Conservationists hoped to protect Cedar Gorge on Lake Michigan, but an anonymous legislator objected to block funding
Laura SchultePORT WASHINGTON – A dream of conservationists that seemed within grasp — preserving for the public a pristine piece of Lake Michigan property 30 miles from Milwaukee — is now hanging on by a thread, dealt an 11th-hour setback by an anonymous legislator acting in secret.
The property with its undisturbed clay bluffs and an increasingly rare steep gorge leading down to the lakeshore, dotted with old cedar trees and green moss, was in the sights of Ozaukee County land preservationists.
Once envisioned as a place for luxury homes surrounding a vineyard and winery, preservationists embarked on creating a new plan for the 131 acres of farmland and undisturbed shoreline — turning it into the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Area.
The final piece of 10 years of fundraising was set to fall into place this spring — a grant from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program. The funding would bring to fruition a natural area roughly twice the size of Lion's Den Gorge Nature Preserve, only a mile from the popular recreation spot.
Until the 11th hour, when an anonymous objector and unwritten rules of the state Joint Committee on Finance combined to throw a wrench into the plans for the preserve.
This final hurdle might be too much for the nonprofit Ozaukee Washington Land Trust to overcome, its leaders say.
“The main reason we’re doing this is because people are clamoring for more access to this habitat, to Lake Michigan,” said Tom Stolp, the group’s executive director. “To have this much unspoiled Lake Michigan shoreline is pretty magical.”
The late detour to opening the vanishing habitat to the public has the group searching for answers and contemplating how it could possibly raise the nearly $2 million needed to fill the gaps left by the committee turning down the grant funding.
“We are extraordinarily concerned,” Stolp said. “We’re way behind now, and I think that puts us at an incredible disadvantage.”
Now, with confirmation from one of the committee members that the funding is unlikely to get a second look for approval, Stolp said organizers are left confused and frustrated with a process that seems set up to keep nonprofits like his from accessing funding for projects like his.
"There's no fight here. There's no controversy. It's a good project," he said. "And so the objection of an anonymous lawmaker, it's all very unseemly and it's detracting from the fact that we're just trying to make a park where people can take their families."
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'This is a really special place'
On an overcast March afternoon, from the road the property, near Stonecroft Drive and Highway C, doesn't look like much more than a farm field, lined on three sides by trees and brush. The ground is muddy, making traversing the land difficult.
But on the other side of the trees on the far side of the property lie stunning views of a Lake Michigan so still it appears like an extension of the sky. The turquoise waters lapped at the beach below the clay bluffs towering over 100 feet above the shoreline.
Just north of the bluffs is a gorge deep in the earth — dubbed Cedar Gorge for the cedar trees shading it from view.
Both features are what make the property so exceptional, an asset to protect from development and to preserve for generations to come, so they are also able to enjoy an uninhibited view of the natural landscape that once occurred all around Lake Michigan, said Andrew Struck, director of planning and parks for Ozaukee County.
"What's special about these gorges is that there aren't very many left on Lake Michigan," Struck said. "This is kind of the furthest extent of these natural gorges, and we've lost a lot down in Milwaukee and elsewhere south of here, so this is a really special place."
The clay seepage bluffs are also an important part of the property to protect. Not only does the clay help to filter groundwater in the area, but the native vegetation is also helping to protect the bluffs from erosion, which has become a large issue for properties along the lake as the water levels rise.
"Not having rapid development that changes the hydrology of the land is one of the best defenses," said Stolp.
The property has also been highlighted by state as an important area to preserve, Struck said.
"It's actually in the state's land legacy report as one of the natural communities to preserve because it doesn't exist in very many areas," he said.
The property, in addition to Lion's Den, is also a stopover location for migrating birds each year during the spring and fall, and is also native habitat for the short-eared owl, a species of concern in the state.
"These properties all work in harmony to provide different resting and refueling stops for birds along the flyways," Stolp said.
Stolp and Struck said that eventually, a pedestrian trail would likely be developed, linking the new preserve to Lion's Den, and eventually to downtown Port Washington. The Land Trust would also work with the other property holders along the lake to secure easements that would allow for visitors to either Lion's Den or Cedar Gorge to walk down the beach between the two.
If Cedar Gorge preserve were to be built, it would also help alleviate the growing number of people visiting Lion's Den each year. The small park, which only has about two miles of hiking trails and is made up of less than 100 acres, is seeing about 300,000 visitors a year. Having the new preserve would spread people out over two areas and give them the option to visit both.
But most importantly, Stolp said, conserving the property will mean that changing politics or circumstances won't see the land sold off for high-priced condos or another project of the like.
"We'll be able to say no, it was the intention of our donors to conserve a property that is to forever be habitat," Stolp said.
Developers had been looking to create high-end housing on the property, with one development proposed to include a vineyard and winery. Those plans fell through, and eventually, Waukesha State Bank acquired the land through a foreclosure suit against Brookfield-based VK Development Corp.
An anonymous objection to funding
The organizers hoping to preserve the Cedar Gorge property are now staring down a quickly approaching deadline to either buy the land from the current owner — Waukesha State Bank — or potentially have it purchased by a private entity. The trust has until the early fall to secure the full $5 million for the purchase or the deal expires with the bank.
