Talks start on renewing the Stewardship Fund
Wisconsin legislators remain at loggerheads over the state budget. But a breakthrough could be imminent, and with it some sense of the future of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.
Since 1989, the Stewardship Fund has helped save more than 475,000 acres of Wisconsin woodlands, prairie, parks and trails from development. The $60 million annual program will end in 2010 unless reauthorized.
Budget negotiators at the state Capitol held their first public discussion on the Stewardship Fund on Tuesday.
“No agreements were reached on the fate of the program, but a decision on Stewardship could happen very soon,” wrote Vicki Elkin, who is leading the Stewardship Fund reauthorization campaign for the Gathering Waters Conservancy.
Elkin’s organization is backing Senate Democrats who want to increase the land conservation program to $105 million per year between 2011 and 2020. Assembly Republicans have proposed cutting the program to $25 million annually.
For more, see the Gathering Waters website. To find out how to contact your legislator, look here.