IN MY OPINION: GOP legislators killed funding for Stewardship conservation program despite public support. It must be revived in 2027.

In 1989, a bipartisan coalition came together with a bold plan to protect Wisconsin’s natural resources by establishing the Stewardship Program, named after two Wisconsin governors, Republican Warren Knowles and Democrat Gaylord Nelson.

For more than three decades, this program has protected wildlife habitat, supported our state parks and trails and expanded outdoor recreation opportunities in all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. It has protected more than 750,000 acres, including segments of the Ice Age Trail, expansions for state parks and county forests, and breathtaking properties like Lion’s Den Gorge in Ozaukee County.

The popularity of Knowles-Nelson is undeniable. An overwhelming 93% of Wisconsinites support public dollars for conservation. Unfortunately, this widely supported program is set to expire on June 30 due to partisan politics.

To grasp the full story, we have to turn back to July 2024. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that the “anonymous objection” process, a maneuver used by Republican legislators on the Joint Finance Committee to block projects without holding a hearing or public accountability was unconstitutional. This ruling constrained the power of the Republican majority, and as a result, Republican leaders announced the decades old Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program was likely dead.

Despite that opposition, Democrats remained committed to the program. Gov. Evers proposed a $1 billion, 10-year reauthorization in his 2025-27 budget. However, JFC Republicans stripped all Stewardship funding from the budget, leaving the program without a path forward beyond June 30, 2026.

In response, I introduced a Knowles-Nelson reauthorization bill with Rep. Vincent Miresse (D-Stevens Point), which gained the support of all 60 Democratic legislators. This proposal provided $72 million annually for six years, and had an innovative, transparent, and public oversight process to satisfy Republicans’ oversight concerns.

This should have been the starting point for negotiations but, sadly, Republican leadership chose instead to negotiate among themselves rather than negotiate across the aisle. As the months went on, it became clear that Republican legislators were not going to figure this out before the end of the legislative session.

So with the support of the conservation community and my Democratic colleagues, I threw them a lifeline—an opportunity to reauthorize the existing Knowles-Nelson program at current funding levels for one additional year. This would buy the Legislature time until the next budget, while ensuring the program did not lapse at the end of June 2026.

This proposal was also rejected.

It seems likely that the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program will be dormant from July 1, 2026 until the next budget in 2027, but I am committed to seeing this program pass in next year’s state budget. We owe it to future generations to protect the land, waters and outdoor traditions that define Wisconsin by carrying forward the bipartisan tradition of the Knowles-Nelson program.