Former DNR Employee: Staff Pressured To OK Kohler Golf Course On Rare Wisconsin Wetlands And State Park

"Here’s our thistle! This is a rare, very rare plant," retired wetland ecologist Pat Trochlell exclaimed as she stood at the edge of Lake Michigan on a clear, windy and unseasonably cool day in October.

"You can see the leaves are just, really incredibly beautiful," she said, pointing to the fuzzy blue-green leaves of Pitcher’s thistle, a federally endangered plant that grows on sand dunes near the shore in Wisconsin’s Kohler-Andrae State Park.

"I shouldn’t be standing on these. These are really sensitive here," she added...

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Ken Notes: Remember, in the 1930s, the company purchased 468 acres of land along Lake Michigan in Sheboygan County, and donated nearly half to what is now the Kohler-Andrae State Park. The rest of the land is what is now slated to be a golf course.

The economic impact of these courses on the State can not be denied, so sit down and require Kohler to make additional contributions of land and resources to offset what the course will disrupt. Since there is no plan B for Kohler`s land and the proposed golf course places Wisconsin firmly on the global map as one of the most beautiful places in the world I see a win win here rather than a lose lose.

I am not happy with the political pressure applied to the DNR... but I do want a DNR that sees the big picture and works with developers to get to that win win scenario as fast as possible.