Happy 55th Earth Day with Tia Nelson and Rob Cowles (Hour 1)

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

Live on location, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now,

pursuing truth

wherever

it

may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albaugh here on a special Earth Day edition.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

On Earth Day, we are live at Governor Nelson State Park on the north side of Madison.

For those watching the stream, YouTube, Facebook, Twix.

That's the combination of Twix and X, Twitter.

All those streaming YouTube as well.

You can see a beautiful shot right now of the Lakewood Dota behind us.

Some of the woods here at Governor Nelson State Park.

The rain has cleared off a little bit.

We appreciate that.

It's going to be a great day here at Governor Nelson State Park.

Mr. Zomers, how are things across the lake in downtown Madison at the World Headquarters?

Sun's starting to come out down there as well, right?

Yeah, it's very similar to yesterday, the last couple of days, though, a little bit dreary, but I mean, I'm okay with that.

And the temperature is slowly rising.

It's gonna be a great day in the afternoon here for a beautiful Earth Day all across the state of Wisconsin.

Tomorrow's gonna be spectacular, they say.

Killer he joins us every Tuesday now.

We appreciate that he has a brand new program Debuting tomorrow with our new lineup on the civic media ready network.

He'll now be on from six until nine across the civic media media ready network mornings with the aforementioned Pat Crite low Pat joining us from Lake Wasota in a in a park.

Is it that cold up

there?

Hoodie I got my gloves.

I mean

I'm looking at you guys there and it was it was perfectly fine in here before but just another beautiful warm spring afternoon here on Lake

Pasoda, right?

It's amazing how much weather can change just across the state of Wisconsin.

What's the wind show

over there?

It looks like there

should be ice on the lake there.

No, the waves are lapping the shores here.

The beach is a beautiful day here.

Okay,

all right.

Pat, it's great to have you along.

I appreciate the shtick that's always appreciated.

We have someone here I know that you're very familiar with as a former state legislator, former state senator a few years ago.

Tia Nelson joins us here at the desk right now.

Of course, she is the daughter of former Wisconsin.

Governor and U.S.

Senator Gaylord Nelson for which this park is named.

Tia, we talked to you last year of ES StreamYard.

I can't tell you what an honor and pleasure it is to have you here at the desk in person.

And what is your family refer to this as?

All right, Papa's Park.

Papa's Park.

Papa's Park.

The grandkids especially.

I think it's fantastic.

You know, Pat, your time in the legislature, you know how important things such as the Noel Nelson, Noel Nelson stewardship is.

Legislation like that.

During your time in the state Senate, did you ever have a chance to work on these issues directly or were they just not in line during your time in the Senate?

Well, the problem, as I told the story again this morning on our program, was that my time in the legislature coincided with the Great Recession.

that the markets had collapsed, the economy.

We were facing not the $4 billion surplus that they're dealing with now, but a $3 to $6 billion shortfall that we had to make up.

And so there was a lot of pushback on any kind of investment and things like this to the point where

And again, as I've told the story previously, when my legislation passed to name Highway 63, you know, for Gaylord Nelson running from Clear Lake up to Ashland, the only way that they would allow that earmark is if it had zero dollars attached to it to put up any markers.

And nears I know, there are still no markers on that road anywhere in all the years that Republicans have led the legislature ever since.

So I would love to see investment for at least that much

And then so much more into Knowles Nelson and to continue to have a thriving stewardship program in the state.

Yeah.

Are there still no markers to you?

All right.

You know, I knew that.

Thanks, Pat, for your efforts to honor my father.

I'm grateful to you for that and enjoyed working with you in the legislature.

I knew the highway was designated and I had no idea that there weren't.

I confess, I had no idea that there was no signage of yet.

Well, I think that's something we should, uh, Pat and I, and we can, you know, the, again, our high horse, it's here for us to work.

We should, we should gin this up.

You got three hours now, Pat, starting tomorrow.

We

can, we

can do a campaign for this.

Does Pat, Pat, do you know how to bake?

What about a cookie sale?

Right?

I can

do that.

I,

whatever, whatever it takes would be happy to do that.

