Wisconsin Factory Farm Polluter and Republican Donor Dead in Plane Crash

A Google Earth view of Pagel's Ponderosa factory farm in
Kewaunee County, Wisconsin. The late owner, John Pagel, was
a member of the Kewaunee County Board and chair of
the county's Land and Conservation Committee. Pagel has
acknowledged that large factory operations such as his
can contribute to groundwater pollution but said industry can
 lead the way toward a solution. From Wisconsin Watch

"I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction," wrote Clarence Darrow in his 1932 autobiography, The Story of My Life, (p. 92).

Darrow, were he living today, could be referring to the death of factory farm polluter, John Pagel, killed when a Cessna 441 Conquest Turboprop plane crashed in a muddy field in Carroll County, Indiana on Feb. 22, (WSAW).

Pagel is a major poisoner of families and an unrepentant polluter of communities in Wisconsin's peninsula.

"It would have been fitting if Pagel drowned in a million-gallon vat of cow shit, instead of falling from the sky," said a Door County citizen this weekend. "You want a quote, how about, 'you reap what you sow,' John Pagel."

That is fitting.

Pagel did had other pursuits besides poisoning area families by vectoring cow manure into their water wells.

Pagel gave $1,000s to Scott Walker and other Republicans who in return transformed Wisconsin water pollution law and regulations so Pagel and factory polluters could get away with poisoning children, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Wisconsin media ran statements this weekend saying Pagel left behind a "legacy."

Wisconsin needs no more such legacies.

"Safe drinking water is a prerequisite for protecting public health and all human activity," reads the Unites States Department of Homeland Security, (DHS), website on our Water and Wastewater Systems sector.

Don't think John Pagel died knowing the value of water for human life and public health.

I note with satisfaction that Pagel may have died with an appreciation for gravity.

Wisconsin Citizen Activism Fights Against Big Ag

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm.

On Tuesday, May 2 the Wisconsin legislature will hold key vote(s) on a radical new policy that would obliterate protection for ground and surface waters.

Republicans exercise total control in the gerrymandered legislature and bear responsibility for the results.

By Don Ystad

Concerned friends and neighbors,

Here in Rome, Wisconsin it's not hard to project what life would be like were our lakes to be drained like Huron and others in the central sands around us. Imagine the effect on the $3/4 billion in property valuation around the lakes in Rome, and the reduced spending in area businesses as visitors stopped coming. Those are the concerns being ignored by our legislators and the agriculture lobbies as they consider fast tracking SB 76. They appear blind to the $20 billion in state tourism revenue affected, the quality of life of residents who enjoy these lakes, and the effect on local communities when their tax base erodes because the lakes have diminished.

Consider that our legislators in Wisconsin are being bought off for a paltry quarter of a million dollars per year by ag lobbyists. That is peanuts compared to the value of your combined lake properties. In Adams County alone, lakes properties account for one billion dollars in valuation, nearly a half of the counties $2,2 billion valuation. Agriculture; less than 1%. You pay the taxes, and the ag industry gets the benefit. And, we're ruining our lakes to boot, as 3 of our 4 in Rome are on the state's impaired list. If this doesn't stir you to action, you share some responsibility in allowing this to happen.

The solution?  Citizen activism. Speaking out. Sending letters and e-mails. Let your representatives know there is a down side to ignoring your rights. There are over 5,000 lakes area property owners in Rome. Thousands more in Adams County, and twice that in our whole central sands area. And, ten times more lake property owners than farmers in this state. And, we are allowing a lobby funded by a few dozen industrial farmers and growers and their suppliers to determine the future of our lakes, streams and drinking water wells. We have to speak out, and we have to stop voting in the people who blatantly ignore our rights to clean and abundant water. And, before you slam me as being anti-agriculture, consider that four generations of my family milked dairy cows in Clark County, WI. These big ag interests are doing the same to family farmers as they are doing to us, and that's not good for any of us. Where politics is concerned, silence is consent.

By Todd Richmond - Associated Press

TOWN OF OASIS, WISCONSIN - Cris Van Houten thought he was getting a little bit of paradise when he built his house on Huron Lake in Wisconsin’s central sands region. He could look out from his deck at the blue water and scuba dive in the shallows.

Less than 10 years later, he and his neighbors are watching their beloved lake dry up. The shoreline has receded at least 20 feet, leaving Van Houten with a new beach he never wanted, his dock high and dry, and scuba diving impossible.

Like other lake property owners, Van Houten blames the high-capacity water wells serving agriculture, particularly potato farmers. As the number of wells grows, Wisconsin finds itself in an unexpected fight. Despite being bordered on three sides by Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River and cross-hatched with innumerable rivers, streams and lakes, the state no longer can take water for granted.

"We’re all pretty sick of what’s going on here," Van Houten, 73, said. "We’re losing our lake to make junk food."

