On June 30, the Wisconsin Supreme Court announced its decision to deny Friends of the Black River Forest, a grassroots Sheboygan County environmental group, standing to sue the DNR to halt its land swap deal with Kohler Company. Intended to facilitate a proposed golf course, the land swap trades more than 9 acres of no... Continue Reading →

A controversy over the disposition of Knowles-Nelson Stewardship funds has revealed that stalling tactics on the part of the Republican-dominated state legislature may be aimed at undermining Wisconsin’s successful conservation program. The Ozaukee Washington Land Trust was set to close on a $5 million deal with Waukesha State Bank to purchase the Cedar Gorge Clay... Continue Reading →

The citizen comments at a hearing before the Franklin Common Council on March 1 had a rehearsed quality. Indeed, Mayor Steve Olson had heard it all before. Despite fierce resident opposition, the council voted 3-3 to approve a Special Use Permit for the development of a 30-acre parcel adjacent to Ryan Meadows subdivision. The mayor... Continue Reading →

Opponents of what was often referred to as the Strauss Brands “expansion” in Franklin will be relieved to learn that the company has withdrawn from a proposed plan to build a 152,000 sq. ft. slaughterhouse and meat-packing facility on thirty acres near residential lots and homes under construction. In 2019, the company withdrew its plan... Continue Reading →

Wisconsinites engaged with the campaign to persuade Kohler Company to drop its predatory golf course plans and leave the rare Kohler-Andrae Lakeshore ecosystem intact were shocked to learn in late June that the Nature Conservancy, the world’s largest environmental organization, selected Kohler VP Laura Kohler to be the honorary chair of its Wisconsin’s Path initiative.... Continue Reading →

On June 12, Mary Faydash stood on her deck overlooking Lake Michigan with a microphone in her hand. The occasion was a rally for Sheboygan County’s Friends of the Black River Forest, the grassroots environmental group that she helped found. If it weren’t for FBRF, Herb Kohler Jr.’s vanity project, a golf course parked on... Continue Reading →

In another legal setback for Kohler Company's proposed fifth golf course in Sheboygan County, Judge Edward Stengel ruled last Friday that the wetland fill permit granted to the company in 2018 by the Wisconsin DNR cannot be reinstated. The permit was granted under then-secretary Cathy Stepp, a Scott Walker appointee. Judge Stengel’s ruling upholds a... Continue Reading →

Kohler’s Plan Takes Land from State Park to Devastate Lakeshore Environment

On December 15, the City of Sheboygan Plan Commission met to decide whether to grant Kohler Co. a conditional use permit (CUP) to develop a rare wetland and old growth beech forest into a luxury golf course

Updates on Franklin Strauss Brands project, Lakeside Park, and Kohler-Andrae.

It is comforting to assume that municipal governments, being the most “local,” are the most keenly responsive to the will of their constituents.