So we'll, we can talk about that tomorrow during the three hour extravaganza.

that I'm very much looking forward to.

And then Jane Matineer and Greg Bach will follow from 9 to 11.

And we come find you in the mid-afternoons now, which lets you sleep in a little bit more.

I hope you're still going to do your Wednesday 750 appearances with me.

I will be up and

on your

show, yes.

Maybe in your little footy pajamas if you have to wake you up that early.

I'll be up

having

coffee.

Pat, before we let you go, you're based up there in the beautiful Chippewa Valley.

It's the 125th anniversary of.

Wisconsin State Parks.

Talk just a minute about what this means across the state, but particularly in your neck of the woods for for northern Wisconsin.

So many fantastic Wisconsin State Parks up there.

It all comes back to the word stewardship.

which is is convenient for the program name, but it really is part of Wisconsin's DNA, or at least it was for many until not that terribly long ago.

Stewardship is a is a moral commitment of leaving a place in as good or better condition than you found it.

And it was something that was

And should remain second nature to most of us There are always going to be people that want to you know tear something down because you know one more strip mall is okay or one more golf course is okay And you know those wetlands are just a swamps anyway.

No, they're not we we've learned how much value is in those especially with more flash flooding because of a changing climate and

We just simply have that about us that we we've appreciated our clean water We see what it's like around other parts of the country How much they would give to have the clean water we have here and yet we have threats like never before from PFAS from Industrial runoff from farm runoff from high capacity deep wells and so we led led in the pipes So we always have to be mindful that stewardship isn't

ongoing thing.

You never take it for granted.

You never take for granted the investments in infrastructure in places like our national parks, like our state parks, like our county parks.

And as long as there are still leading voices like the people that surround you down there, then Wisconsin will continue to be in good hands because we have people that will not ever take stewardship for granted in this state.

Pat, we appreciate your time with us today.

Appreciate your time in the state legislature as a Democrat.

We're going to talk to former Republican State Senator Rob Cole's at the bottom of the hour.

And again, I just feel very strongly that this should be a nonpartisan or at least a bipartisan event here that we all, last time I checked, when we go out in the boat, the fish don't ask which party we belong to in order to bite or the trees don't ask what party you belong to when they give off their oxygen.

So to me, I just think this

This is something that brings Wisconsin together and it's part of what makes Wisconsin great.

We appreciate your time, Pat.

Again, people can tune in to you another additional hour starting tomorrow morning.

So Pat, right?

Little across the network, six until nine.

Thanks, Pat.

Have a wonderful day up there like Minnesota.

Take care.

See you later.

Thanks a lot.

Pat Crite.

Hello, everybody.

Again, joining us at the table right now, Tia Nelson, daughter of former Wisconsin Governor and U.S.

Senator Gaylord Nelson.

We also have at the table as well, Mike Ring.

He is the park manager here at Governor Nelson State Park and Drew Howick, who is the president.

I say that, right?

Sorry, very good.

I want to make sure I get it right.

The president of the Friends of Governor Nelson State Park, Tia.

Talk just to give us just a moment because you're not just the daughter of a former US senator and governor You in your own right have worked on environmental issues on the land land trust as I get it right in the state of Wisconsin You've done so much on your own but on this day as the daughter Just give us a personal reflection of what it means to be here at this beautiful state park named after your dad and his legacy

Well, I'm delighted to be here and be on your program.

I'm grateful to Todd for doing the show and I'm happy to be back.

Again, this time in person, I love this park.

I frequently come out here on New Year's Day.

and do some reflections on what I hope and aspire for in the new year.

I try to buy my park sticker and get all of its value for the year.

And there's a sign right behind us with the history and story of my father's life and a timeline of some of the milestones.

I'd like to go over there and look at that.

Usually give him a little kiss.

So it's always a reflective time for me and a time of celebration.

Think about the fact that Papa's original idea, this idea was to have teachers across the country speak to their students and interact and teach with their kids one day on the environment.

was successful beyond his wildest dreams.

20 million people gathered on that day, largest public event in American history at the time.

