Wisconsin’s Green Infrastructure Education, Outreach and Installation program will last for years. For an 8th consecutive season, we partnered with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to engage Milwaukee residents around the environmental benefits of rain gardens, rain barrels and other natural stormwater management approaches. Through this year’s hands-on program we installed 40 rain barrels and five rain gardens at Milwaukee homes and held 15 community demonstration events, reaching more than 250 residents in all. Over the program’s entire eight-year run, we have installed 648 rain barrels and dozens of rain gardens, all of which capture around 2.5 million gallons of stormwater each year. That’s about 50,000 bathtubs worth of stormwater captured annually and either reused or employed to grow native plants that provide butterfly, honeybee, and bird habitat and beautify parcels and entire neighborhoods.

“It’s important to me to create meaningful and lasting relationships with residents, build trust, and generate excitement about green infrastructure,” says Ethan Taxman, Clean Wisconsin Green Infrastructure Program Associate. Ethan, along with Water Resources Specialist Ezra Meyer, also returned to ten previously-installed rain gardens to weed, install new native plants, and put down new mulch.

Rain gardens and other green infrastructure practices are important ways to help reduce the risk of flooding by capturing and soaking in water when it rains. This work also protects water quality in Milwaukeearea rivers and Lake Michigan.

Why do this work in Milwaukee? The Northwest-side neighborhoods we work in suffer flooding-related damage more often than many other neighborhoods, and in some cases, the area has been left behind when it comes to infrastructure investment.

Major flood events here often cause damage to already struggling residential neighborhoods and businesses, which in turn can have a harder time recovering.

Clean Wisconsin chooses to work where the benefits of our efforts accrue to all Wisconsinites, especially those who have historically borne a disproportionate burden of environmental and health impacts.

The Milwaukee Green Infrastructure program is set to continue for a 9th season in 2022.

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2021 Fall/Winter

www.cleanwisconsin.org

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Local organizing for climate solutions

By Maithilee Kanthi, Climate Justice Organizer

Climate action is only possible when action occurs at all levels of government and in our personal lives. Protests and rallies are often the first images that come to mind when most people consider the role they might play in organizing for climate action as individuals. And while those are often effective tactics to challenge the status quo and hold elected representatives accountable, getting involved with local organizations and local government efforts are other long-standing ways communities can fight climate change and build resilience to climate impacts.

At Clean Wisconsin, we work closely with community-based organizations and local governments to advocate for and develop climate solutions that meet the needs of the most vulnerable residents while also providing opportunities for advancing equity. We've incorporated this tactic into our existing strategy of engaging with lawmakers and state agencies because we recognize that demonstrating local support for climate action will help catalyze change at higher levels of government.

Furthermore, we believe it is critical to co-create climate solutions with those who have historically borne the brunt of the consequences of a fossil-fuel economy, and to empower those communities through local decision-making centered on equity.

Working at the local level allows us to help people develop their vision for a better future in their community.

In Milwaukee, we are involved in the color and people with low incomes, we are City-County Task Force on Climate and conducting targeted outreach to hear from Economic Equity. As Clean Wisconsin’s a diverse range of Green Bay residents— Climate Justice Organizer, I am a member Black, Latinx, Hmong and Oneida of the task force’s Education and Outreach residents, as well as young people, renters work group, which is in charge and multi-generational of engaging with residents about households—because the proposed Climate and Equity any solutions Ultimately, Plan to solicit feedback and build developed to address public support. So far, the group climate impacts will organizing for has assisted in the organization of only be successful if climate action at a few events to help discuss ideas they address the needs the local level is from the Climate and Equity of the most affected Plan, including a virtual kickoff groups. one of the most with Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes Ultimately, organizing effective ways and Mayor Tom Barrett, and for climate action at an educational event about the for individuals to the local level is one future of green jobs, in support of the most effective get involved in of the Green Jobs Accelerator ways for individuals advancing climate proposal. As the Climate and to get involved in Equity Plan contains many solutions in their advancing climate proposals to directly benefit solutions in their communities. low-income and marginalized communities. Local communities in Milwaukee, governments have we are working closely with the authority to set community-based organizations collective goals for reducing greenhouse to connect with residents and learn how gas emissions and to invest in policies these proposals can better meet their needs. that promote clean energy, clean air, Similarly, we are collaborating closely with and good jobs. Similarly, communitythe City of Green Bay’s new Resiliency based organizations can advocate for an Coordinator, Melissa Schmitz, to develop equitable approach to climate solutions that a neighborhood-scale green infrastructure prioritizes community needs. Organizing program to address climate impacts in locally is a way you can directly help build predominantly low-income communities a more fair and just future around you, and communities of color by facilitating whether it's getting involved as a resident discussions with residents about their to help develop your city's Climate Action experiences with stormwater flooding and Plan or advocating for climate action with a extreme heat. As the effects of climate local nonprofit. change disproportionately affect people of

