Oneida County board backs DNR land purchase

In a strong show of support for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ land acquisition program, the Oneida County Board of Supervisors voted 15-2 Tuesday to support the agency’s proposed purchase of private land in the town of Minocqua using Knowles Nelson Stewardship tax dollars.

If the DNR completes the purchase as proposed, it will pay $231,050 for the property, which has a fair market value of about $144,400. As with all Stewardship purchases, the state will bond for the money; taxpayers will repay it, plus interest. 

As of 2025, outstanding Stewardship debt totaled $532 million, including $411 million in outstanding principal and $121 million in outstanding interest. The DNR had additional bonding authority of $33.25 million in both 2025 and fiscal year 2026.

The proposed acquisition involves two parcels along the Upper Tomahawk River corridor totaling 77 acres. Purchase supporters say the land would provide additional public access to the Tomahawk River. 

According to the resolution adopted by the board, the property encompasses “two-bank frontage along the Tomahawk River,” has frontage along a town road that would allow public recreational access, and lies within the Upper Tomahawk corridor connected to the Willow Flowage, an Outstanding Resource Water. 

The DNR’s Stewardship program expires on June 30, though bonding authority for many projects is already in the pipeline. The DNR has moved aggressively in recent months to complete acquisitions — the state has previously set a goal of adding 200,000 acres to its roster, much of that in northern Wisconsin — even as the amount of public land has ballooned past 25 percent in Oneida County, and, in some counties, close to 50 percent.

Supervisor Billy Fried, who represents the Minocqua area, was the resolution’s leading proponent, though he acknowledged broader concerns about publicly funded land acquisitions.

Fried said earlier DNR acquisitions in the area — particularly the 56,000-acre Pelican River Forest easement — had generated significant opposition because local officials believed the state agency had failed to communicate with the town before pursuing purchases.

“I was not supporting the purchase at that time because it was affecting the town of Monico, and the town of Monico didn’t want it,” Fried said. “It was a much bigger purchase, but what happened at that time is, there wasn’t a lot of communication, collaboration, or coordination with the town.”  

This time, Fried said, the DNR handled the proposal differently.

“Well, this time around it was a lot different,” he said. “There was a lot of communication from the DNR prior to the purchase to get the town support, which the town of Minocqua supported by a vote of four to one.”  

Fried stressed that the proposed acquisition was relatively narrow in scope and would not significantly hinder future housing development in the area.

“And in this case, for the town of Minocqua, we’re one of the biggest townships, not only in the state, but in the country,” he said. “I think we’re in the top 10 as far as square miles. We have concerns with housing and labor, but there are a lot of projects that are going on right now. This area that they’re asking to acquire is a privately owned property. It is complementary, or it joins to that Pelican Lake project I was talking about.”

It is an area that would allow people to get to the Tomahawk River, Fried continued. He also emphasized that the property is already commonly used by the public to access the river corridor and argued the acquisition would formalize that access while improving public safety.

“We’ve had problems out there with people parking along the side of the road,” he said. “So we want to make sure they’re taking over this land, and they’re going to put a canoe portage in there, whatever, that they work on putting parking in there. We are also very sensitive that when these purchases are done, that they aren’t limited to silent sports.”

Fried said Minocqua would maintain the road right-of-way.

“And in the amendment that you’ll hear me offer, we ask them to make sure they leave the right of way available for possible future trails of UTVs and snowmobiles,” he said. “This area right now has a lot of UTV and snowmobiles to go through there. There’s not a problem with this purchase of cutting off any current trails, but we certainly want to ensure in the future, the way things work with trails being cut off from private land owners, that this stays accessible to maintain that important trail system as well.” 

Fried later introduced his amendment, which added language requiring coordination on parking development adjacent to the roadway, preservation of motorized trail access along the roadway corridor, and installation access for a dry hydrant for firefighting purposes.  

The amendment passed 17-0 before the board returned to the underlying resolution.  

Conservation or land grab?

The debate highlighted a broader split in northern Wisconsin over the Stewardship program itself, with environmentalists and many outdoor sports enthusiasts supporting more land acquisition, and property rights activists and some economic development officials warning of a day of reckoning by surrendering so much property to the government.