And I think it's a reminder to all of us of our connection with nature.

And it is also, I think, an important reminder of the power of individual action.

And the fact that you don't always know the outcome Papa couldn't have predicted that Earth Day would be an enduring celebration 55 years after its inception.

And that would delight him.

And so I get a lot of...

satisfaction from that.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Mike Ring, you're the park manager here at Governor Nelson State Park.

You were so kind to come on with us last year and we appreciate you coming back today.

Talk a little bit about this from a park manager standpoint.

125 years of Wisconsin State Parks here and being so close to the city of Madison, you get folks from all over the state, but this is a really well used park.

And I mean that in the best sense.

You have all kinds of folks out here, correct?

Yeah.

Last year we, well,

Since I've been here we've averaged between 300,000 and 355,000 people.

Wow.

Coming to the park.

It is a day-use park with a boat launch in the beach area.

I'm the only full-time your own staff that we have here.

And I can't do it alone though.

So I

have paid staff and I have a lot of volunteers who help out here and really do the work that I can't.

I can't alone and we can't together.

Talk about a couple of things that if people want to if they're in that they're listening to us on WMDX in Madison or WRCE and Richland Center Those are easy day events, but people listening all across the state that might come down to Madison for one reason or another I'd encourage them to come out here discover this park talk about some of the things from the beaches to the trails There's something for every it's not just I'll come out and hang out at the beach.

I mean, there's all kinds of things to do here

There is yeah, I mean, it's four seasons of fun as well.

So we have seven miles of hiking trails here in the park through prairies

through Oaks of Ana, through Oak Woodland, traveling next to 2,000 years of burial mounds.

We have the beach area and picnic area, of course.

We have a pet swim area on the other side of the lake for people that your dogs go for a little swim.

I

love

it.

We have, in the wintertime, it turns into cross-country ski trails.

Yeah.

And so we groom the ski trails whenever we can, which hasn't been great this past couple of years to be honest, but we do get four seasons of fun out of them as well.

Very good.

We're going to come back and talk about the Friends group here.

It takes a village, as they say, and there's some great friends that are supporting Governor Nelson State Park.

Our show rolls on live here from Governor Nelson State Park in Madison, Wisconsin.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy Sunshine in my eyes

can

make me

cry

Welcome back to the top of all show of the Civic Media running up.

We're a little John Denver here for an Earth Day for you.

We are live on location and we're the great state parks in the state of Wisconsin, Governor Nelson State Park on the north side of Lake Mendoza here in Dane County and our park.

This is why you want to have a good park manager around in those nature because you pointed out one of the birds.

What was falling around?

Yeah,

melted kingfisher was just flying over here and I haven't seen one of those this spring.

So

Good

to see that they're starting to come back.

Glad to have you along.

Mike Reign, of course, is the Park Manager here at Governor Nelson State Park.

We have Tia Nelson here, so very honored.

She is the daughter of former Governor and U.S.

Senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, who, of course, is the founder of Earth Day, in which this park is named.

And right now I want to bring on Drew Howick here at the table with us live on location.

He is the President of the Friends of the Governor Nelson State Park.

Howard, thank you so much for your, Drew.

so much for being here and tell us just a little bit about your role as president of the Friends.

Well there's been a group of us anywhere from 5 to 20 that have been showing up once a week for 48 weeks a year on Tuesdays and we've been doing whatever the seasons require so right now we're starting to get into invasive

seasons.

We just came off of brush cutting and so on.

You know, we've been doing this for almost 10 years and we had a, I'll put the quote opportunity come up because there's a structure on this property called the Hogan House.

It was built in 1950 and it's the only existing structure, closed structure from Camp Wakanda, Old Brook and Indianola.

Wow.

From the 70s.

It's the only structure that remains.

And one time, we were looking at it, and Mike says, yeah, I've got to figure out, are we going to take this down, or are we going to renovate it?

And we all looked at each other and said, we're going to renovate it.

And Mike says, well, we need money to renovate

it.

And this doesn't

fall into the DNR's priority list.

And I said, OK, well, how do we do it?

