WWA Advocacy

Intro || Where We Work || Education || Advocacy || Events || Publications

Our staff empower thousands of wetland advocates by providing key information and direction to people who are concerned about wetland destruction and destructive wetland policies. The secret to our success is connections - connections to the many groups that are interested in protecting our wetlands, such as sporting groups, landowners, various levels of government, clean-water advocates, other conservation groups, and our own members.

Supporting Citizen Advocates in Wetland Protection
Every year, Wisconsin Wetlands Association receives calls and emails from dozens of citizens seeking advice on how to stop or reduce the wetland impacts of a proposed construction project. Through our own experience, and the success stories of many local wetland enthusiasts, we know that citizen-led wetland protection efforts can make a difference. Our Protecting Wetlands webpages are designed to help citizens turn their concern for wetlands into informed and effective action for wetland protection. WWA also keeps track of important wetland-related issues and sends alerts to an extensive email list of wetland advocates.

Supporting Local Decision Makers in Wetland Conservation
In September 2009, WWA announced the release of a new publication, Land Use and Wetlands: A Local Decision Makers' Guide to Wetland Conservation, and associated web resources. The purpose of the publication is to improve wetland protection and reduce wetland controversies by providing town, village, city and county land use officials with basic information about how wetlands benefit Wisconsin’s communities and practical steps they can take to improve consideration of wetlands and wetland laws in local land use decision-making. Click here to download the publication and explore related web resources.

Protecting our Isolated Wetlands
Wisconsin's wetland protection law, Wisconsin Act 6, was passed in May 2001. WWA played a critical role in two ways. First, WWA was able to engage 72 national, statewide and local organizations in a massive campaign. Second, WWA met with legislators and other stakeholders and developed a bill that was acceptable to all parties, and the bill passed both houses unanimously.

Protecting the Wetland Regulatory Process
When then-Governor Tommy Thompson included a clause into the 1999-2001 State Budget that would give one large corporation, Ashley Furniture, permission to fill a 15-acre wetland without applying for a permit, WWA and four other conservation and environmental organizations sued and won on the grounds that Wisconsin's Constitution prohibits the placement of private matters into a bill without the matter being stated in the bill's title. In rebuttal, legislators sympathetic to the corporation’s interest in working around the wetland regulatory process introduced a similar bill which the Senate Environmental Committee killed. Undaunted, Legislators then inserted the work-around clause into the 2001-2003 Budget Repair Bill. In response to action alerts posted by WWA and partner organizations, more than one thousand citizens called and wrote the Governor to express their concerns over these efforts to cut both the public and the designated regulatory agency (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) out of the regulatory decision-making process. Process prevailed when Governor Scott McCallum vetoed the "Ashley exemption" out of the budget repair bill.

2005 Update: Ashley Furniture Corporation applies for permits to fill 14+ acres of wetlands to expand their plant. Click here for information about what they’ve proposed and WWA’s concerns with the environmental assessment of the project.

Opposing Airport Expansion into Wetlands
The City of West Bend, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (Wisconsin's single largest filler of wetlands) are seeking to expand the West Bend Airport. They have misinformed the public regarding the need for such an expansion and have downplayed the impact this project would have on wetlands in the area. We are providing logistical support to the citizens' group, Taxpayers Against Airport Growth.

Overseeing Permit Enforcement along Natural Gas Pipelines
The Guardian Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that goes through Walworth and Jefferson Counties, is being constructed in gross violation of the already vague permit, and we are insisting that the permit terms be enforced and working to ensure that a connecting pipeline that is to be constructed in Waukesha County be constructed in ways that minimize wetland impacts.