WGF on NR 320: Protecting Navigable Waters

Working to Protect Navigable Waters in Wisconsin

WGF members kayaking on Bark Bay Slough, Bayfield County, July 2024, Photo by Don Behm

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) is updating Chapter NR 320 of the state administrative code regulating placement of bridges, culverts, other structures, and fill material in or over navigable waters of the state. A draft Chapter 320 incorporates recent changes in state laws.

Wisconsin’s Green Fire (WGF) provided testimony at the July 31, 2024 public hearing. We submitted written comments to the WDNR that emphasized the need for amending the draft rules to ensure consistent and enforceable permitting of structures. Our comments also emphasized the importance of the rules in carrying out the state’s public trust obligations to the citizens of Wisconsin.

“The Wisconsin Constitution imposes an affirmative duty on the state to protect public rights in navigable waters and ensure those waters remain ‘forever free’,” WGF said in its comments.

Upholding Your Rights to the Water

The Public Trust Doctrine applies to all navigable waters. It protects the public’s rights to transportation and navigation, water quality and aquatic habitat, recreational uses, and scenic enjoyment. Specific permit requirements and enforcement are needed to prevent unwanted impacts.

To achieve that prevention of impacts, WGF’s Public Trust Work Group recommends the WDNR consistently use “no detrimental impact to public rights” as the purpose statement for permit standards in NR 320, unless specified otherwise in statute.

WGF also encourages greater protection of public rights from large and potentially impactful activities, such as solid piers, requiring individual permits in the Great Lakes, by using state-of-the art engineering, modeling, and science.

Extensive permanent physical alterations to, and structures in, lakes and streams that are subject to NR 320 have the potential to destroy, fragment and disconnect aquatic habitat, WGF said in its comments. WGF supports bolstering NR 320 to avoid impacts that violate the pubic trust, and to protect enjoyment of our shared waters for all of us and for future generations.

Our Public Testimony and Comments

Two of the WGF experts behind our work on Chapter NR 320 are Mary Ellen Vollbrecht and Nancy Larson.

• Read our testimony delivered at the July 31, 2024 public hearing: Final WGF Testimony NR 320 2024-7-31
• Read our written comments: NR 320 Comments WGF 2024-8-1