Oneida County panel forwards Stewardship land purchase

A divided Oneida County executive committee voted last week to send to the full county board a resolution of support for a proposed state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) land acquisition in the town of Minocqua, setting up a debate over development, public land ownership, taxes, recreation, and the future of the state’s Stewardship Program.

The proposal centers on a 77.01-acre parcel along the Upper Tomahawk River corridor that the DNR wants to acquire using Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship Program funds. The proposed purchase price is $231,050 for one tax parcel and a portion of another. 

At an executive committee meeting on May 6, county board chairman Scott Holewinski offered a resolution strongly opposing the acquisition, arguing that the purchase runs counter to the county’s comprehensive plan and would further expand public ownership in a county already dominated by publicly owned land.

However, executive committee chairman Billy Fried pushed back, arguing that potential recreational opportunities could become a benefit and emphasizing the town of Minocqua’s support for the acquisition. The town had voted 4-1 the previous evening to support the purchase.

In the end, the committee supported Fried, turning Holewinski’s oppositional resolution into one of support for the purchase, and voting 4-2 to send the matter to the full board.

Where does it stop?

In his remarks to the committee, Holewinski repeatedly pointed to the county’s comprehensive land-use plan embraced last August, which, as stated in his original resolution, “discourages the conversion of existing privately owned lands to public lands using federal, state, and local tax dollars to purchase existing MFL (Managed Forest Lands) lands or purchase easements over them.”

Reducing the tax base in perpetuity is antithetical to the interests of county residents and gives up local control, Holewinski’s resolution asserted. The resolution also pointed to lower revenues for the county because so-called payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) by the state would replace property taxes collected on the property if it remained on the tax rolls.

“The low property taxes paid on Managed Forest Lands (MFL) inadequately compensate local government for the infrastructure and services they provide,” the resolution stated.

At the meeting, Holewinski specifically placed the proposed purchase in the context of what he said was a growing problem in northern Wisconsin, where counties increasingly struggle with shrinking tax bases because of federal and state land ownership, conservation easements, and managed forest land enrollment, and he said the county’s long-term financial health remained the core issue.

The PILT dollars don’t make up for the tax loss, and the disparity will grow over time, Holewinski warned.

“No matter what you see the PILT payment on, that’s your future taxes a hundred years down the road,” he said. “Every year, the PILT gets raised a couple of pennies an acre.”

According to the draft resolution, the current 2025 property taxes total $532.35 annually, but if purchased by the DNR, PILT payments would fall to approximately $388 annually. In addition, improvements to those lands, which would not occur under state ownership, could significantly boost property tax payments down the road. 

Holewinski also argued that the parcel’s current zoning reflected prior local planning decisions favoring residential development.

“It’s not even zoned properly for what they’re doing,” he said. “They’re taking rural residential and turning it into forestry without even reselling it. … The DNR is buying proposed residential property and turning it into public land.”  

Holewinski observed that the land had long been contemplated for future housing and had been surveyed decades ago for a 19-lot subdivision.  

“Right now, the land in Oneida County, two-thirds of it is either non-taxable or very little tax like ag land, MFL land, and some other ones,” he said. “So we keep losing if they keep buying up properties that are meant for residential houses. It’s fine if the owner wants to give it to the DNR, he can do that, but I’m against using tax dollars to keep taking property off the tax rolls.”

What’s more, Holewinski suggested the state was poor-mouthing the worth of the property because, while the property’s fair market value was listed at $144,400, the DNR proposed paying $231,050 through Stewardship funds. 

“It’s certainly a pretty valuable piece of property if you’re willing to pay $231,000,” he said. “It’s only assessed value at $57,000. …. Why are they buying it for $231,000 if it’s worthless?”

In addition, Holewinski argued the purchase could complicate future development of nearby parcels and potentially landlock other privately owned land. 

“That’s exactly what the DNR always does,” he said. “We only have about a third of the tax base left paying most of the taxes. We can’t just keep letting the DNR keep buying little chunks away from us.”

The land may not be desirable, Holewinski said, but the proposed purchase price said otherwise.

“Just look at what they’re paying for it,” he said. “There is no doubt in my mind that those lots can be productive somehow, maybe not the way it was laid out in 1979, but surely you’re paying a lot more money than what the assessment and even the fair market value is on that property.”

And he repeatedly returned to what he described as the county’s larger concern over expanding public ownership.

“Oneida County’s already lost 56,000 acres of developable land in 2024,” he said, referring to the Pelican River forest easement. “We passed a comprehensive plan based [on that] that we did not want any more public land using tax dollars.”

And now, once again, Holewinski said, something that's already been laid out for a subdivision would now be taken off the tax roll. Holewinski also questioned whether promises about future recreational improvements would ever fully materialize.

Fried supports

In an April 24 letter to the county board, DNR real estate specialist Nicole Smith formally requested county support for the acquisition.  

According to Smith, the property lies entirely within the Willow Flowage Scenic Waters Area project boundary and borders existing DNR-owned land. In the letter, she outlined several reasons the DNR believes the acquisition is important.

Among the benefits, Smith wrote, the property is a large continuous block of land with two-bank frontage along the Tomahawk River; it fronts on a town road, allowing for ease of access for public recreation and DNR land management; it provides natural resource protection for the state-threatened wood turtle and other species/communities of special concern; and it would protect the waters of the Upper Tomahawk River corridor that connect to the Willow Flowage, which has an Outstanding Resource Water designation.

Fried, who represents Minocqua, said the town was also enthusiastic about those benefits and had passed a resolution 4-1 the previous night supporting the purchase. He read a letter of support from the town of Minocqua chairman reiterating many of the DNR’s points.