Doug La Follette Environmental Speakers Program: Youth climate activism in Wisconsin

By Luke Voegeli, Membership and Outreach Manager

While climate change poses an immediate threat to our global and local ecosystems, it is imperative that we consider its enduring effects on future generations. That’s why young people across Wisconsin are putting their skills to use; bringing people together to inspire positive change and fighting for climate action to protect our most valuable resource, mother earth.

On June 24th, Clean Wisconsin hosted one of our bi-annual Doug LaFollette Environmental Speakers Programs.

This program featured a panel of three youth environmental advocates: Charles Hua, Mario Canacasco, and Madeline McDermott. From their respective Wisconsin communities these young activists have been working to create real change, bring about sustainable climate solutions and inspire others, young and old alike, to join the cause.

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In this panel, Charles, Mario, and Madeline spoke about why they got involved in climate activism, what climate justice looks like to them, and how they see their work uplifting their communities. Each one of these young activists has an inspiring story and rich experience advocating for climate action.

While a student at Madison West High School, Charles, Clean Wisconsin’s youngest board member, successfully raised $150,000 to install solar panels at the school. Charles then helped found and organize 100% Renew Madison, a campaign that successfully petitioned the Madison Metropolitan School District to become the then-largest school district in the U.S. with a commitment to using 100% renewable energy. Mario is the editor of YouthTalkClimate, a climate-centered podcast that focuses on explaining all avenues related to climate change covering topics from environmental economics to racial

justice. Madeline has been working towards local, state, and federal climate action as a hub coordinator for Youth Climate Action Team and a member of Appleton’s Climate Change Task Force.

The energy of young people getting involved in advocating for climate action is helping to drive the movement for change. We know that the climate crisis is here, and our future depends on solving it. That’s why we are so excited about the work that young climate activists like Charles, Mario and Madeline are doing.

To hear more conversations like this stay tuned for information about our next virtual Doug LaFollette Environmental Speakers Program.

2021 Fall/Winter

Wolves Continued from page 6 road density and lack of agricultural land.

This indicates that wolves prefer to avoid humans as much as possible, and with good reason. Analyses of Wisconsin wolf mortality in time periods when wolves were legally protected found that human causes were responsible for about 2/3 of wolf mortality annually. Most of this was from poaching (40% of deaths) and vehicle collisions (10% of deaths).

and cattle deaths, and even weather causes substantially more deaths (3-5%).

As is the case with large predators around the world, wolves are a controversial species due largely to conflict arising from livestock depredation. As Wisconsin’s wolf population has increased, so have complaints. No human attacks have been recorded in Wisconsin, and this conflict is largely from livestock depredation and hunting dog killings. Wolves are also responsible for farmed deer and pet dog killings (an average of <1 deer and 2 pet dogs per year over the past 5 years).

Since the 1980s, the Wisconsin DNR has compensated owners for verified wolf depredation and attacks, paying an average of $167,000 annually over the past 5 years.

well-studied in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. For example, in the absence of wolves, elk were overbrowsing vegetation.

On the other hand, wolves have significant When wolves returned, their elk predation cultural importance to some, and others allowed aspen and willow regrowth, benefit from observing them or just improving habitat for other knowing they species. Similar trophic are there. A cascade impacts have also recent study also been documented here Wolves use linear reported a direct in Wisconsin following economic benefit features like roads for recolonization of the state. wolves: wolf more efficient traveling, presence reduces Wisconsin’s wolves causing deer to avoid deer-vehicle are some of the best collisions by 24%, studied wolves in the these areas and thereby providing an world, providing a good reducing risk of collision. economic benefit knowledge base to inform of $11 million management decisions annually (more that appropriately balance than 60 times the the interests of wolves and annual damage those of people who live payments). This reduction is not due to with them. Hopefully good, science-based wolves reducing deer populations. Rather, decision making will allow us to continue wolves use linear features like roads for to point to wolves as an endangered species more efficient traveling, causing deer to success story in the state. avoid these areas and thereby reducing risk of collision.

