Partnership out to preserve open spaces

Saving county's rural lands goal of new group

By DAVE RANK - Daily News Staff 
Date: March 24, 2005

There are people in this county who believe the rural character of the local landscape is worth protecting and have banded together to help do just that.

"The Land Conservation Partnership of Washington County is a consortium of individuals, businesses and organizations working to protect farmland and natural areas," said Sue Millin , project coordinator for the new organization, which formed in 2003.

"We have 130 official members, but there are many other people who participate but haven't signed up, per se. We're growing every day," she said.

The primary objective of the partnership, Millin said, is to provide a one-stop source of information that towns and villages can use to make decisions on how best to preserve their most prominent natural areas and reserve farmland from urban development.

"The premise is to get citizens involved," Millin said. "The partnership can provide the tools for citizens to get involved."

"I really do agree with their mission," said John Stern to explain why he agreed to become a member of the organization's steering committee. He is a county board supervisor from the town of West Bend and a member of the board's Land Conservation Committee.

"I'm a country boy at heart. I live out in the county and I'd hate to see all the farms disappear," he said. "I'd like to do all I can to see that that doesn't happen."

During the first 18 months of its existence, the partnership has managed to raise $40,000 to fund its efforts, Millin said.

Washington County is the fourth fastest-growing county in Wisconsin . Between 1970 and 2004, the county's population nearly doubled from 63,834 to 123,587. State forecasts predict the county population will reach 157,300 by the year 2035.

That development is putting pressure on the rural land that still exists in the county, Millin said, raising property values and making it difficult for farmers to buy property or expand their own business.

In 1972, 76 percent of the acreage in the county was farmland, Millin said. By 2002, that percentage dropped to 47 percent. In 1989 there were 395 dairy farms in Washington County ; by 2002 that number had fallen to 176.

"There is a sense of urgency here," she said. "The price of farm land is going up 12 percent a year. These prices are really incentive for farmers to sell their land."

"They're bringing the issue to the forefront," Stern said of the partnership. "Most people are not aware how serious the problem is. (Farmland and open spaces are) only a finite resource. Once it's gone, it's gone."

There is nothing wrong with growth and development, Millin said; it is inevitable. But what needs to be done is properly plan for it, identify sites that should remain rural in character and direct development around those locations, she said.

Unless we make a strong and clear case for balancing new development with conserving the farmland and natural areas of our community, they will be lost," Millin said. "We lose hundreds of acres of farmland to development every year, and too many of our natural areas have been compromised by or even lost to development."

That balance is what the partnership wants to accomplish.

"If we're not careful, we'll lose that rapidly. I've seen communities that didn't plan and they disappeared," said Tony Warren , chief executive officer of the West Bend Mutual Insurance Co., and another member of the partnership's steering committee. "Things are changing so fast, I don't know if we have another 10 years to plan."

"The big question is where do you get the money and that's what we're working on now," Millin said.

The partnership is preparing to lobby the county to designate a portion of its half-cent sales tax to the cause of farmland and natural areas preservation, Stern said. "I think that's the next big step."

"We know people want to preserve farmland and nature areas; we know where the land is. The goal is to come up with a plan that is livable for everyone," Millin said.