Knowles-Nelson program’s future now in hands of Wisconsin Senate committee

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Financial Institutions and Sporting Heritage is set to take up a pair of bills Tuesday that will determine the immediate future of the state’s Knowles-Nelson stewardship program that has paid for upkeep and buying of public lands in the state.

The Assembly recently passed a pair of amended bills that would fund the next two years of the program but Charles Carlin of Wisconsin’s Alliance for Land Trusts pointed out that the bills include “virtually no funding for land acquisition.”

Assembly Bills 315 and 612 have already seen various forms, but the amended version passed by the body on a party line vote set aside $1 million for land acquisition, down from $16 million, which can only be used for the Department of Natural Resources to acquire land for the Ice Age Trail.

Assembly Bill 315 also set aside $9.25 million for property development and local assistance, down from $14.25 million.

Assembly Bill 612,...