For context, wolf depredation represents a very small fraction of calf and cattle deaths per year. A recent USDA analysis found that wolves were responsible for 0.2% of cattle deaths and 0.9% of calf deaths in Wisconsin. Respiratory and digestive diseases were the most common source of mortality, accounting for 30-60% of calf

Wolves are also apex predators meaning that they play an important role in ecosystem structuring through controlling populations of herbivores (indirectly preventing vegetation overbrowsing) and smaller carnivores like coyotes (indirectly impacting smaller mammal populations).

This “trophic cascade” impact has been

La Follette gift establishes new Clean Wisconsin legal fund

Remembering Marilyn Lamers

By Ryan Kelly, Development Manager

By Scott Laeser, Water Program Director

In 1970, fresh off the very first Earth Day, there was an infectious enthusiasm for environmentalism that spread across the nation. Sharing in that enthusiasm, Doug La Follette and Peter Anderson started Clean Wisconsin; an organization aimed at not only working with the legislature to pass good legislation and stop the bad, but also helping citizens across the state to address the environmental crises they were experiencing. Clean Wisconsin has been doing this work for over 50 years.

and Clean Wisconsin has stepped up to the challenge and won some very important court cases. This is why I made a serious contribution to help Wisconsin fight against environmental damage by working in the court system. I hope you join me in supporting Clean Wisconsin and their legal program. I’d also like to thank you all for your continued support of this important organization and I hope sometime soon when the virus calms down, I can see you sometime soon at a Doug La Follette Environmental Speaker event that I’m so proud of.”

Recently, Doug La Follette made a $50,000 gift establishing a legal fund that ensures Clean Wisconsin’s legal team has the resources to continue their success. As a close follower of Clean Wisconsin and the environmental landscape, Doug knows how important a well-funded legal program is to the success of our mission.

If you would like to make a contribution to Clean Wisconsin, you can make a donation online by going to www.cleanwisconsin.org/ donate, or fill out the enclosed remittance form. To learn more about donating to the newly established legal fund, please call Ryan Kelly at (608) 251-7020 x19 or send an email to rkelly@cleanwisconsin.org.

It is with heavy hearts that we recognize the passing of Clean Wisconsin member Marilyn Lamers from Tainter Lake, WI in August. As engaged and active members of their community, Marilyn and her husband, Dick, have supported many important causes and been tireless advocates for protecting the Red Cedar River and their beloved Tainter Lake.

While we often talk about the clean water, clean air, and natural resources we strive to protect, it is the people we work with, and whose right to clean water and clean air we seek to protect, that truly bring meaning to our work. We have been fortunate to count Marilyn and Dick among our Clean Wisconsin community, and we know the passion they have brought to bettering their community in Western Wisconsin will endure in Marilyn's surviving family.

In his own words, “Recently, fighting environmental battles in the court room have become more and more important www.cleanwisconsin.org

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Epicurean Evening update 634 W. Main St., #300 Madison WI 53703 Phone: (608) 251-7020 www.cleanwisconsin.org

By Ryan Kelly, Development Manager

As you may know Clean Wisconsin made the difficult decision to cancel Epicurean Evening in 2021 due to the rise of the Delta variant across the nation and here in Dane County. While everyone at Clean Wisconsin is saddened to make this decision, we know it was the right decision for our members and the Greater Madison community.

As we look forward to 2022, we are excited to announce that we will be moving Epicurean Evening from the fall to Friday, April 29th. This will offer an exciting opportunity to celebrate Clean Wisconsin, our partners, and our supporters, during Earth month.

Clean Wisconsin protects and preserves Wisconsin’s clean water, air, and natural heritage.

On behalf of our more than 30,000 members, supporters, and coalition partners, we have been your leading voice for Wisconsin’s environment since 1970.

STAFF

President & CEO Mark Redsten

If you have already purchased a ticket for 2021, you have the opportunity to turn that into a 100% tax-deductible donation, roll that ticket over to 2022, or receive a complete refund. Tickets will go on sale for 2022 soon, so be on the lookout for emails or check our website.

