As Expected, City of Sheboygan Grants Permit to Troubled Kohler Golf Course

Kohler’s Plan Takes Land from State Park to Devastate Lakeshore Environment

On December 15, the City of Sheboygan Plan Commission met to decide whether to grant Kohler Co. a conditional use permit (CUP) to develop a rare wetland and old growth beech forest into a luxury golf course

Municipal Politicians Ditch Constituents in Favor of Local Special Interests

Updates on Franklin Strauss Brands project, Lakeside Park, and Kohler-Andrae.

It is comforting to assume that municipal governments, being the most “local,” are the most keenly responsive to the will of their constituents.

Appeals Court Hands Friends of the Black River Forest Important Victory on Kohler-Andrae

PRESS RELEASE SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has handed Friends of the Black River Forest a victory in the group’s challenge to a 2017 decision by the Department of Natural Resources to give land in Kohler-Andrae State Park to Kohler Co. to develop a golf course.    In exchange, the DNR would...

Wisconsin Supreme Court Decision Paves Way for Kohler Golf Course

Rebecca Dallet’s statewide victory in the 2018 Wisconsin Supreme Court race was seen as a triumph for liberals. Dallet beat Michael Screnock to win a seat on the State’s highest court, but she ran against Donald Trump. Her campaign featured Trump in TV commercials that asserted “our values are under attack.” But campaigns are one...

Take Action on Kohler-Andrae: Links, Talking Points, Addresses

If you would like to write a letter to the DNR to save Kohler-Andrae State Park or to Kohler Company urging them to drop their plans for yet another luxury golf course for elite users only, below are some talking points you can use, and below that is an email address and a couple of...

Going the way of the Pequod

Taking their orders from the Captain Ahabs of industry and organized labor, key Wisconsin Democrats meekly surrendered on the Felony Trespass Bill, making environmental protest illegal. In the meantime, the State's environment is sinking faster than the Pequod. What if the protectionism being granted to big oil had been applied to whaling, an industry once...

Sierra Club Partners with Friends of the Black River Forest to Save Kohler-Andrae

MADISON, October 14, 2019 – At an awards ceremony held in Milwaukee last Saturday, Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter announced that it is forming a coalition with Friends of the Black River Forest in opposition to Kohler Company’s proposed golf course development north of Kohler-Andrae State Park. Friends of the Black River Forest president Mary Faydash,...

Habitat Destruction Begins at Home (Why, Mr. Kohler? Part 2)

Naturalist Jim Buchholz is worried about the wildlife in and around Kohler-Andrae State Park. Before retiring in 2013, Buchholz had served as park superintendent of Kohler-Andrae for twenty-five years, and he knows the area well. On May 11, 2019, as part of Sierra Club's Wisconsin Loves Parks day, Buchholz took Sierra Clubbers from Great Waters...

“Why, Mr. Kohler, Why?” (Part 1)

Kathleen Rammer still wants to know why – why did Herb Kohler Jr. go back on his word? He made her a promise on Christmas Eve, 2013, “Before this all started,” Rammer said. Before Kohler Co. proposed to build a championship, Pete Dye golf course on top of a globally rare wetland and clear cut a...

Town Halls Reveal Republican Indifference to Environmental Issues

The problem with facts, from the Republican standpoint, is that they have a well-known liberal bias. That’s why our Wisconsin Republicans try to avoid them whenever possible. But with so many parts of our state in environmental crisis, the Republican avoidance of truth has become destructive to both our health and our property values. I...