Learning to appreciate Wisconsin`s environmental legacy one hike at a time

For a Midwesterner of limited budget, it’s easy to get outdoors envy.

...Wisconsin was the first state in the United States to create a state park system. The legislature voted in 1878, when the state was just 30 years old, to set aside 50,000 acres for state parks. About a decade later, unfortunately, the legislature rescinded that action, and most of those lands were sold off to lumber companies. Which is a shame, because had that land been protected, we would still have some of the old growth forest that was completely logged out in northern Wisconsin by the turn of the century. Still, in the late 1800s, the state formed the first official park, Interstate Park at the Dalles of the St. Croix. Now, the state has 66 state parks and recreation areas covering about 66,000 acres....