Sarah Widder loves to ride her bike. She started her cycling journey in college.
“I got into cycling because of a professor that I had in college who I got into triathlon, and he was on a cycling team and was like, 'Oh, you should join'," said Widder. "So, I started kind of racing with them and just learning more about road riding and that as an athletic activity,”
This election cycle, she is cycling with a purpose. Partnered with Team Knowles-Nelson, Widder is taking her bike across Wisconsin's state bicycle trails. The Great State Trails Adventure spans over 2,000 miles of state trails, non-state trails, and all the connecting paths.
The total journey is expected to last three weeks.
“I was thinking, well, what's my next adventure going to be that gets me out and excites me?" said Widder. "The DNR, in one of their magazines, made a map of all the Wisconsin state trails, and I was like, well, that would be fun to ride all the state trails.
Last week, her journey brought her to Antigo, where she spent her afternoon at Antigo Lake Park, a Knowles-Nelson beneficiary. Her entire journey is being documented via a live blog with her thoughts along the ride.
“Being able to document it and share it with other people, and hopefully that's inspire either fun to follow along or inspiring to take action and help advocate for Knowles-Nelson or vote or just get out on the trails themselves or whatever way people connect with this story that is makes it just even more fun and bigger,” said Widder.
Knowles-Nelson is a land conservation and recreation fund that was used to purchase land, easements, and upkeep recreational infrastructure such as parks and trails. The program operated as a match grant. Money is raised by local entities and the state matches that amount.
The funding allowed Antigo Lake Park to upgrade their skatepark and helped build the Conover-Phelps Trail in addition to other projects across the Northwoods.
It was also intended to be used to buy conservation easements for the Pelican River Forest. On that project and some others, the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee used what’s referred to as a “pocket veto” to stop or delay a project.
In 2024, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that practice was a violation of the separation of powers. Republican lawmakers have proposed changing the program to give more legislative oversight when it comes to spending Knowles-Nelson dollars .
Earlier this year, the program saw its funding lapse after a period of long debates over how the program should be used
Charles Carlin works with Gathering waters.
“We saw a number of Republican legislators pushing what we thought was really a Knowles-Nelson in name only bill that would limit the program to only sort of Maintenance," said Carlin. "Then we actually saw every single Democratic legislator co-author a bill that would have provided a really robust kind of well-rounded funding package for Knowles Nelson.”
Neither bill crossed the finish line. Beyond the disagreements, the Northwoods takes a particular interest in how the future of Knowles-Nelson will unfold.
“We can't have loggers out there working in the woods and none of our mills can be functioning if we don't have a stable land base to draw from," said Carlin. "Knowles-Nelson helps provide that."
In interviews with WXPR, both 34th Assembly candidates support renewing Knowles-Nelson, Democrat Merlin Van Buren would support the program with no changes.
"There's a lot of things that go into come out of Knowles-Nelson other than just acquiring land, and that was the excuse for for cutting the funding as well," said Van Buren. "We got too much public land up here. Well, [it] doesn't just supply public land up here either. It's throughout the state."
Republican Rob Swearingen supports bringing it back “in some way, shape, or form.”
“Here in the North Woods, we do need that tax base," said Swearingen. "If you talk to any town chairman, they'll tell you, we got enough stewardship land up here in the North Woods.”
He said he'd want an audit of exsisting state-owned land.
Now, Widder's ride is showing how the funds have and still can impact the state.
“The majority of projects are little grants that are given to communities to support parks, and or are benefiting public hunting lands," said Widder "It's just for everyone to enjoy getting outside and being in the environment, and you know, keeping that as a resource for everyone moving forward.”
Since it was created in 1989, the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship fund has awarded over 4,000 grants to support conservation and recreation.
Maria Peralta-Arellano is a reporter covering water quality and the environment for WXPR and a Report for America corps member. Report for America recruits, places and supports talented journalists in local newsrooms across the United States. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work and Report for America will match it dollar for dollar. Donate here.