Wisconsin Scientists' New Group to Access Threats to Natural Resources

Wisconsin Green Fire - "Voices for Conservation has been
formed in response to recent developments at the
state and national level that threaten science-based
practices and long-term vision in natural resources
management," (Woods Person). Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices
for Conservation website, and opportunities to join and/or
contribute are scheduled to be launched in coming months

Facing an unprecedented assault on natural resources by polluting industry, a group of scientists in Wisconsin will launch a private consortium offering science-based analysis into public policy-making and the political culture.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource, (DNR), now facilitates pollution, whereas in the past the DNR protected natural resources.

By Don Ystad

Fellow concerned citizens,

If you look at this from a distance, it's shameful that citizens and former DNR scientists have to rise up to fight the state DNR, a bureau formerly responsible for one of the greatest environmental programs in the country, and a legislature blind to the needs of it's citizens as it panders to a relatively small group of mega farmer lobbyists.  But, we have to also be grateful for the experts stepping forward to remind us of what we have to lose if we also don't step in.  In the current political environment, silence is consent.  Your inaction emboldens the politicians to continue pandering to the mega farm lobby while they threaten your wells, lakes and streams and destroy the family farm heritage we celebrate.

As we approach a blitz by the state Assembly to join forces with the state Senate to provide water rights in perpetuity to these mega farmers, even while your well, stream or lake runs dry or becomes unusable, ask yourself if this might be the right time for you to join forces with other like minded citizens and raise your voice in one of these groups - Concerned Rome Citizens, Protect Wood County, Central Sands Water Action Coalition, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, and the new statewide Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin.  Take back your right to clean and abundant water.  You probably won't get a second chance.

Scientists form new group to address threats to Wisconsin’s natural resources

Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices for Conservation has been formed in response to recent developments at the state and national level that threaten science-based practices and long-term vision in natural resources management.

[Madison, Wisconsin – April 21, 2017]

Once regarded as a national leader in conservation, Wisconsin’s proud tradition of dedicated stewardship of its land, waters, and wildlife has been severely compromised. A new organization, Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices for Conservation (WGF), now seeks to reclaim that tradition of leadership for a new generation.

Under Governor Walker’s administration, budgets have been slashed for Wisconsin State Parks and public lands management, scientific research, the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine, and the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board. Scientific information on climate change has been scrubbed from Department of Natural Resources communications and restrictions on Department of Natural Resources staff have limited access to science at public hearings. This is a partial list of changes by the current administration that make it clear that responsible, science-based, long-term management practices are no longer welcome at the table.

In response to these threats, a group of retired and active Wisconsin scientists with experience from a wide range of institutions—including the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), the University of Wisconsin, federal natural resource agencies, nonprofit environmental groups, research institutions, and the private sector—have established Wisconsin’s Green Fire.

WGF is an independent, nonpartisan group. Its nearly 70 members represent a depth and breadth of experience in natural resource management, environmental law and policy, scientific research, and education.

Historically, Wisconsin managed its abundant natural resources based on sound science, wise economic investments, fair and open public process, and a shared conservation ethic. In the last six years that tradition has been eroded.

"Wisconsin’s Green Fire, (WGF), believes Wisconsin’s citizens deserve better. We believe there are many in Wisconsin who feel, as we do, that a state as beautiful and bountiful as ours deserves thoughtful stewardship." said WGF board member, Nancy Larson, who retired in the past year from WDNR’s water program.

Wisconsin’s Green Fire will help local units of government, nonprofit organizations, media, decision makers and citizens get the scientific information they need to address local and regional issues. The group will also be a source for those seeking experts who can and will take positions and bring scientific clarity and scrutiny to contentious and complicated environmental issues. Underpinning WGF’s mission is the belief that scientific research, knowledge and education are a basis for ensuring clean water, air, and healthy ecosystems for the economic and social benefit of society.

"In recent years, Wisconsin’s longstanding tradition of balancing natural resource conservation with human activities has been undermined," said Terry Daulton, a coordinator for Wisconsin’s Green Fire.  "Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff is no longer able to fully share their expertise with policy makers and the public. As a result, we are seeing new and unprecedented threats to Wisconsin’s water, air, lands and wildlife. Our goal is to be a voice for sound science in conservation."

The group takes its name from one of Aldo Leopold’s essay, "Thinking Like a Mountain". "We decided to use Green Fire in our name to tie us to Wisconsin’s conservation hero, Aldo Leopold," Daulton said. "Leopold’s land ethic relies on understanding that people are a part of the land, every species has importance, and human activities must be in harmony with nature. It also tells us, as citizens and as scientists, that we all share a responsibility for the land, for one another, and for future generations."

More information about Wisconsin’s Green Fire: Voices for Conservation, a website, and opportunities to join and/or contribute will be available in coming months.  For information now, you can contact terryldaulton@gmail.com.

Any Great Lakes Gov. Can Halt Lake Michigan Water Diversion; Walker Continues Deplete-and-Pollute Policy

"There are approximately 160,000 public drinking water systems
in the United States, (DHS)." In Michigan and Wisconsin,
clean water is under siege by Republican governors as desperate
citizens look to the federal government for relief and protection.
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources
Compact of 2008 offers protection of the Great Lakes water.

Thanks to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact of 2008, one governor of a Great Lakes state can veto the diversion of water to the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin—a racist, white community residing in the Mississippi watershed.

