Madison, WI.—What Wisconsin lost in 1995 was on full display in Madison at an event celebrating the return of Tom Dawson to Wisconsin on October 1, 2024.

    Dawson served as the Public Intervenor for the State of Wisconsin from 1976 to 1995 and was instrumental in helping to prevent environmental damage from metallic mining, damage to ground and surface water, and limitations on public rights.

    The 74-year-old Dawson, now residing in Hawaii, also taught classes at the UW-Madison Law School  

    The Public Intervenor’s office has been described as a “watchdog” that advocated on behalf of citizens by taking on mining operations, wetland drainage, use of DDT, and defending Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine.

Unfortunately, in 1995 then-Governor Tommy Thompson eliminated the Office of the Public Intervenor in his state budget, while he also eliminated the independence of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) by making the DNR Secretary a part of his cabinet rather than being hired by the citizen Natural Resources Board.

    The State’s reputation as an environmental leader has suffered ever since.

    Dawson followed in the footsteps of other legal scholars, including Peter Peshek from 1976 to 1983 and Kathleen Falk from 1983 until 1995.

    The three were known as the “trio of trouble,” for their advocacy on behalf of Wisconsin’s natural resources and resisting efforts of those who would pollute groundwater and restrict public rights.

When the office of the Public Intervenor ended, Dawson went on to become director of the environmental protection unit of the Wisconsin Department of Justice, where he helped enforce environmental protection laws and represented the DNR in litigation.

    Peshek went on to become the leading environmental attorney in Madison at Dewitt Ross and Stevens from 1983 to 2017.

    He was instrumental in writing the state’s new wiretap rules, which helped to bring down an organized crime ring in Milwaukee, and also helped to locate the killer of a DNR wildlife technician.

Falk went on to serve as the Dane County Executive from 1997 to 2011 and was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame in 2022.

What Wisconsin lost

    Many citizens today don’t remember that when then Governor Warren Knowles formed the Kellett Commission in 1965 to study state government, the result was a law that combined the previous Conservation Department with the Department of Resource Development to become today’s DNR.

It also formed the office of the Public Intervenor in 1967 to serve within the Attorney General’s office.

    The Public Intervenor was meant to do just that: intervene on behalf of the public on legislative and legal matters.

    Peshek, today residing in Sturgeon Bay, said that the office was an idea advanced by the hunting and fishing community.

Hunters and fishermen paraded around the square in Madison to show that they didn’t want conservation to be overshadowed in the new DNR.

    “Some of the issues we dealt with were directly related to hunting and fishing, such as expanding the Canada goose hunting zone,” Peshek said.

    Most of the time the issues the Public Intervenor worked on, such as wetlands and groundwater, were indirect but incredibly important to hunters and trappers, Peshek said.

    Peshek said that they were able to work with business and manufacturing organizations through a process of “consensus resolution” so that industry knew the mutually agreeable parameters they needed to meet in order to stay in business without harming natural resources.

    Jodi Habush Sinykin describes the history of the Public Intervenor in the Marquette Law Review, as: “protecting public rights in the state’s natural resources and to ensure fair play and due process for matters of environmental concern.”

    The beauty of the office is that it was independent, and worked under an advisory committee of environmental activists chaired by Arlen Christianson.

    Dawson won a major legal case (the Town of Casey in 1991) that allowed townships to regulate pesticides. In the case, Dawson won a 9-to-0 verdict by the U.S. Supreme Court that reversed a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision.

    Peshek said that the office was overwhelmed until Dawson came onboard, though Peshek had helped to write a new wire-tap law that helped solve the murder of a DNR wildlife technician and reduce organized crime in Milwaukee. 

    “His interests were on criminal law, which gave him the tenacity to endure pain and to cause pain,” Peshek said.

Kathleen Falk said that when she came to the Intervenor’s office, she met brilliant lawyers who saw the big picture and evidentiary detail.

  “All have different skills to offer, and we need all of us to get the job done,” Falk observed.

    At the time they were the only full-time environmental lawyers, and they forged a progressive track record of environmental defense, which caused Gov. Thompson to eliminate the office on behalf of the business community.

    To help offset some of the loss, the non-profit law firm of Midwest Environmental Advocates was formed in 1999 as a public interest law firm and has served as an advocate for the environment in the void of the Public Intervenor Office.

    Dawson said that he didn’t know if the Office of the Public Intervenor will ever return, but in the meantime the Midwest Environmental Advocates is doing important work.

    “I thought if it would come back, it would be soon after it was abolished,” he said.

    “The office threatened a lot of Thompson’s business supporters.  We were successful and winning cases and effective with the legislature.”     Those were the golden years, when Wisconsin had an Office of Public Intervenor and an independent DNR.