“Nekoosa Paper Company on Wisconsin River”
National Archives at College Park , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the very latest—and to the keeper the most offensive, example of rich men in positions of power refusing to acknowledge that their terms have expired: Fred Prehn, a dentist and cranberry grower from Wausau, refuses to respect the fact that he was replaced on the Natural Resources Board as of May 1 by Gov. Evers appointee Sandra Dee Nass of Ashland.
The keeper’s history with the Board goes back to the days of the old Conservation Commission when a rich beer baron and an extravagant mink farmer were among the members; and it includes later years when the likes of John Lawton, Dan Flaherty and John Brogan demonstrated what it means to act honorably in the public interest.
In an outstanding Milwaukee Journal Sentinel column, Outdoor writer Paul Smith labels Prehn’s actions as “dishonorable,” and against long-standing tradition, but obscurely legal under perverse law.
When the NRB meets virtually Wednesday it will be led by someone whose term has expired and who bought his power with donations to the intransigent Repub’s who see profit in pollution and sport in being the ONLY state to allow summer hound training for so-called bear hunters from all over the country.
The keeper notes that so much damage has been done to natural resources under the authority of the Repub Walker crowd that it is imperative it be corrected as soon as possible. The Big Lie spawns little lies, and the likes of Prehn makes a sham of representative government.