VP of Programs and Government Relations David Tipson

In 2022, we are hopeful to have Epicurean Evening in-person with our full complement of all-star chefs, a five-course meal, live and silent auction, and delicious handcrafted cocktails provided by Tito’s Handmade Vodka and State Line Distillery.

We hope to celebrate the accomplishments of the last few years with you!

Communications Director Amy Barrilleaux

Grants & Foundations Manager Alexandria Baker

Office Manager Kaysee Beckstrom Climate Solutions Director Chelsea Chandler Chief Financial Officer Nick Curran, CPA Content Manager Molly Dove Staff Attorney Evan Feinauer Government Relations Director Erik Kanter Climate Justice Organizer Maithilee Kanthi Development Manager Ryan Kelly Energy and Climate Manager Brett Korte Water Program Director Scott Laeser Staff Scientist Paul Mathewson Water Resources Specialist Ezra Meyer General Counsel Katie Nekola Public Ally Dayona Rimmer Staff Attorney & Milwaukee Program Director Pam Ritger Green Infrastructure Program Associate Ethan Taxman Membership & Outreach Manager Luke Voegeli Chair Karen Knetter, Madison Vice Chair Arun Soni, Chicago Second Vice Chair Michael Weiss, Milwaukee Treasurer Gof Thomson, New Glarus Secretary Shannon Rolbiecki, Tacoma Past Chair Liz Feder, Madison Ann Brodek, Racine Gary Goyke, Madison Andrew Hoyos, McFarland Celestine Jeffreys, Green Bay Josh Neudorfer, Shorewood Glenn Reinl, Madison Carl Sinderbrand, Middleton Charles Hua, Madison Isaac Showaki, Madison Board Emeritus Kathleen Falk, Madison Board Emeritus Kate Gordon, San Francisco Board Emeritus Chuck McGinnis, Middleton

Printed with soy ink on unbleached, recycled paper.

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The Defender is owned and published quarterly by Clean Wisconsin 634 W. Main St., #300, Madison, WI 53703 608-251-7020, info@cleanwisconsin.org A one-year subscription membership is $40. Please direct correspondence to the address above.

Volume 51, No. 3: October 2021 ©2021 Clean Wisconsin. All rights reserved.

ISSN # 1549-8107

2021 Fall

Thank you for your generosity THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR DONORS! The individuals listed here made contributions of $25 or more to Clean Wisconsin between 10/1/20 – 9/30/21.

Environmental Pillars Society President’s Circle $25,000+ Anonymous Douglas La Follette

Philanthropist $10,000–$24,999 Anonymous (2) Henry Anderson & Shirley Levine Sarah & Michael Weiss

Patrons $5,000–$9,999

Anonymous The Frenzel Family Foundation Jeannie Roberts & John Voegeli Arun Soni

Benefactors $2,500–$4,999 Anonymous (2) Margaret Baack & Michael McAdams Richard Baker Bank of America Mary & Clyde Cross David & Ann Dunaway

Dale & Darcy Feinauer Amy Gilliland Robert & Elke Hagge Andrew & Natalie Hoyos Karen Knetter Cynthia & Scott Kuenzi

Tom Schlueter & Ellen Neuhaus Carl Sinderbrand & Maryann Sumi Gof & Mary Thomson Hammel Green and Abrahamson Deer Creek Cheese

Richard & Karen Gosse Rebecca Haack-Deetz & Daniel Deetz David Hall & Marjorie Devereaux Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc Edward & Ann Hastreiter David & Judy Hecker Russell Heise HGA Tod Highsmith & Joan Braune HJ Hagge Foundation Ann Jablonski Kimberly-Clark Foundation Joseph Knutson William & Jennifer Koch Thomas & Juna Krajewski David Kuenzi & Mary Wyman Lanna Laird Alan Lee & Marguerite Moeller Randolph Lipchik & Ravenna Helson Joe & Laura Mantoan

Julie & Dan Melton John Mesching & Kristine Jensen Andrew & Jacqueline Mullvain Muskellounge Mark Nordbeck Numbers 4 Non-profits LLC Mary Ring Frances Rowe Patricia Ryan Peggy Scallon & Mark Redsten Phillip Simon & Molly Gurney Daniel & Marcia Smith Richard Sternkopf & Kathleen Barry Mark & Sarah Sundquist John & Rebecca Tradewell LaVonne Wagner Walnut Burger Sage Weil & Elise Lawson Jennifer Zorr

