MADISON, Wis. (WXPR) — A sponsor of a bill to cut regulations for people involved in the aquaculture industry passed a state Senate committee last week says the bill, if approved, will cut red tape for people in the aquaculture industry. Others said it endangers public waters.
Senate bill 493 passed 3 2 to go the full Senate for debate.
Republican Tom Tiffany of Hazelhurst said the bill was inspired in part by problems reported to him by a Langlade county business owner. Tiffany says, “There’s a fish farm in Langlade county that has been seeking permits for seven years and they haven’t been able to get them, so we’re trying to get some of those impediments out of the way.” Tiffany says the bill treats aquaculture in the same way as other agricultural businesses and follows federal government standards.
Green Bay Trout Unlimited on its website said the bill greatly expands the use of natural water bodies for aquaculture. It also says fish farms would no longer be required to obtain permits to construct or dredge artificial enlargements of navigable waterways, or to grade on the banks of navigable waterways — including trout streams and “outstanding and exceptional resource waters.”
Another bill Senator Tiffany is promoting would make changes to the Wisconsin Managed Forest Law. That bill has made it through the state Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Mining and Forestry, and advanced to the full Senate. Tiffany says these changes were needed. One of the provisions in the bill would help local governments. “As of 10 years ago, some of the property taxes from MFL closed properties went to the state forestry account..it went to the DNR.. Local governments were not getting the money. We proposed to return some of those dollars to local units of government.”
The Managed Forest Law is a landowner incentive program encouraging sustainable forestry on private woodland. In exchange for following sound forest management, the landowner pays reduced property taxes. The bill would lift the 160 acre cap on closed land for non industrial landowners, enabling property owners to close off as much land as they want while still enjoying the larger tax break on those acres. It also allows for leasing rights to land owners.
Reports indicate Democrats thought the bill gave too much to larger property owners and took money away from DNR coffers. Tiffany says he heard from property owners that the program has too many rules and it slows the amount of wood that could be going to the marketplace.
by Ken Krall, WXPR