And he goes, well, you've got to form a friends group.

I said, OK.

So I brought in a builder and an architect.

We looked at the structure.

They both said, yep, you've got to keep it.

So we formed last summer a 501c3 called the Friends of Governor Nelson State Park.

And we are incorporated, we're legal.

We have a brochure right here.

Look at this, right?

My hand's right here.

We'll take a photo of that and put it up on our website.

Right.

And so we have been raising funds.

So we just met the first goal of the Knowles Nelson

stewardship fund and so we matched it and we now have the funds to start the renovation project of that Hogan house.

Wow.

And our goal is to make that a accessible structure where people can come and use it as a warming house, a meeting house, school kids come together, an educational center.

The vision is evolving of it, but goal one was to start the process.

I just think I love every part about this because unfortunately, you know, monies haven't kept up in my opinion on the on the state legislature side and putting money into state parks.

But I think this is just the quintessential Wisconsinite in a group of you say, look, OK, fine.

I mean, we should be doing this another way, but we're not going to let opportunity go by.

And folks come together and raise money and save part of this history in the state of Wisconsin because once those things are gone, they're gone.

Right, and many of these buildings, if you go back and look at the research of the pictures of Camp Indianola, Wakanda, and Obrich, they used to be many structures.

And people from all over the nation used to come to these different camps.

Some were Y camps, some were religious affiliated camps, and so on.

So this property held three different camps for 20, 30 years and had structures.

But all of those have gone away except for the one that I mentioned.

Tyler, listening to us in Columbia County on WMDX says, being north of Madison Nelson State Park is my closest and my favorite park to ride the bike and to enjoy the weather.

It's nice having the park system and it's why my motorcycle also gets a state park sticker.

So how about that?

It doesn't matter how you get here, whether it's a bike or car or canoe or however or kayak across the lake, everybody can come and enjoy this park.

That's right.

And dogs are welcome.

as long as they're on leash,

Mike will

point

out.

And you're right.

And what we've noticed is the number of visitors to this park, starting with COVID, of course, really has increased.

And if people want to get involved, and either in giving or in action, you have a website here called, it's just friends of Gov, G-O-V Nelson.

n-e-l-s-o-n dot o-r-g.

And Mr. Zalmers could put that up on our website there.

Again, it's friendsofgovnelson dot o-r-g.

Any other things coming up about three minutes left here before the bottom break?

Any other events you want to plug for the friends?

Well, we have our first annual meeting in May 8th in the town of Westport.

And we have Jim Buckholtz, who's a former Park Supervisor.

He'll be speaking about his visits of all state

Park, he just put out a new book, a 400-page tome of all the state parks in

the

state of Wisconsin.

So he'll be speaking.

That's a big event for us.

And then we have the 50th anniversary celebration of this park is on, I'm looking at Mike July.

It's

July.

It's the 50th anniversary of when the first parcel was purchased

for the

park.

So we're celebrating 50 years this year when the state is also celebrating 125 years of state parks.

It's a

big year for us.

Mike, about a minute here.

Any other things that you'd like to make sure we know across statewide about this particular park coming up here in 2025?

We always have a big Earth Day celebration like today.

Getting the governor's office out to do work and to do a lot of things here.

Governor Evers was here earlier.

Him and all the secretary staff were all here.

Yeah, we're always looking for more volunteers.

We're always working for members of our friends group.

We're always looking forward to hire staff and for people to help out here.

It's a wonderful park where we do a lot of teaching and we can hire and teach people to do whatever they want on the land that makes them happy and it's just a really good accessible park.

Tia, of 30 seconds or so, did your dad envision this particular park yet when he was still alive?

No, he didn't.

I was here with him for the ribbon cutting, and I don't remember.

That was 1986, I think, if my shovel is correct.

Yeah, if you're sure.

Well, I had the

ribbon.

Oh, nice.

Your

Renee presented, you know, like it was some royal

piece

of fabric.

It was so sweet of her, the ribbon that came from the ribbon cutting, but he was delighted.

