Land protection is still happening across the state. It just looks a little different after funding for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program expired earlier this year.

Despite widespread public support for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program as a way to protect some of the state's most valuable and vulnerable lands, lawmakers adjourned earlier this year without reaching a deal to reauthorize its funding, allowing it to expire June 30.

According to Wisconsin Watch, lawmakers considered several proposals to preserve funding for the program, including a proposal that would have provided about $28 million annually through 2030. The proposal would have shifted the program's focus toward maintaining existing public lands rather than acquiring new ones. It also would have required full legislative approval for any Department of Natural Resources land purchase of $1 million or more using stewardship funding.

In July, Door County Land Trust Executive Director Emily Wood said the land trust has been working to identify other funding sources, including grants and private donations, to continue its conservation efforts.

As the state's alliance of land trusts, Gathering Waters continues to work with other conservation organizations, fishing and hunting advocates, trail builders, bicycling enthusiasts, and thousands of individuals to generate support needed to revive funding for the program.

Charles Carlin with Gathering Waters says that without support from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, the state also risks missing out on federal funding that helps make land acquisition projects possible.

Carlin is hopeful the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program will receive bipartisan support to continue land acquisition and maintenance efforts across the state. That funding could be especially important for the Door County Land Trust, which announced plans in August to create the Little Sturgeon Estuary Preserve.