Friends of the environment and our Wisconsin state parks were justifiably thrilled last December when the Court of Appeals announced its decision to uphold two earlier judicial rulings in reversing Kohler Company’s permit to build a new golf course on 247 acres north of Kohler-Andrae State Park.
Kohler’s golf course plan called for bulldozing rare dunes, clearcutting old growth forest, and devastating the habitat of hundreds of species, some of them rare or endangered.
According to Mary Faydash, president of Friends of the Black River Forest, the grassroots group that sued the DNR and derailed Kohler’s plan, “The golf course cannot be built. We’re telling everybody that.”
The appeals court decision is a clear and definitive win.
Kohler had until January 5, 2024, to appeal for review to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Two Wisconsin judges had already written withering takedowns of Kohler’s wetlands mitigation permit, which was granted under the administration of Governor Scott Walker when a dysfunctional DNR was headed by real estate businessperson Cathy Steppe.
Kohler Company was essentially given carte blanche by the conservative Walker administration.
However, while sighs of relief and celebrations are warranted, the danger to a rare ecosystem is not over. Fans of unrestricted development recently confronted Faydash and FBRF member Kathleen Rammer at a Sheboygan County restaurant with the notion that “the land belongs to Kohler, and they can do what they want with it.”
There are many things wrong with that idea, but not least among them is the fact that Kohler’s plan included a land swap in which they were granted prime acres inside Kohler-Andrae State Park in exchange for a piece of land with no conservation value, the site of an old horse barn.
“The land swap is signed,” Faydash said. “There is no end date.”
And a 2022 state Supreme Court decision ruled that FBRF had no standing to sue to stop it. The decision severely impacted the ability of citizens to object to commercial development on public land.
That means that if Kohler comes up with another plan, and potentially receives the green light from the Wisconsin DNR, they could still clearcut the land and use Kohler-Andrae State Park to create access to it.
So, the danger isn’t over, and the need to persuade Kohler Company to live up to their sterling reputation as an “environmentally friendly” company (a reputation that was always more hype than reality) and make their land a conservancy continues.
Rose Both
Sierra Club-Wisconsin Chapter
Lands Team