Ozaukee Washington Land Trust (OWLT) has been working to obtain a grant through the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program to purchase the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs property in Port Washington. The grant process is now stalled by the state’s conservative Joint Committee on Finance.
In June 2021, the Wisconsin DNR approved a $2.3 million grant, but an anonymous legislator on the state’s Joint Committee on Finance objected to the amount of the grant. OWLT negotiated with the state and agreed to a smaller grant of $1.6 million, but the effort is stalled because the Joint Committee on Finance has refused to set a hearing date to consider the funding.
The committee’s inaction could result in OWLT not being granted the funding needed to buy the land. They have until the fall of 2022 to purchase the property. There is the potential that a private buyer is also interested in the land.
The Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs property includes almost a mile of shoreline and bluffs along Lake Michigan, as well as surrounding wetlands and woods, which serve as important habitat for birds and wildlife along the Lake Michigan flyway.
If the purchase is finalized, OWLT plans to preserve the land with a conservation easement. The property would be managed by Ozaukee County and open to the public, and has the potential to be connected to the nearby Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve.
Read more in articles in the Ozaukee Press and Ozaukee County News Graphic.
Photo by Joseph Gage, 2020.