And, you know, the original idea around the outdoor recreation action program, which became Knowles Nelson, was that there'd be

outdoor recreation accessible to everyone across the state and their projects in every corner of the state and that's great for everybody.

Mike Ringpark, manager, Drew Howitz, the president of the Friends Group.

Thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate everything you guys are doing.

Stay with us.

Come back and talk with Tia and former Republican states that are Rob Coles.

He's part of the reason that my sticker is good for an entire year.

We'll come back and talk to them about that.

We're live on location at Governor Nelson State Park on the Pacific Media Radio Network.

When I was a child, my family would travel down to western Kentucky where my parents were born.

And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered.

so many times that my memories are worn and daddy won't you take me back to mulenburg county down by the green welcome back to

the terrible show live on location on this earth day at governor nelson state park here on the north shores of lake madonna in dane county glad to have you along for a special edition i'm joined here at the table by tia nelson's daughter of former wisconsin governor and u.s.

editor gaylord nelson

who founded Earth Day and for which for whom this wonderful state park is named, it really has turned into a beautiful day to you.

It sure has.

I'm happy to

be here.

Yeah, happy to have you here.

Happy to have our next guest as well.

He is a former Republican state senator that represented the greater Green Bay area up until

January the longest serving Wisconsin state senator in the state Senate certainly longer serving Republican state senator and now getting ready to announce the Packers selection of the NFL draft former state senator Rob Coles who joins us from our great studios at WGBW senator Coles thanks for being here

well Todd I gotta tell you when I got a call from Tia a few days ago I thought

I have to accept this draft.

She drafted me here.

That's the word of the day up here.

We're all a buzz in Green Bay and we're going to have tons of people.

And I just want to say the Packers are pretty darn sustainable.

This is Earth Day.

And it's an honor to be on the show with Tia, who's a classy gal that carries the mission that her father started so well.

It's just great to be on the show with her and thank her and honor her dad on Earth Day.

And it's great that you're at Governor Nelson Park.

The parks, we gotta make our parks vibrant and they've fallen down.

Anybody that's been in a lot of parks.

So that's why stewardship which funds the parks and many other things, municipal trails and...

All sorts of infrastructure does so many things for outdoor recreation and tourism and bringing people to the state.

It's a critical issue to continue it because the fund is ending and it's a flashpoint in the state budget.

I'm optimistic that it'll get done, but it's important to talk about what this stewardship fund, the Knowles Nelson,

Governor Knowles, a Republican, Governor Nelson years ago, a Democrat.

And that indicated, you know, the bipartisan aspect of this whole fund and what we do for our outdoor recreation resources.

So it's great to be here and emphasize that because it's got to get done.

Yeah.

I'm really grateful to you, Rob, for joining us today and also just want to

Everyone to know what a pleasure it was working across the aisle to get a bunch of important environmental stuff for all Wisconsinites done working together.

I loved our time in the legislature and you did a lot to protect special lands and clean air and clean water and I'm forever grateful to you.

Thank

you very much and thank you for

being such a classy person and mentioning that, and I thank you for your ongoing commitment.

A lot of people could just go off into retirement and do nothing, but you're out there working it, and generations have to be reminded.

You know, how do we pay for all this stuff?

And, you know, making it the special state that it is and making it available.

not only to the people that live here, but to tourists and have a wonderful experience.

So thank you for everything you do in regard to that, Tia.

Thank you so much.

The last three minutes should be an example for people who don't get it or don't know or didn't have the privilege that I had to kind of see in behind the curtain how the legislation, how the sausage was made.

This is real, you guys, listening all across the state.

I've known Senator Coles a long time and worked for Dale Schultz in the state Senate, another guy who is a conservation minded guy.

And, and, you know, what you're hearing from Senator Coles is not just because he's here on Earth Day.

He was saying this stuff when he was a Republican state senator.

And Tia, I've known for a long time.

And forgive me, Tia, forgive me for tell us the official title when you were working for the state was the Land Wisconsin

Trust.

It's an awkward title, which is why you can't remember it.

I was executive secretary to the Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which

is why

nobody remembers it.

But

you.

