Much like Gov. Scott Walker when he virtually disappeared into the woodwork on stage during the first debate of Republican presidential candidates, I decided to take a break from the sleaziness of politics for a while.
What could be more removed from Wisconsin’s political corruption than traveling to the far reaches of the state to visit the priceless, densely forested wetlands of the Upper Bad River Watershed in the heart of the Penokee Hills?
I’m kidding, of course.
Not about the enormous ecological value of those vast wetlands in preserving water quality and a rich diversity of vegetation, wildlife and trout streams across northern Wisconsin from the Penokee Hills all the way downstream to Lake Superior.
But everyone in Wisconsin should remember that from the moment Walker took office in 2011, he and Republican legislators plotted with an out-of-state mining company, Gogebic Taconite, to destroy decades of state environmental protections to allow construction of one of the largest open-pit iron mines on earth.
It wasn’t until March of this year that Gogebic abandoned plans for the mine. Despite Republicans allowing the company to write its own flimsy environmental regulations, Gogebic said the mine wouldn’t be profitable enough because the federal Environmental Protection Agency would still force the company to comply with federal rules protecting such an environmentally important network of wetlands.
That prompted Walker to immediately add to his radical right-wing agenda as a Republican presidential candidate abolishing the federal Environmental Protection Agency and turning the job of safeguarding our environment over to politically indifferent states like Wisconsin.
Tracy Hames, executive director of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, was the guide on our field trip to Penokee Hills. He warned us there weren’t any paths to the really good stuff.
That just made it all the more spectacular after we slowly worked our way through dense forest and found ourselves balancing atop a beaver dam enclosing a large pond with an elaborately constructed beaver lodge at its center housing the earth’s most talented natural engineers.
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The pond was flush up against a Penokee ridge that would have been the edge of an enormous open pit plunging 1,000 feet into the earth and extending for miles.
“I call it Ground Zero,” Hames said, “but actually if they dropped a nuclear bomb here, they would have caused less destruction than the mine they planned.”
That’s because the deep hole itself would have been only the beginning of the devastation. The natural areas we were hiking through were part of a working forest that had been sustainably harvested for timber for a century while preserving a healthy, interconnected eco-system.
All those forests and wetlands would have been buried beneath 500 feet of waste rock excavated out of the earth. Without any wetlands holding water and slowly feeding trout streams, snow melt would surge downhill every spring carrying away much of what keeps those hills alive. Also, carrying toxic mine waste that would contaminate rivers, wild rice beds and one of the world’s Great Lakes. Look out below.
This from a governor who was taught as an Eagle Scout to leave campsites better than he found them instead of wiping them off the face of the earth.
Selling Out the Environment
Walker justified such massive environmental destruction with wildly exaggerated claims about job creation, one of the governor’s political specialties.
Walker’s inflated promise of mining jobs rapidly grew from hundreds into thousands before reverting back to zero when the ridiculously over-hyped project collapsed. So Walker’s imaginary mine was a total failure, right?
Only if you don’t understand the real motives behind corrupt Wisconsin politics today. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign documented that while mining regulations were being rewritten, Gogebic executives and mine supporters donated $15 million in campaign contributions to Walker and legislative Republicans.
And even more in secret contributions. Court records in the John Doe investigation shut down by the state Supreme Court revealed Gogebic secretly donated at least another $700,000 to Walker and Republicans by laundering anonymous contributions through Wisconsin Club for Growth.
Walker and Republicans continue to dismantle the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Walker’s budget abolished the DNR’s Bureau of Scientific Services and eliminated 18 scientific positions conducting factual research exposing environmental threats.
Even worse, the DNR is undergoing a drastic reorganization to pervert the department’s mission by transforming it into a “one-stop shop for business assistance.” In other words, forget about protecting natural resources and outlawing pollution by profit-making corporations. Start lending a hand to those fine Republican campaign contributors.
That’s why many more people need to get away to the Penokee Hills. Those hills stand as a reminder that decent people who care about irreplaceable natural resources can still win battles against sleazy politicians on the take.
Despite everything that’s happened in Wisconsin, the earth and its natural treasures are still more important than corrupt, little politicians.
