CNOW week of Jan. 10, 2022

This week's notices:

• Oppose SB 802: Selling Our Public Lands
• Oppose AB 673: Mandating Fish Stocking Quotas
• Oppose SB 501: Injecting Pollution Into Our Groundwater
• Oppose LRB 5221: Partisan Takeover of Our Elections
• Oppose LRB 1886/1 & LRB 5532/1: Exacerbating Felony Disenfranchisement
• Oppose LRB 5121: Ignoring the Dangers of Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines

Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose SB 802, which is before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources today.

The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program is one of the best tools we have for purchasing and protecting lands for Wisconsinites to enjoy. SB 802 would make it easier to sell property that has been protected under this program. This works against the purpose of the program and would create opportunities for selling our public lands.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose AB 673, which is before the Assembly Committee on Environment on Wednesday.

To protect the health of the Great Lakes, we need to follow the lead of conservation experts who make decisions based on best practices in science-based management. This is especially true when it comes to introducing legislation that sets specific stocking quotas. AB 673 would invert the ideal process for policy development by creating an arbitrary, legislature-led brook trout stocking quota for Lake Michigan. This would undermine the DNR’s capacity to implement adaptable, science-led lake management approaches that protect the health of the ecosystem.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose SB 501, which is before the Senate Committee on Labor and Regulatory Reform on Thursday.

Groundwater is the source of drinking water for a large majority of Wisconsinites. Wisconsin has an obligation to ensure we are keeping our groundwater free of pollution whenever possible. SB 501 would permit the installation of certain groundwater recharge systems that would allow potentially polluted surface waters to be injected into our groundwater. This process would unnecessarily put our drinking water sources at risk.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose LRB 5221, which is circulating for cosponsorship.

One of the strengths of Wisconsin’s democracy is that our elections are not overseen by a partisan official. LRB 5221 would dissolve the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission and require a partisanly elected Secretary of State to take control of election oversight.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose LRB 1886/1 & LRB 5532/1, which are circulating for cosponsorship.

Voting is a right. Currently, Wisconsin has one of the most stringent voting rights restoration policies in the nation, only allowing rights restoration after fully completing the terms of a sentence – including probation, parole, and extended supervision. LRB 1886/1 & LRB 5532/1 would make this problem even worse by additional requirements before rights are restored. This would take us backward in the fight to protect Wisconsinites’ freedom to vote.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose LRB 5121, which is circulating for cosponsorship.

We must swiftly transition to a clean energy economy that works for all communities, reduces pollution created by fossil fuels, invests in strategies that help us prepare for the impacts of climate change, and creates good paying jobs. To do this, we need to transition away from our use of oil and natural gas pipelines. LRB 5121 proposes a resolution that ignores decades of dangerous accidents associated with oil and gas pipelines and encourages continued investment in them.

Conservation Notices of the Week (CNOW) announces the pro-conservation positions on issues before the senate, assembly and/or governor in the week ahead to state legislators. Others wishing to follow activities in the state legislature also receive CNOW, including legislative staff, conservation voters, and media. All of these issues are tracked on the Vote Tracker. Issues in the CNOW may appear in the Conservation Scorecard.