And that's something that Senator Coles knows because I would go up and Senator Coles, you can tell part of this story if you want, but we would go up when Senator Ellis was president of the Senate and used to, Rob Coles used to hang out there, Luther Olson and Dale Schultz, and Mike Ellis would sit there and say,

We have got to take care of tia, you know, and I mean You wouldn't find anybody that was more of a republican conservative old school than mike ellis But he was very very proud to work with you tia and keeping that very important part of our state alive

Senator ellis was was a great leader and a great friend and I was proud of our friendship and and he he helped advance a lot of good

causes I you know he's sorely missed and you know when you the Knowles Nelson stewardship fund think about it for a moment my father was the originator of an idea that it had a different name the outdoor recreation acquisition program funded by a penny a pack tax on cigarettes it was some years later and papa's governor it's wildly popping

among urban residents, rural residents, Democrats, Republicans, independents.

And there was a project for everyone in the state to enjoy the places that make Wisconsin so special.

And the program was so wildly popular that the Republican governor who succeeded my father

grew, strengthened, and expanded the program, Warren Knowles, which is why it's named after my dad and Warren Knowles.

And there were two great leaders from different parties working together to protect the places that make Wisconsin so special.

And Rob has done that.

And Ellis did that.

You mentioned Luther Olson.

I have a lot of respect for all of them.

They've really helped do important things to protect nature and public lands from Wisconsin.

Senator Coles, explain from a former state center standpoint with the Nelson Nol Stewardship Fund, what does this actually do for Wisconsinites, not just in your former Senate district, but what does this mean for the average Wisconsinite to have this there?

What does it do for them in their real lives?

Well, it helps keep the parks better.

better maintained.

It, you know, we're talking water infrastructure, there are a number of bills in recent years that actually supplemented Knowles Nelson because there wasn't enough money to do everything that needed to be done.

As far as water infrastructure, you know, trails, campgrounds, beaches, you know, any of those could be related to some like municipal areas also, then it's

They're trying to apply to the fund.

It's a competitive situation.

Typically you've got to have some seed money in there.

So an old Nelson doesn't pay for the whole thing.

It would pay for a significant part of it.

So there's all sorts of wild areas and hunting grounds.

places that people can both hunt and fish that aren't necessarily state parks, state forests.

It's just a whole panorama of things that make our state, I would say, so vibrant and special.

People want to get out and do things.

You know, it's warming up finally.

It's up for you folks in the winter coats there.

You're a little bit cold there today.

We have an incredible number of people at fish, an incredible number of people at hunt.

They need places to do that in a growing state.

It's not 1850 when there were hardly anybody here.

So now

we're up to

5.5 million people.

So the importance of the fund, it's not just the maintenance part.

It's buying those precious parcels when they come available.

So the people of the state and the people that want to visit our state can get in there and recreate in various ways.

Hunt, fish, walk, trails, you name it.

It's such a multifaceted thing and without it, without this resource, we'd be diminished greatly.

So it's really a powerful tool to make things happen with friends groups that want to

do one thing or another.

And I want to applaud all the French groups that help make our state resources so vibrant.

Yeah, I was just going to mention, Robert, thanks for talking about the importance of the infrastructure in our public lands.

And it's not just our state parks, it's state forests, which are producing timber and helping a critical economic engine in northern Wisconsin.

All of those lands open for hunting and fishing.

But here at

Governor Nelson State Park, the boat launch, which gets heavy usage in the summertime here in beautiful Lake Mendota, on the shores of beautiful Lake Mendota, that boat launch was built with money from the stewardship fund.

And so, you know, I read a statistic the other day, there is a stewardship acquired parcel of land.

within a short driving distance of 99% of the citizens of Wisconsin.

And nature-based tourism is a huge economic driver in the state as well.

So it brings in a lot of value beyond the aesthetics and beauty of being in nature, having the opportunity to hunt and fish.

And so on.

We're talking with Tia Nelson, who is the daughter of former Wisconsin Governor and U.S.

Senator Gaylord Nelson here at Governor Nelson State Park on location and former Republican State Senator Rob Cole, who joins us from our station WGBW in Green Bay.

