Reader asserts preservation bolsters Oneida County economy

To the Editor:

Someone didn’t get the memo! The headlines this week report Wisconsin sees another record-breaking tourist season in 2023, and tourism is expected to break records in 2024. Obviously, tourists and residents of Oneida County didn’t get the memo. In the June 14 Planning and Development committee meeting, when talking about the Comprehensive Land Use Plan revision, county chair Scott Holewinski declared: “Because they made that forest [American Legion Forest] for a handful of people who want to experience the wild. Well, if they want to experience the wild, move to Canada and get lost. There’s a lot of land up there to get lost in.” So why come to Wisconsin when Scott says we should go to Canada?

Or just maybe our tourists and state residents are experiencing Wisconsin’s great outdoors before Scott and his cronies can destroy them with his revisions to the Oneida County Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Maybe Scott didn’t get the memo that said preserving the Northwoods forests and lakes is more important for area tourism than dismantling those protections for some undefined “development” at the direction of the Texas group, American Stewards of Liberty. 

Dan Butkus

Crescent and Waunakee