Pelican River Forest redux

To the Editor:

Here we go again.

It’s been almost a year now since the Oneida County Board overrode the will of the people and passed an advisory resolution against the acquisition of conservation easements in the Pelican River Forest. These conservation easements would assure that this land would remain in its natural state, and would safeguard the headwaters of the Pelican and Wolf Rivers from the pollution that comes with development, particularly the development of sulfide mines. They would allow public access to hunt, fish, snowmobile, use ATVs, hike, bike, and just enjoy this beautiful wilderness.

The Pelican River Forest is a 55,000+ acre parcel of land that is privately owned, and therefore taxed as managed forest land. It is not public land, as some lawmakers repeatedly and falsely declare. The conservation easements proposed would enable the best of both worlds — land that is open to the public for recreating, and that is also working land to be used for responsibly harvesting trees, therefore contributing to the local economy via recreational and tourist activities, as well as the local lumber industry.

The public easements in the Pelican River Forest are extremely popular with the people of Oneida County. The majority of our residents cannot afford to own large tracts of land on which to hunt, fish, and recreate. Land that is open to the public, like the proposed easements in the Pelican River Forest, do a great service for our people, by giving them access to land that they may not have otherwise been able to enjoy. Our elected officials, who, against the will of the people, voted against the acquisition of these conservation easements, are doing us a great disservice.

On the state level, our lawmakers, led by State Senator Mary Felzkowski, blocked funding for the Pelican River Forest from the Wisconsin Knowles Nelson Fund, but the purchase was and is not a dead issue. Funding from the U.S. Forest Service is still very much on the table. However, congressman Tom Tiffany, county board chair Scott Holewinski, and Monico supervisor Robert Briggs, have collaborated with the American Stewards for Liberty, a far-right extremist organization out of Texas, that wants all U.S. land to be open for development. They wrote a letter to the U.S. Forest Service requesting a delay in funding for the Pelican River Forest. There has been no county board action known by this writer to authorize the county board chair to work with the American Stewards for Liberty or to send the letter to the Forest Service on behalf of Oneida County. Scott Holewinski and Robert Briggs have gone rogue and are falsely claiming that they represent the people of Oneida County in opposing the Pelican River Forest funding. They most certainly do not represent our wishes in this matter.

This action of Mr. Holewinski, supervisor Briggs, and Mr. Tiffany is astonishing and alarming. They will stop at nothing to assert their agendas over the will of the people of Oneida County. The people of Oneida County want something much different.

We want to protect the forests, to preserve the right of the public to recreate in these forests, and we want naturally clean air and water. We don’t want to live in a wasteland of mining or other industrial developments. We want to preserve our unique northwoods way of life, the beauty of our forests, lakes and rivers. We want to pass this legacy of clean and natural living on to our children and grandchildren. And we want to be heard, not ignored, by our elected representatives. 

Kathleen Cooper

Rhinelander