GET ME REWRITE: Wisconsin Republicans show their contempt for environmental stewardship

Headline:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/18/2022

Adam Gibbs, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, called the efforts that were funded "pet projects" in a series of tweets. "Gov. Evers just spent 10 lifetimes worth of tax dollars on a beach project," he wrote. 

Gibbs is a "just say no",  knee-jerk GOP clown. 

Here's the real story.

Of the funding, the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve will receive $2.3 million, which will allow the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust to move forward with a project that has been in the works for nearly 10 years. The amount is what the project was originally approved for through the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, but the grant was rejected by an anonymous member of the Joint Finance Committee of the Legislature last year, leaving the Land Trust scrambling for funding.  

Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, said the funding will help to preserve important pieces of land, despite the fact that members of the Legislature tried to halt the project. 

"I hope going forward, that the Joint Finance Committee will stop hiding behind anonymous objections and return to Wisconsin's proud tradition of open, honest and transparent government," she said. "Because whether it's in life, or in government, it's never too late to plant a tree or save a park or make a choice to do the right thing by the people of Wisconsin." 

The Cedar Gorge property is 131 acres of largely undisturbed waterfront property on the south end of Port Washington, including a steep gorge dotted with old cedar trees and pristine clay bluffs dropping down to a thin strip of shoreline. It is near the popular Lion's Den Gorge Nature Preserve.

Original 7/31/2022 post, " If Retiring Guy were to guess, he'd say Duey Stroebel has his fingerprints all over this chickenshit move", starts here.

News collage

Sources:  Urban Milwaukee, Wisconsin State Journal, 

Ozaukee Wisconsin Land Trust, Google Maps

From the State Journal editorial:  

At issue are 131 acres of stunning, undeveloped land along the shores of Lake Michigan known as the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs. It’s close to Port Washington, about 80 miles northeast of Madison. The site boasts towering bluffs from which anyone can view amazing sunrises before a shaded hike in Cedar Gorge. Anyone could, that is, if conservationists get their way. 

As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust wants to buy the land and protect it as a park for Wisconsinites. The land trust stepped up after multiple development proposals had fallen through. 

Lakefront acreage is expensive, and the land trust has through September to come up with $5 million to buy the land. It has about $4 million so far. The state Department of Natural Resources had approved a $2 million Knowles-Nelson Stewardship grant for the purchase when fundraising wasn’t as far along. The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee had to sign off on the grant, but a member of the committee anonymously blocked it. 

No one is saying who stymied the money. The four Democrats on the committee insist they didn’t do it. The 12 Republicans are mum. The identity of the lawmaker remains a mystery.