Investors $1,000–$2,499 Anonymous (4) Eric Adelman & Katy Gast David & Jenny Almdale American Family Insurance Bruce & Mary Beck Ann Behrmann & Lewis Koch Charlie Berens, host of the Cripescast Belle Bergner & Stefan Schnitzer Dianna Brown Lynn Celley Lynn & Mark Connors Pat & Dan Cornwell Paul Dean Richard & Julie Diermeier Brenda Dierschke & Thomas Zabriskie Edmond & Deb Drewsen Sara Engstrand & Edward Lightbourn Scott Froehlke & Traci Peloquin Kay Gabriel Brad Gietman

Anonymous (2) • Eric Adelman & Katy Gast • Elizabeth Andre • Susan Andrea-Schlenker & Terry Schlenker • Judith Baker & Roy Marsden • Trish & Charlie Bantle • Robert Baurhyte • Sarah Beach • Bruce & Mary Beck • Karen & Thomas Beck • Thomas Bernthal & Marjorie Wood • Mary Bissing-Olson • Andrew Bissonnette • Charles Boardman • Emily Brock • Angie Broennimann • Jane Bruesch • Colin Carter • Mark Chambers • Helen & Gilbert Churchill • Shirley Conlon & Jess Brownell • Faye Davis • Paul Dean • Jennifer Denetz • John Devereux & Lynn Harmet • Mark Doty • Mary Ann Dykes • Diane Eherenman • Jennifer Erdmann • Linda Frank • Carol Froistad • Caroline Garber • Ione Garcia • Janice & James Gerlach • Patricia Giesfeldt • Linda & James Graeper • Deanna Grahn • Edmund Greaves • Jim Gustafson • Jane Haasch • Mr. Richard Hack & Susan Ben-Poorat • Betty & George Hamilton • Ms. Carol & David Hardin • Samuel Harms • Jon Heinrich • Dr. Joe Heitz & Jennifer Engstad Heitz • Helen & Charles Henderson • Kathryn Hieb • Deborah Hobbins & David Mladenoff • David Hoffman • Jeff Houser • Noel Howlett • Patricia Hung • Mrs. Darlene & James Jakusz • Celestine Jeffreys • Kathleen Johnson • Paul Johnson • Mr. Patrick Jones • Dennis & Jane Joyce • James Kapellen • Kathleen & Martin Kascewicz • Rosalee Keser • Nick & Susan Kiernan • Joseph Kinscher • Paul Klein & Elizabeth Janssen • Karen Knetter • Vincent Kotnik • Timothy Lane & Gretchen Peters • David Langer & Patti Severson •Robert Latousek • Frank & Amy Laundrie • Richard & Elizabeth LeClair • David & Darlene Lee • Catherine & Catherine Lelinski • David & Cheryl Lemke • Liju Lin • Jennifer Lochner & Steve Winchester • LuAnn Lonergan • Austin Madsen • John & Norma Magnuson • Richard Magyar • Dr. Ronald & Lillian Mathsen • Barbara McCarthy • Gerald & Barbara McDonald • Julie & Dan Melton • Kelly Miess • Anya Milhans • Michael & Mary Moen • Vincent Mosca • Jane Nickodem • Mr. Roger Nilles & Jill Mengesha • Judith Olingy • Rosemary Olson • Katie Phillips • Jacob Ptaszynski • Nancy Rebholz • Jane Redig • Mark Roesler & Therese Casick Roesler • Shannon Rolbiecki • Austin Rooks • Susan Rosa • Peggy Scallon & Mark Redsten • Richard & Ruth Schauer • Peter & Nicole Schlueter • Barbara Sealey • Phillip Simon & Molly Gurney • Kristen Sipsma • Leigh & Beth Smith • Linda & Richard Soldan • Joanne Stange • Sandra & Winston Stoddard • Lisa Stone & Don Howlett • Suzanne Sullivan • Marci & Gary Taxman • Christopher Thorpe • Kate Trnka • Tim & Nancy Valentyn • Annemieke Van Der Werf Price • Gretchen Van Dyck • Gary Verhagen • David Voelker • Wendy & Steve Walter • Diane & Randall Wauters • Mark Webster • Amanda Wegner & James Kicmol • Sage Weil & Elise Lawson • Kathleen & Charles Wessels • Jacqueline Wille • David Wilson & Ann Jarvella Wilson • Thersa Wittenwyler • Barbara Wolfe • Barbara & Marvin Wooten • Loretta Young

