2025 National Park Presentations

A few events took place in 2025, including the new look website. On September 9th, in Viroqua, in Vernon County, the Fortney Hotel sponsored the park presentation. It was very well attended with a not of question and answers afterward. Copies of our Booklet were handed out to those who attended.

Another meeting was held in October in Gays Mills. A few people attended, who were mostly landowners. Some were supportive, while some were skeptical of the idea because there was an assumption that landowners would be evicted from their land if this National Park project happened. That is totally not true.

What would be the benefits for landowners to take part? There are at least 4 tangible benefits:

1. Transferring their land for the park would be a great gift to our country and future generations.

2. The land would be preserved as they left it.

3. Landowners would be financially secure.

4. They could live out their lives on the land without debt, or may manage it as a Bed & Breakfast.

Morris Udall, former Secretary of the Interior in the Carter Administration said this: "I have been involved in legislation in creation of a dozen national parks and the same pattern keeps repeating itself. At first, people want to hang you. Five years later, they say it was the best thing that ever happened in their community. Twenty years later, they probably want to name a mountain after you."

Sometimes the situation is reversed. People really do want a national park for a particular resource in their metaphorical backyard, but do not meet the strict criteria of being the best of the best. A few examples are: Mackinaw Island in Michigan; Devil's Lake in Wisconsin; and the Loess Hills in Iowa.

A meeting in November in Prairie du Chien involved Driftless Development and Crawford County personnel. All seemed very open to the idea.

The new park will have vast recreational potential. I don't think there will be another national park with the recreation potential of this one. And, in recent decades, recreation potential is the #1 criteria of creating new parks.

But, more locally, there are other land preservation agencies doing very fine work but are only preserving about 1,000 acres a year. At this rate, it would take over 300 years to preserve Crawford County - not to mention the whole Driftless Region. They don't have the resources they need. We need national resources brought to the fore front for this nationally significant area.