AB 926

Under current law, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) administers

programs relating to air quality, water quality, water supply, wastewater, recycling,

solid and hazardous waste, mining, environmental cleanups, wetlands, shoreland

zoning, navigable waters (including dams and piers), state parks and other

recreational properties, forestry, the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway, wildlife

(including hunting, fishing, and trapping), endangered resources, boats,

snowmobiles, and all-terrain vehicles. DNR also administers the stewardship

program, under which the state is authorized to bond for various conservation

purposes. DNR is governed by a seven-member board and has a secretary who is

nominated by the governor, and with the advice and consent of the senate appointed.

This bill creates a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and transfers

some of DNR's responsibilities to DEQ effective July 1, 2011. DEQ is governed by a

secretary who is nominated by the governor, and with the advice and consent of the

senate appointed. There is no board for DEQ. Under the bill, the Natural Resources

Board appoints the secretary of natural resources. The bill also requires that at least

one member of the Natural Resources Board have an agricultural background and

that at least three members of the Natural Resources Board have held an annual

hunting, trapping, or fishing license in at least seven of the ten years before their

appointment, except that the number of years in which an individual must have held

a license is reduced by the number of years that the individual served on active duty

in the U.S. armed forces or national guard during that ten-year period.

Under the bill, DEQ administers programs relating to air quality, water quality,

water supply, wastewater, recycling, solid and hazardous waste, mining,

environmental cleanups, wetlands, shoreland zoning, and navigable waters

(including dams and piers). DNR continues to administer programs relating to state

parks and other recreational properties, the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway,

wildlife (including hunting, fishing, and trapping), endangered resources, boats,

snowmobiles, and all-terrain vehicles.

This bill also transfers the responsibility to administer programs related to

forestry from DNR to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer

Protection. DNR retains the responsibility of determining public access on land in

state forests and on land subject to the managed forest land program.