Members Alexander Metz • Alice Kehoe • Amanda Wegner & James Kicmol • Andrew Bent & Anna Huttenlocher • Andrew Jacobson • Angela Powell • Anne & James Thomas • Anne Arnesen • Anne Kent • Anonymous • Arlene Prickett • Austin Madsen • Barbara & Douglas Radke • Barbara & Marvin Wooten • Barbara & Millard Susman • Barbara Croisant • Barbara Parsons • Barbara Pladziewicz • Belden & Louise Paulson • Beth Kutka • Beth Olson • Betsy & Kevin Scallon • Bettye & William Nimmer • Beverly & Gordon Underwood • Beverly Lewis • Bill Lothary • Bobbi Peckarsky & Steve Horn • Bradley Brin • Brenda Dierschke & Thomas Zabriskie • Brian & Janet Hanson • Bridget Coffey • Bruce & Julie Kuehl • Byron Barrington • Calvin & Margaret McIntyre • Calvin Gander • Carl & Ellen Baehr • Carl & Judith Meincke • Carly Knepper • Carol Ray • Caroline Schmidt • Carolyn Bell & Lincoln Ramirez • Carolyn Kohlhoff • Charles & Bonnie Schuknecht • Charles & Catherine Wickler • Charles & Gwendolyn Hatfield • Charles & Kathleen Schaeffer • Charles & Patricia Gohs • Charles Higley • Charles Snowdon • Charlotte & Josef Pronnet • Charlotte & Thomas Dzimiela • Cheryl Martin • Christine & Michael Krueger • Ciel Ishatova & Terrance Doyle • Cindy Wagner • Clair Morud & Sheila Mitchell • Claudia & Dennis Schreiner • Claudia Bricks • Colin Carter • Constance Ellingson • Curtis Andersen • Cynthia Rieck • D Weiss • Dale & Burton Kushner • Dale & Darcy Feinauer • Dale Schaber • Dan & Melissa Trittin • Dan Anderson • Dan Gunderson • Daniel & Irene Zimmerman • Darlene & Anthony Nowak • David & Darlene Lee • David & Glenda Henning • David & Linda Martin • David & Patricia Tipson • David & Susan Anderson • David Gunnulson • David Hoeveler • David Langer & Patti Severson • David Leeper • Deb Weber & Michael McCauley • Debby Pogorzelski • Deborah & Donald Beduhn • Deborah & Joseph Coughlin • Deborah Hobbins & David Mladenoff • Dennis & Jane Joyce • Dennis Meiller • Denny Wandtke • Diane & Gale Miller • Diane & Randall Wauters • Diane Sikorski • Dianne & Bill Moore • Dianne & Ronald Powers • Dirk Anderson & Wendy Opichka Anderson • Don Hammes • Donald & Margaret Gassenhuber • Donald Benson • Dondi Griffin • Donna Burnett • Donna Faw • Donnell Geib • Doreen Kieffer • Dorothy & Paul Boyer • Doug & Mary Hudzinski • Douglas Grosnick • Douglas Stahl • Douglas Steeber • Dr. Joe Heitz & Jennifer Engstad Heitz • Dr. Paul & Margaret Miller • Dr. Randall Ballweg & Regina McGreevy • Dr. Ronald & Lillian Mathsen • Edith Brown • Edmund Greaves • Edward Denny & Laura Nelke • Edwin Hodgson • Elaine Rogers • Elaine Zack • Ellen & Larry Sohn • Ellen Ochs • Emily & William Kordus • Esther Selke • Eugene & Nanette Gassner • Eugene Woehler • Evelyn Fox • Floyd & Barbara Blackmore • Gary Goyke & Nancy Rottier • Gene Wojcik • George Jacklin • George Schmidt • Gerald Demers & Ellen Schuh Demers • Gerald Ottone • Gerhard Swenson • Gerry Flakas • Glenn Johnson • Gof & Mary Thomson • Greg & Judy Griffin • Gregory Egan & Dianne Butterfield Egan • Gretchen Brown & Timothy Carlisle • Harlan Ferstl • Harry & Carolyn Parrott • Heidi Herron • Helen Sullinger • Hilda Richey • Holly Klemmer • Howard Czoschke • Hugh Schmidt • Ione Garcia • Jack Longert • Jackie Calhoun Smith • Jacob Ptaszynski • James & Anita Lightfoot • James & Ann Harris • James & Kathy Miller • James & Nancy Gallagher • James & Patricia Mapp • James & Patricia Moore • James A & Carolyn Dunning • James Gonyo • James Grimes • James Newton • James Parker • James Riordan & Barbara Reed • Jan Anderson • Jane & Thomas Devine • Janice Ruesch • JC & Laura Love • Jean & Dennis Casper • Jean Berger • Jean Jarmusz • Jeffrey & Kristen Brown • Jenifer Stone • Jennifer Erdmann • Jill Schaefer • Jim Gustafson • Jo Jacobi • Joan Campbell • Joan Hornung • JoAnn Belanger •