County clerk Tracy Hartman outlined objections raised by board chairman Scott Holewinski, who was absent from the meeting but had authored an earlier resolution opposing the purchase.

Hartman said Holewinski’s objections centered on three primary concerns: preserving land for rural residential development, protecting the county’s tax base, and adhering to the county’s comprehensive plan, which discourages public land acquisition with tax dollars.

“Oneida County Comprehensive Plan was adopted by the Oneida County board with the intent to minimize any purchase of land or easement using federal, state, and local tax dollars,” Hartman said while reading from Holewinski’s original proposal.  

Supervisor Robert Briggs, the town chairman of Monico, voiced strong skepticism about continued public acquisition of private land, while supervisor Rob Jensen said he remained conflicted, calling the issue “philosophical” while acknowledging the specific arguments supporting the proposal.

“We passed the resolution a number of months ago saying we did not favor this,” Jensen said. “That resolution didn’t say we favor it if the town supports it, or we don’t favor it if the town doesn’t support it. I assume there’s other access to the Tomahawk River on this property. I just think I have mixed emotions.”  

Jensen also raised concerns about long-term development pressures in Minocqua, saying it was constantly advertising to attract more people and could grow tremendously. At the same time, Jensen acknowledged that Fried’s amendment addressed several concerns about public access and local coordination.

“I like what you did here in terms of at least there’s more guarantees in terms of what’s going to be done,” Jensen said.  

Supervisor Michael Tautges, who also represents Minocqua, stated that the board has previously raised objections to large land purchases, but that this particular proposal represented a limited, strategic purchase.

“I can’t personally come up with a way to object to this specific purchase,” he said. “This 77 acres is a very specific use, gives them access to the road, gives them the opportunity to add to public safety.”  

Supervisor Debbie Condado said she initially opposed the measure at the executive committee level but changed her position after conducting additional research.

“Since then, I’ve done a little bit more digging and heard some more perspective,” Condado said. “And so I will be changing my vote to a yes.”  

Supervisor Linnaea Newman described the earlier executive committee debate between Fried and Holewinski as one of the most educational discussions she had witnessed during her service on the board.

“It really left you going, I could see both sides,” Newman said. “With the amendment today, it funnels it down into a very specific space for me to make a decision based on this particular situation because it has gone through the town and it has answered the questions for this particular area.” 

The final vote approving the amended resolution was 15-2, with Briggs and supervisor Greg Oettinger voting no and four supervisors absent. Voting to support the DNR’s land purchase were Condado, Lenore Lopez, Bob Almekinder, Newman, Mary Roth Burns, Russ Fisher, Chris Schultz, Dan Hess, Ted Cushing, Tautges, Fried, Andrea Sheppard, Sandy Hamburg, Kyle Kilbourn, and Jensen. 

Land march

The DNR has previously announced a goal of acquiring an additional 200,000 acres statewide, much of it targeted for northern Wisconsin, and has been moving aggressively in recent months, among other areas attempting a Stewardship purchase of 2,000 acres in Price County.

Meanwhile, as lawmakers tried to negotiate possible Stewardship reauthorization this past year, state Sen. Pat Testin unsuccessfully floated a proposal to prohibit future Stewardship acquisitions north of U.S. Highway 8, in a bid to save the program. The proposal reflected concerns about the concentration of state-owned land in northern Wisconsin.

According to 2024 data cited by WisPolitics, Assembly District 34, represented by Rep. Rob Swearingen, had 4.69 percent of its land controlled by the state, accounting for 9.4 percent of the state’s total. Sen. Mary Felzkowski’s district contained approximately 13.71 percent of protected land, representing about one-third of all stewardship-protected acreage statewide. Those totals do not include local, county and federal land holdings.

Felzkowski told WisPolitics in February she found the idea of limiting additional acquisitions north of U.S. 8 “appealing,” though she also wanted communities to have future opportunities to remove land from stewardship protection for development if taxpayers were reimbursed.  

Such a measure would require easements to be able to be released from perpetuity contracts, or to be set at different durations and halt outright acquisitions above Hwy. 8.

“I think it’s wrong to lock communities into forever,” Felzkowski told WisPolitics. “I would like to give them flexibilities.”  

On Tuesday, the Oneida County board was in no mood to do so.

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