Landfill company seeks to buy 120+ acres of Eau Claire County Forest
EAU CLAIRE CO., Wis. (WEAU) — A landfill company wants to buy more than 120 acres of Eau Claire County Forest.
Kathy Campbell has lived in the Chippewa Valley for more than 50 years. She recalled picking blackberries near Tower Ridge with her young daughter as one of her earliest memories in the area.
“I call it our people’s land because it’s ours. We don’t want that used for such a hurtful purpose and create the demolition of a wildlife area, habitat, risk and harm our watershed,” Campbell said.
Campbell is helping organize a petition against the proposed expansion. It has gathered more than 200 signatures.
“We want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to provide input, to voice their concerns. So, and we’re not, and we’re not going to rush into any decision either,” Campbell said.
County reviewing proposal
Josh Pedersen is the director of Eau Claire County Parks and Forestry. He said GFL Environmental approached the county with plans to purchase the land. GFL operates the Seven Mile Landfill along Olson Drive.
A staff member at Seven Mile Landfill told WEAU no one was available to speak by phone or email and directed the station to attend a future town meeting instead.
Pedersen said the proposal is in its early stages. The county has not received a formal offer or a dollar figure. He said his team is studying how a sale would affect the county’s forest land-use plan.
“How subtracting land from our land base, what does that do to our plan? We’re going to evaluate environmental impacts from the project, recreational impacts, timber, loss of timber,” Pedersen said.
Pedersen said there is no timeline yet for a decision. Once his team finishes its review, it will bring the matter to the county’s Parks and Forest Committee.
Approval process
Any sale would first need a recommendation from the county’s Parks and Forest Committee.
Then, two-thirds of the county board would have to approve withdrawing the land from Wisconsin’s County Forest Law, a state program that gives counties financial incentives to manage designated public forest land under long-term conservation plans.
This would mark the fifth time in about 25 years the Seven Mile Landfill has sought to expand.
“It changes a whole ecosystem. The landfill is not going to stop. It doesn’t want to close. It’s there to make money. It’s our job to protect the land from future development and growth. So, we don’t want to set a precedent that it’s okay to take more. It’s not. And so, it needs to stop here,” Campbell said.