Joanne & Jim Zipperer • Joanne Mellema & Richard Swanson • JoEl & Jeff Martin • John & Ann Burton • John & Cathie Imes • John & Rosalie Shier • John Devereux & Lynn Harmet • John Larson • John Sheski • John Stoltenberg • John Straughn • Johnston Connelly • Jon & Peggy Traver • Joseph Gagnon • Joseph Wiesner • Joyce & James Schneider • Joyce & Roger Bell • Joyce Brehm • JP Herman • Judith Baker & Roy Marsden • Judith Emmett • Judith Larson • Julia & Bruce Jones • Karen & Thomas Beck • Karen Peterson • Karen Stuesser & Rich Cornwell & Family • Kathleen & Martin Kascewicz • Kathleen & William Frink • Kathleen Falk & Peter Bock • Kathleen Otterson • Kathleen Swanson • Kathryn Voelker • Kathy & Charles Garvey • Kay & Randall Shrader • Kay Brathol-Hostvet • Keith & Betty White • Keith Brown • Kelly & Stephen Endres • Kim & Harry Andruss • Kirsten Johnson • Kristin & Robert Fewel • Kristina & Donald Peters • Kristine Krause • Kristine Lamont • Kurt & Johanna De Lap • Larry & Jennie Larson • Laura Breun • Lavon & Mr. Dennis Rader • Leonard & Paula Werner • Levi & Janet Wood • Linda & James Graeper • Linda & Jay Olson • Linda & Jeffrey Huttenburg • Linda & John Stehman • Linda Shult • Linda Wilinski • Lisa Michiels • Lisa Stone & Don Howlett • Loretta Ulmschnedier • Lori Caygill • Lori Hein • Louis & Danielle Oster • Lowell Merwin • Luanne Frey • Lynn & Cheryl Binnie • Lynn Scott • Marci & Gary Taxman • Marcia Dana & Lois Corcoran • Margaret McEntire • Margaret Ruoff • Margel Johnson • Marianne Dropp • Marilyn & Leo Norden • Marilyn & Thomas Swiontek • Marjorie Fizzell • Mark Brill & Janis Littel • Mark Geistlinger & Kristin Meyer • Mark Grady • Mark Newman • Mary & Omer Jones • Mary Ann Ihm • Mary Govier & John Cashman • Mary Jones • Mary Lepeska & Patrick Tearney • Mary McDougall Gibbs • Mary Peerenboom • Mary Vandermause • Marybeth Keppel & Michael Kepler • Matthew & Elsy De Mars • Megan Cain • Merle & Susan Bergren • Merry & Daniel Johnson • Michael & Ann Waidelich • Michael & Cathy Baer • Michael & Judith Vogl • Michael Farrow • Michael Murray • Michele & Dick Benesh • Micki Hoffmann • Mindy & Robert Gribble • Moreau & Marilyn MacCaughey • Mr. James Derzon • Mr. Joseph Brashi • Mr. Ken Ripp • Mr. Robert Snow • Mr. Wallace Cutler • Mr. William Ramcheck • Ms. Carol & David Hardin • Ms. Frances Kavenik • Ms. Jackie Kranz • Ms. Margaret Unger • Ms. Mary Benusa • Ms. Patti Meerschaert • Ms. Susan Anderson • Ms. Susan Davie • Ms. Susan Manalli • Myra & Royal Taxman • Nancy & Charles Rader • Nancy & Tom Engle • Nancy Connolly • Nancy Geidel • Nancy Laskin • Norma Schroeder • Oscar Prince • Pamela Penn • Patricia Frost • Patricia Giesfeldt • Patricia Voermans • Patti & David Becker • Paul Dean • Paul Goemans • Paul Shedivy • Paul Tysse • Paul Wagner & Cindy Schlosser • Paula Hirschboeck • Peg Bradley • Peggy Scallon & Mark Redsten • Peter & Jill Lundberg • Peter Buerosse • Peter Mamerow • Peter McCanna & Mary Dillon McCanna • Rachel