The land trust has raised money from local governments and community members and has secured grants from the federal government, but is waiting on the final word from the Joint Finance Committee about the stewardship money.
The Land Trust applied to the DNR and went through a months-long review process in 2021 to access funding from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program. Employees at the agency approved the application for about $2.3 million, sending it to the Legislature for review in July.
Supporters acknowledge the price tag for the property is steep, and that grants from the stewardship fund of more than $1 million are rare. But preserving a large piece of land near more populated areas of the state — Cedar Gorge is estimated to be 30 minutes from about a quarter of Wisconsin's population — is important because more people will have access.
"We want to see more land conserved in the populated centers in southeast Wisconsin because it gives more impact for taxpayers," Stolp said.
From there, the Joint Finance Committee members had two weeks to review the process, and within that time period, one member objected to the project receiving the funds. The name of that lawmaker has not been released, leading supporters of the nature preserve to question how the committee can make million-dollar decisions without public disclosure.
After the money was denied, supporters of the preserve and organizations such as Gathering Waters, which advocates for land trusts, continued to have conversations with lawmakers on the committee.
Months later, the Land Trust was informally offered a lower grant amount of about $1.6 million, which required the organization to go back to donors to ensure they could still bring in enough funding to purchase the property. But after what Stolp said was months of due diligence to raise additional dollars, the group was told the committee had seen the lack of acceptance of the funding as a refusal.
He and the other collaborators working to establish the preserve were shocked.
"We're not having open, transparent to the community conversations," Stolp said. "We're being forced in these back channels, behind closed doors to take this lowered grant amount because it's the best offer."
According to Sen. Duey Stroebel's office, a private buyer has emerged, but the person or business name has not been released to the Land Trust or the public. A staffer for Stroebel, who represents parts of Ozaukee County in the Senate, also said the funding is not likely to be approved because the Land Trust declined it. But Stolp objects to that claim, and said it never communicated with the committee to turn down the offer formally.
Stroebel declined to comment.
The co-chairs of the committee — Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green — did not respond to questions from a Journal Sentinel reporter about why the funding for the nature preserve is being held up, or if the committee has plans to take up the funding in an upcoming meeting.
When email records were requested, Joe Malkasian, the committee clerk, said because the committee reviewed the Land Trust's application for the stewardship fund last summer, emailed records were already deleted. He also noted that conversations surrounding the anonymous objection were likely had in person, so records wouldn't have existed.
'You shouldn't be able to do some things anonymously'
The Legislature is exempted from record-keeping requirements, said Bill Leuders, the president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, meaning that there is no requirement for the clerks to keep the emails once they have been disseminated.
Leuders said there have been concerns raised over the years in regards to the Joint Finance Committee members' ability to object in secret.
"You know, you shouldn't be able to do some things anonymously, like ... block funding for a worthy project," he said.
Malkasian said during a phone conversation that the committee allows the anonymous objection after a lawmaker received blowback on a decision to object years ago, and the practice has been upheld, though it is not codified in Wisconsin state law.
"It's a problem," Leuders said. "Particularly when the issue is the allocation of taxpayer dollars. There shouldn't be a way that you can determine those decisions anonymously, not if you're an elected member of the Legislature. That's crazy."
Next steps uncertain
The Land Trust and others trying to make Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve a reality say they aren't sure what comes next.
They're hoping the Joint Finance Committee decides to hold a hearing about the stewardship money so that there is a public conversation on record about what's happening with the money. But there hasn't been any sort of indication that will happen, said committee member Rep. Evan Goyke, D-Milwaukee.
Though the park lies just outside of his district, Goyke said his office has been flooded by calls and emails asking him to support the park if the committee decides to take up its funding during an upcoming meeting. But he hasn't heard anything from leadership, worrying him that the Cedar Gorge preserve project may die without the public ever finding out who objected to it and why.
"It is extremely frustrating and frankly unfair that this is the process that exists for the Knowles Nelson Stewardship program," Goyke said. "I don't know who objected to Cedar Gorge. I don't know why they objected. There is absolutely no transparency in this process."
He said the committee should look at changing the rules surrounding objections, bringing more sunshine into the process and allowing the public to see who objects to projects receiving money and why.
With the Legislative session coming to an end, the Joint Finance Committee will meet much less frequently for the rest of the year, leaving fewer opportunities for the members to take up and vote on the Cedar Gorge before September.
"What happens to the projects? They die at a certain point, and the practical implication is at a certain point, the landowner is going to look for other buyers," Goyke said.
The newly interested buyer for the Cedar Gore property has not been identified. It could be a private developer or someone who plans to conserve the property, but no more information is available.
Struck still hopes to see the purchase of the property go through, in order to provide access to such a unique area in the state to more people eager to enjoy the outdoors.
"To have this kind of continuous public access along Lake Michigan is unique," he said. "It doesn't sound like a lot but when you're out here to experience it, it's pretty unique."
To learn more about the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve fundraising effort, visit owlt.org.
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on Twitter at @SchulteLaura.