Senator Cole, I want to pick up on a couple of things that you started out saying Tia was expanding on them.

Number one, the stewardship fund.

And again, I'm not trying to make this specifically partisan, but I'm trying to address things that I know come up

on a partisan level.

Some people may say, well, you know, this is basically just well, well fair for the environmentalists.

You said it, these are seed monies to start.

And then you have people like we had on earlier, withdrew the president of the friends group here.

They're not getting paid anything.

They're coming out here and supplementing that seed money with volunteer work and raising private money on their own.

So there's a public and private match, which I think is important.

And number two, Senator Coles, you know,

I don't want to be too partisan, but, you know, okay, you might say, well, more Republicans are tending to be hunters out there.

I don't think that's always true, but that's a stereotype out there.

These these monies for stewardship.

Look, if you're a guy or a gal that's a pheasant hunter or a turkey hunter or a deer hunter or a fisherman, these monies help you recreate.

Well, absolutely.

And recreate in parks at certain designated designated times of the year where it's not recommended that you

hike in there that there's deer hunting going on in parts

certain

times of the year, and so on, whether it's pheasants or whatever the season might be.

So we need to have these parcels available for folks because they're becoming less available.

As the state grows, there's more populations, so open spaces are critical.

I guess we know not everybody supports it.

But when you explain to them all the different things that Knowles Nelson stewardship fund does I think they understand.

Yeah, we want that This is something that that I might do a person might say, you know, it's not just for hikers It's

not

just for someone cross-country skiing.

Although all these things are important

It's

a

fisherman.

People need a place to go.

Up in this part of the state, okay, number of those boat launches have been paid for with stewardship money.

How do you get your boat in the water if you're going with someone else?

It's like, you gotta have access points.

So this does that.

This fund does that.

And these things aren't necessarily cheap and they're hard to pay for within municipal budgets oftentimes because they tend to be one time hits.

It's a multifaceted, powerful tool that needs to be funded, and I'm optimistic that there are people working on this.

Trying to negotiate

it, something with the governor, and I'm hopeful that it happens.

Yeah, I think something can be worked out.

I mean, Ducks Unlimited is a hunting group that's a big advocate of the Noles Nelson Stewardship Fund.

The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation has over 200 chapters of hunters and fishermen and fishing women in the state.

And it is wildly popular.

The polling data of Wisconsin citizens, regardless of

party affiliation, the polling data, there's overwhelming support for this fund and what it does for the quality of life of all the citizens in

Wisconsin.

And again, not to put too fine of a point on it, but I mean, some people might say, you know, well, Native graphs is that's just a lefty thing.

No, you need Native graphs.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Back to Governor Nelson State Park, the Town Hall Ball Show, live on location on this Earth Day here.

Need to get away.

Get out and as the kids say, touch grass.

No better place to do that than a state park or a state recreation area here.

125 year anniversary of Wisconsin State Parks.

We are proud to be here joined at the desk on location by Tia Nelson, daughter of former Wisconsin governor and US Senator Gaylord Nelson for whom this park is named and joining us from our great station WGBW home of Mino and the mayor in the morning and also of

Shwaba and nightlight in the evening.

It's going to be the Rob Cole's show.

Former state senator Rob Cole joins us from WGPW.

What do you think, Senator?

Maybe we, uh, we bring you on and, uh, you know, talk about sailing.

We can do a sailing segment now.

And again, you're a big sailor.

Yeah.

I'm going to try to do more that I'm, now that I'm not in the legislature and,

um, right?

Rob has spent how many years sailing, sailing dangerous waters.

and survive barely.

Rob, I didn't know that sailing was such a big part of your identity until I emailed you and your email address has either Dora County sailor in it or something like that.

And I was like, oh, wow, the

things I don't know about the guy.

Well, Tia, come on out and go sailing with me sometime.

Oh, boy.

Yeah, I'll do it.

Our mutual friend, my former boss, Dale Schultz, has gone sailing.

He's been up with me

several times.

And Senator Coles refers to Dale as Gillingen.