Hahn • Randy & Virginia Toepfer • Raymond Rye • Rayne Arneson & Michael Losenegger • Rebecca Haack-Deetz & Daniel Deetz • Rebecca Maller • Rebecca Martin • Rich Kahl & Laurie Jean Yahr • Richard & Alice Godfrey • Richard & Doris Dubielzig • Richard Boomsliter • Richard Judge • Richard Kark • Richard Kreuziger • Richard Sternkopf & Kathleen Barry • Robert & Carole Schultz • Robert & lynette Miller • Robert & Mary Wright • Robert & Susan Riley • Robert Baurhyte • Robert Chapman • Robert Forbess • Robert Rusch • Robert Schuricht • Robin Miller • Ronald & Sharon Hartling • Rosalee Keser • Rosalie Breitenbach • Rosemary Kilbridge • Rosemary Olson • Russell & Jane Tonelli • Ruth & Warren Downs • Ruth Olson & Mark Wagler • Sage Weil & Elise Lawson • Sandra & Louis Arrington • Sandra Drexel • Sandra Drobnick • Sandra Smith • Sara Roberts • Sarah & Peter Gilbert • Scott Froehlke & Traci Peloquin • Scott Grade • Shannon Rolbiecki • Sharon Vollendorf • Shirley Conlon & Jess Brownell • Shirley Haidinger • Sigurd Midelfort • Stephen & Heather Ross • Stephen & Jean Zimmer • Stephen & Susan Ragatz • Stephen Powell • Steven Lambert • Stewart & Mrs. Marylyn Stroup • Sue Schneidler & Michael Kuhnen & Michael Kuhnen • Susan Frackman • Susan Montgomery • Susan Swingen • Suzanne & Ron Schalig • Suzanne Loft • Suzanne Sullivan • Theodore & Helen Haasch • Theodore & Nancy Widder • Thomas & Carol Seery • Thomas & Ellen Etten • Thomas & Linda Blotz • Thomas Schaub • Tim & Nancy Valentyn • Tim Padesky & Tara Johnson • Timothy & Jill Schmidt • Timothy Lane & Gretchen Peters • Todd & Kim Jaeger • Tom & Deborah Lockhart • Tom & Jane Treglowne • Tom Wilson • Trudy & David Pederson • Virginia & Ben Reehl • Warren & Linda Mohar • Wayne & Carole Stroessner • Wendy Stein • Wes & Ankie Foell • Willi Lehner • William & Kathleen Staudenmaier • William & Kathleen Weyda • William & Mary Dean • William & Victoria Allen • William Saucier • Willis Whetstone • Zachary Henderson

Thank you for your dedicated generosity to our work!

To become a member or for more information regarding the benefits of the Environmental Pillars Society, contact Development Manager Ryan Kelly at (608) 251-7020 x19 or rkelly@cleanwisconsin.org.

Being a Corporate Guardian is an excellent investment in your business as you support our protecting Wisconsin’s air, water, and natural heritage!

We encourage you to learn more about and do business with our wonderful Corporate Guardians!

alliantenergy.com

anguil.com

crossroadscommunityfarm.com

gklaw.com foodfightinc.com

delta-properties.com

MADISON ho-chunkgaming.com

homelight.com

hoyosconsulting.com

TM

octopibrewing.com

mge.com

rangerpower.com

parkbank.com

scjohnson.com

spencerreg.com

thinkinkanddesign.com

statelinedistillery.com

titosvodka.com

veridianhomes.com

uwcu.com

thompsoninvest.com

wppienergy.org

Interested in joining these businesses? Contact Ryan Kelly at 608-251-7020 x19 or rkelly@cleanwisconsin.org