Clean water activists are advising citizens to contact Gov. Mark Dayton (D-Minnesota) by March 3, 2016, (and the governors of the below states), to register objection to the Waukesha application for diversion of water from Lake Michigan. The Minnesota DNR is holding a listening session on March 3 in Duluth.

Clean water activists say the need to protect the waters of the Great Lakes from the dangerously deranged policies on water accelerated by Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) and Gov. Rick Snyder (R-Michigan) has taken on an increased urgency in light of the water poisoning and depletion policies exemplified by Walker and Snyder.

Waukesha needs the support of all the governors of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, under the terms of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact.

The diversion of water from Lake Michigan to Waukesha would set a dangerous precedent that the Great Lakes water is for sale and available for any use by reckless cities such as Waukesha. The diversion would also send the message that genuinely sociopathic policies on water employed by Govs. Scott Walker and Rick Snyder are acceptable.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact of 2008 was enacted to protect fresh water from the policies employed by Walker, Snyder and corporate America seeking to privatize and pollute fresh water.

Walker Sells Out Wisconsin Peoples' Water

"As Flint residents are forced to drink, cook with and even bathe in bottled water, while still paying some of the highest water bills in the county for their poisoned water, we turn to a little-known story about the bottled water industry in Michigan. In 2001 and 2002, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued permits to Nestlé, the largest water bottling company in the world, to pump up to 400 gallons of water per minute from aquifers that feed Lake Michigan," (Goodman, Democracy Now).

Now that Scott Walker and legislative Republicans are set on a course of giving away the people of the state of Wisconsin's water, the water that has not been polluted yet, residents from around the state remain in a state ranging from trauma to disbelief.

Notes a friend from central Wisconsin:

In Rome, Wisconsin in Adams County, in there is a 40-acre piece of property on Alpine Drive and 15th, that is up for sale. It contains a high-capacity well that was never used by the former owner, Jim Hoffman. Jim lost the property through foreclosure. If this bill, (AB 874), goes through, anyone purchasing that piece of property could set up for extraction for bottled water, and no one will be able to do a thing about it. Very few people realize that the well is there.

Wisconsin is a trajectory as the new Flint, Michigan. Whether this stops is up to the people.

Sturgeon Bay Public Waterfront Protectors Add Key Endorsements

Friends of the Sturgeon Bay Public Waterfront

The attack on water from Scott Walker and donors is statewide.

From Sturgeon Bay in northeastern Wisconsin citizens groups are working to protect a critical natural resource.

From The Friends of the Sturgeon Bay Public Waterfront:

The Friends of the Sturgeon Bay Public Waterfront was formed to challenge the sale of land along Sturgeon Bay’s westside waterfront to a private developer. One of the founders of the Friends group, Shawn Fairchild, explains, 'These lands are held in trust for the people of Wisconsin and all improvements done on the land should benefit everyone, not just one private developer. We oppose the selling of this public waterfront land to a private party. We believe that fundamentally it is no different than selling a State Park. '

Today the Friends of the Sturgeon Bay Public Waterfront and Sturgeon Bay residents filed a brief in federal court opposing a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the City of Sturgeon Bay and its Waterfront Redevelopment Authority regarding the City’s proposed sale of Public Trust land.
Midwest Environmental Advocates has joined attorneys from Wheeler, Van Sickle & Anderson, S.C. to represent the local residents and support their constitutionally protected right to due process and access to the lakebed property held in public trust by our state government.

You can download the full brief online at http://tinyurl.com/pg3ouob. The case is Friends of the Sturgeon Bay Public Waterfront et al v. City of Sturgeon Bay and Waterfront Redevelopment Authority of the City of Sturgeon Bay.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is charged with protecting public trust land, and Wisconsin has vigorously defended these public rights in navigable waters for over a century. 'We hope that the courts will consider the available evidence so that our state and local governments continue that protection of public shoreline in one of Wisconsin's most unique places', said Fairchild.

The Friends group established a fund at Associated Bank and is seeking contributions toward legal expenses. In addition to monetary donations, the Friends group has sought the support of non-profit advocacy groups. They announced recently that new public endorsements have come from the Democratic Party of Door County and the Great Lakes Commons; these are in addition to prior endorsements from the Door County Environmental Council, Door Property Owners, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, Midwest Environmental Advocates and Preserve Our Parks. The Friends expressed gratitude to the organizations. 'We know that these organizations studied this issue carefully and we’re pleased that they’ve chosen to stand in support of public land,' said Kathleen Finnerty, founding member of the Friends.

“We just keep growing - every day, every week, every month we add more members, supporters and contributions. We are creating an incredible amount of creativity and enthusiasm in the community right now. We invite everyone to come and be a part of it”, said Finnerty.

More information about the Friends group is available at www.friendsofsturgeonbaypublicwaterfront.com. Contributions are needed and may be made online, dropped off at Associated Bank or sent to Sturgeon Bay Public Waterfront Fund, PO Box 534, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235. Donations will be kept confidential by request. Excess funds or recovery of legal fees if the Friends prevail will be returned on a prorated basis. Contributions of any size are greatly appreciated.