AB 756

This bill changes the laws under which the Department of Natural Resources

currently regulates mining so that the laws are substantially the same as they

existed before enactment of

2013 Wisconsin Act 1

,

2013 Wisconsin Act 81

, and

2017

Wisconsin Act 134

.

Under current law, DNR regulates mining for metallic minerals. Prior to the

enactment of

2013 Wisconsin Act 1

, the laws under which DNR regulated metallic

mining applied to mining for ferrous and nonferrous minerals.

2013 Wisconsin Act

1

modified the laws regulating metallic mining so that they applied to mining for

nonferrous minerals only and created new laws for regulating mining for ferrous

minerals.

Under current law, certain forested land may be designated as managed forest

land (MFL) under a program administered by DNR. Under this program, the owner

of land designated as MFL makes an annual acreage share payment in lieu of

property taxes and must open the land to the public for certain recreational

activities. The landowner may designate a portion of the land as closed to public

access and make an additional payment per acre.

2013 Wisconsin Act 81

generally

provided that requirements regarding public access to MFL do not apply to an area

of land within a certain distance of a proposed iron mining site and required an MFL

owner to make an additional payment per acre for land located in a proposed ferrous

mining site if the land is not open to public access.

Prior to

2017 Wisconsin Act 134

, activities relating to nonferrous metallic

minerals were regulated differently depending on whether the activity involved

exploration, prospecting, or mining.

2017 Act 134

added as a regulated activity bulk

sampling, which is the excavation of fewer than 10,000 tons of material with a license