Skepticism about climate change-related research led the Legislature’s budget committee last week to water down Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to restore a Department of Natural Resources science bureau, according to a top Republican senator.
The Republican majority on the Legislature’s budget committee agreed to restore two of the 18 researchers cut in 2015 by then-Gov. Scott Walker and his GOP allies in the state Assembly and Senate.
Evers administration officials say the two positions won’t be enough to research new ways to reduce damage done to lakes, streams and drinking water by climate change, invasive species and contaminated sewage.
Evers, who was elected in November and promised to make 2019 “the year of clean drinking water,” proposed restoring five researcher positions to help guide initiatives aimed at protecting water quality. A DNR official expressed gratitude that the budget panel approved the two researchers who are to focus on emerging contaminants, such as cancer-linked PFAS chemicals that have been found in several Madison wells and across the state.
“It would have been better if we could build more capacity in water resource research,” said DNR budget director Eric Ebersberger. “It’s a big deal in the sense that we would have liked to have the five.”
Half of the senior scientists were cut from the DNR’s Integrated Science Services Bureau in the 2015 state budget because Republicans didn’t want them studying the way climate change and pollution from mining could harm the environment.
DNR researchers try to ensure that department programs use effective methods when managing the complex biological systems found in land and water.
But the cuts and other staff losses have meant the DNR no longer has staff with expertise in research subjects including pathogens that force beach closings, restoration of lakes with eroded shorelines or sections that turn into swamps or dry land, and toxic contaminants in fish and wildlife, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported.
The department has reduced capacity in research problems, such as controlling wildfires and basic lake science topics including blooms of bacterial algae and diminished fish populations, the fiscal bureau said.
The budget panel’s leader for natural resources issues, Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, said in an interview he was leery of Evers’ plans to begin rebuilding the science bureau.
The other three researchers proposed by Evers would have had as a priority finding ways to adapt DNR water protection programs to changing climatic conditions such as increased rain and extreme weather events.
“That was certainly one of the red flags for me,” Tiffany said of the proposed resumption of climate change research. “Trying to re-establish the science bureau is certainly a red flag for me too.”
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