Okay,

okay.

I

think I might have to check with Dale before I accept Rob's invitation, see what the safety factor is.

I don't want to

be... No, he's the great sailor.

Well, I want to bring this up because I had not bought my state park sticker yet today and the machine here is the to do it to physically manually is out of order, but they have this great QR code.

So I scanned it with my phone.

I bought my sticker this morning on my phone when I came in and I want to read you this when it came up.

It says a vehicle mission pass is required for entry goes on and on the 12 month state park and forest vehicle and mission pass

is valid for 12 months from time of purchase with unlimited vehicle entry to all properties on quote and it goes from there.

Now it used to be you buy your sticker and it was just good for the season.

Now I get 12 months and one of the the main author of this is State Senator Rob Coles.

Rob, tell us a little bit about how this legislation came to pass and getting the signed.

I became aware of it and my staff, Evan Miller and I, we worked this and I'm right off hand, I can't remember who our assembly author was, but yeah, if you were at a park, you know, mid-year or a month before the end of the year, and you bought the sticker, it was only good for that time to the end of the year.

Well, that's ridiculous.

With computers, so

now

when you buy it.

you'll get a whole 12 months from that point.

Now that's where computers help us.

So

we think that this will generate more money for the parks, where it's just more convenient and fairer for citizens that somebody that they're taking a walk in the winter, they're in a park any time of the year.

They should be able to get the whole 12 months when they buy that sticker not wait till January 1.

It's ridiculous.

So anyhow, so this is something that should

have been done a long time ago, but it wasn't for whatever reason.

So now it's there and you know, we want people to be treated fairly.

And we think

this

will generate more money for the parks too,

right?

I just think it's a great, you know, we hear all the politically sexy headlines of how things fall apart and how Republicans and Democrats are going to each other's throats.

I don't think that success stories like this that actually do something for people's daily lives get enough credit because, you know, my

mom was a single

mom.

my my parents got divorced when when I was like 10 11 and one of the few things that my mom could afford doing uh on the weekends with my sister and I is we went here to govern Nelson State Park we went to uh uh a couple other state parks in southwest to cover dodge in southwest wisconsin uh devils lake and baraboo you buy a park sticker and and and thanks to your legislation senator coles republican

bipartisan bill, Democratic Governor Tony Evers signs it into law and you're making it easier for whether it's single parents or families or whomever to come here and enjoy this park, all these parks in Wisconsin, and as you said, generate revenue.

That's a success story and I think it deserves credit and I thank you for what you did.

Well, no problem.

I was a public servant and I still plan on being one.

You know, as time goes by, but it's one of those small pieces of legislation.

That will benefit people now there's

Two minutes left while we have senator Cole still here anything you want to touch on because I again I I'd not try to be too much of this but in today's world Knowing that how you guys have worked together all these years.

I saw it and took it for granted and now we just never

Rarely, I'll say.

Hear about this thing.

Your friendship with Senator Coles and other Republicans is real, and you've actually been able to do things.

Well, we all see ourselves as public servants, proud public servants.

I'm very honored that next week I'm receiving from the Tommy Thompson, our former Republican governor, who, by the way, acquired more public land.

as governor than my father did, which is remarkable.

He's quite proud of it.

And I'm receiving the Tommy Thompson Distinguished Public Leadership Award.

I'm super proud about it.

Congratulations.

But there's a lot of us who have worked across the aisle to do the right thing.

And certainly Rob is one of those people.

And when the first earth...

they happened the United States Senate adjourned everyone went back to their districts subsequent to that a Republican president Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act were both passed almost unanimously and so we have a long important history of working together on these issues.

Rob Cole, State Senator Rob Cole we appreciate you being here you're always welcome thanks for everything you do happy Earth Day to you my

friend.

birthday, Tia, Todd.

Thank

you.

Thanks for being with us, Rob.

Thanks so much.

Come on back.

Tia's going to stay with us.

Be joined by James Edward Mills.

Talk history of our state parks.

Take your phone calls as well on Civic Media.

Thank you.

The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.

Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.

With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.

Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.