“The property is contiguous to a block of land with two bank frontage along the Tomahawk River, and the property has frontage along a town road enabling access public recreation,” the letter stated. “The property lies within the upper Tomahawk River corridor, which connects to the Willow Flowage, which has outstanding resource water designation, thereby enabling protection of such waters. And the acquisition is limited in scope and consistent with the ownership of properties along the Tomahawk River corridor between Camp Nine and the Willow Flowage.”

Fried added his own thoughts, too, saying a major priority for him was accommodating the town’s wishes. He reminded supervisors that he had supported the town of Monico when it resisted the DNR’s purchase of the Pelican River Forest easement.

“That town was going to be greatly affected, and it took away a high percentage of their small town’s available developmental area,” Fried said. “99.9 percent of the time, if a town doesn’t want something, I support the town. In this case, I strongly support Minocqua’s position. The one dissenting [Minocqua] vote was concerned about using taxpayer money to buy developmental land and questioning, are they paying above the value?”

Those questions are legitimate, Fried said.

“Those are fundamental concerns I certainly have with them now, and I will have in the future, but I represent the town of Minocqua,” he said. “Minocqua’s one of the biggest towns in square miles in the country, not just in the state. We have a lot of developmental land. There’s a lot going on.”

Yes, Fried said, there are concerns about housing. 

“We have concerns about labor, but things are moving forward, at least with the housing and some opportunities in our vast township,” he said. 

Fried also said the town amended the resolution to include coordination with the town to develop public parking access. 

“Currently, people are entering the Tomahawk River there, and they are parking on the town road,” he said. “So we’re asking, when you acquire it, we’d love for you to coordinate with us and develop some parking because one of the things people will be able to do is access the Tomahawk River there. So that would be nice.”

Fried said the town was also asking the DNR to coordinate with the town and local clubs, meaning UTV and snowmobile clubs, to facilitate motorized vehicle routes along the public roadway, and Minocqua was also requesting that the DNR coordinate over a possible dry-hydrant installation for the Minocqua Fire Department. 

“It allows the fire department to have a water source availability,” he said. “It allows the trucks to access water to fill their trucks, and you actually put in a hydrant that would actually suck the water, hook up your hose, and bring it up.” 

Another concern, Fried said, is that in these kinds of purchases, the DNR typically allows only silent sports. 

“So we want to make sure that if this is purchased, that you leave the right of way along the road available for any future trail developments for those motorized vehicles,” he said. “Right now, it’s not impacting any trails that go through that area, but you never know what will happen in the future, and we don’t want to be restricted. And as I told you, work with the town to provide an easement or agreement.”

On the broader questions of developable land versus publicly owned recreational land, Fried said there were differences of opinion among the public: “Some people might say it’s much better to have that property available for the recreational aspect as opposed to becoming a 19-house subdivision.”  

Then, too, Fried said, while he expected a full debate on the county board floor, Holewinski’s resolution was asking the board to support a negative proposition — a denial of support — rather than making a decision on an affirmative proposal.

“I just don’t like something coming from a negative from this committee to which the township is on the other side of,” he said. “I mean, we can take this debate to the county board floor. It’s just that you’ll hear me say the same things, but I’d rather it be in more the positive, and you argue to deny it than bringing something negative that I have to argue to be brought to the positive.”

The debate frequently returned to whether the property’s highest and best use was residential development or public recreation and conservation. At one point, Fried argued the parcel’s recreational value could outweigh the relatively modest tax loss.

“The recreational opportunity certainly could be argued, actually can be turned into a benefit,” he said.  

Committee member Michael Tautges said maps of surrounding DNR acquisitions made the state’s intentions obvious.

“I pulled up a map with Knowles Nelson purchases nearby,” Tautges said. “You can clearly see what their intent is. And I’ve heard a lot of support because people do use this as an access point already, that it makes a lot of sense.”

Tautges said the county has raised objections about large DNR land purchases multiple times.

“But because of the very small amount of land that’s actually being acquired, because it doesn’t have an outsized impact on the tax dollars that still are going to be collected — the PILT is not as much — but you can clearly see the intent,” he said. “And this is an access point that makes a lot of the other land that they’ve acquired up to this point make sense. It makes all of that land much more accessible and useful. You can see what they’re trying to do.”

Supervisor Dan Hess observed that much of the surrounding area is already DNR-owned land, suggesting the purchase would largely complete an existing corridor, but Holewinski contended that if some of those parcels were sold, it could create landlocked private parcels.

The executive committee ultimately abandoned Holewinski’s original anti-acquisition resolution and changed the resolution from opposing to supporting the purchase. Essentially, the zoning committee scrapped Holewinski’s resolution — with its reference to the county comprehensive plan’s opposition to ongoing state land purchases in Oneida County — and, as Fried said in the meeting, passed a resolution mimicking the one Minocqua passed the previous evening.

That resolution emphasized protection of a designated outstanding resource water and consistency with existing property ownership along the Tomahawk River corridor between Camp Nine and the Willow Flowage. Fried indicated he may seek to add Minocqua’s requested parking and trail-coordination provisions before final board consideration.  

Stewardship debate continues statewide

The local dispute comes as the statewide future of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program remains uncertain. The Stewardship Program, which has long been used to finance large land purchases and easements in perpetuity in northern Wisconsin, will sunset on June 30 after state lawmakers refused to reauthorize it this past session.  

Democrats have promised to bring the program back if they regain majorities in the state Senate and Assembly next year. In any case, projects already approved or in the pipeline can continue moving forward because the program operates using previously authorized bonding authority.  

The Stewardship Fund received $33 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year, and the DNR and conservation organizations are currently attempting to complete pending acquisitions.  

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.