The Kohler Company has proposed building a golf course in a pristine forest and sensitive environmental corridor in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.  We asked  the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to DENY the Kohler Company's request for an easement across heavily used public recreational lands which are part of the Kohler-Andrae State Park.  We asked the DNR to DENY the Kohler Company's request to build a private maintenance shed and destroy over 5 acres of public land.  We asked the DNR to tell the Kohler Company they can NOT destroy wetlands, bulldoze rare dunes along the Lake Michigan shoreline,  clear cut over 185 acres of forest and use public lands for a private, for-profit, Golf course. We asked the DNR to NOT set a precedent of stealing land from Wisconsin residents and giving to the highest bidder.  We asked the Wisconsin DNR to PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT AND PRESERVE WISCONSIN'S PUBLIC LANDS.

The DNR disregarded all of the above requests.

We are now asking Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers to  reconsider the land swap decision and keep public parks PUBLIC. 

Friends of the Black River Forest (FBRF) and other environmental groups are urging Gov. Evers to send the Land Exchange Agreement giving Kohler Andrae State Park acres to the  Kohler Company to use for its own profit back to the Natural Resources Board to review and nullify. The agreement signed by Scott Walker, DNR and the Kohler Company was based on illegal actions by the Natural Resources Board and ignored DNR procedures. FBRF contends that letting this agreement stand with no time limit,  could invite sell offs of our state park lands by future administrations.

FBRF and Sierra Club representatives presented their concerns to the Governor's staff with presenting a petition and asking that he act on the Land Exchange Agreement. 

FBRF was successful in its contested case hearing in 2018, challenging the completeness and accuracy of the DNR - issued Wetland Fill Permit. The court concurred, reversing the permit, citing lack of impact information to groundwater and the DNR's reliance on the Kohler Company's assurances and promises rather than actual studies on impacts.

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