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Madison, Wisconsin (AP) — Members of Congress’ powerful Finance Committee blocked a plan by the state’s Department of Natural Resources to spend $15.5 million on conservation easements to protect 56,000 acres of forest in northern Wisconsin .
According to Wisconsin Public Radio, the purchase would have been the largest land conservation effort in the state’s history.
The DNR’s policy board approved the deal in October, agreeing to raise about $4 million from state management funds and spend about $10.8 million in federal forest heritage on the project.
But State Senator Mary Feltskowski, a Republican Irma and member of the Finance Committee, said Thursday that she and other committee members she didn’t name oppose using state money for the project. said it does.
She told Wisconsin Public Radio that the easement meant the 56,000 acres could never be developed. She added that public land is already abundant in northern Wisconsin, and local governments are concerned about housing and land shortages.
“We cannot continuously take Northern property, detax it, take it from the private (sector) and take it from individuals,” she said. “We can’t afford to keep the service north.”
Republicans generally oppose excluding some private land from the tax.
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