Right Wing Group Opposes Conservation of Land in Wisconsin

Pelican River area in Wisconsin (Jay Brittain | Courtesy of the photographer)

American Stewards of Liberty (ASL), a right-wing anti-conservation group, named Wisconsin in its 2024 strategic plan, stating it wants to stop federal funding of the recently established Pelican River Forest conservation easement.

With the help of U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the organization was heavily involved in the local effort to block the easement, going as far as drafting a letter officials in Forest, Langlade and Oneida counties sent to state and federal agencies opposing the easement on the grounds that it was approved without “coordination” with local government.

ASL regularly promotes the legal theory of coordination in which any efforts to conserve land must be done with the approval of local officials, yet the theory has been widely discredited by legal experts, including Wisconsin’s former Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

The Pelican River Forest easement, the largest conservation project in Wisconsin history, was repeatedly thwarted by Republicans in the state Legislature who are sympathetic to ASL’s beliefs, including Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma). Under the project, 56,000 acres of land owned by the Conservation Fund have been put into an easement, protecting the land from development and excessive use of resources in perpetuity. The project was completed earlier this year using federal money.

Under the easement, the Pelican River Forest will remain a working forest for logging, yet not to the extent it might have been logged had it not been conserved. The easement will prevent efforts to mine the area but it will remain available for recreational uses. Local ATV and snowmobile clubs have retained access to paths through the forest.

Earlier this month, the first organized event in the Pelican River Forest took place, with mycologists from across the upper midwest coming to the area for the Wisconsin Mycological Society Foray in which 270 species of fungi were foraged, identified for research purposes and — for edible species — cooked to be served to attendees.

After the project’s completion, ASL remained active in the state and its ideas have remained influential among county board members in the area around the forest. In April, ASL’s executive director, Margaret Byfield, spoke at a meeting of the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association. At that appearance, Byfield railed against federal efforts to conserve land, claiming they’re just efforts by Democrats to “control” the country’s rural residents.

This summer, the county boards in the counties where the forest sits have begun rewriting their comprehensive land use plans with the explicit aim of stopping future efforts at creating conservation easements and promoting both more development and more opportunities for extractive industries such as logging and mining to take place.

ASL recently posted its 2024 strategic plan to its website before deleting it shortly after it went up. A copy of the plan was obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner. In the plan, the organization states it wants to “identify and support local leaders in areas under attack by the environmental community and administrative agencies.”

The organization, which is based in Texas and has traditionally focused on western states where the federal government owns much more of the land, specifically names Wisconsin as a focus for the next year.

“ASL is actively working with counties in Utah, New Mexico and Wisconsin to stop federal actions that are attempting to eliminate or significantly reduce the productive use of the natural resources,” the plan states. “In Wisconsin, it is to stop the federal funding of a conservation easement that will permanently restrict 56,000 acres of forest land from being fully utilized.”

The strategic plan also touts ASL’s involvement as a contributor to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page document outlining policy plans for a potential second term of former President Donald Trump. Project 2025 includes plans to fire thousands of civil servants across government agencies. The ASL plan states the organization is “serving to help develop executive and secretarial level policies that restore property rights for the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture that will be ready to be implemented under the next conservative administration.”

Charles Carlin, director of strategic initiatives for Gathering Waters, a non-profit aimed at promoting the state’s land trusts and conserving natural areas, previously told the Examiner that ASL doesn’t understand Wisconsin.

“Groups like ASL don’t know Wisconsin and they don’t know our values. Wisconsin is the proud home of conservation champions across the political spectrum who know how caring for our land and water increases economic opportunity while ensuring that our kids and grandkids have clean air and water as well as wild places to play,” he said.

Right-wing opponent to conservation lists Wisconsin as part of 2024 plans was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.