The DNR Rests

The Department of Natural Resources has reviewed the Surreply Brief submitted by the Joint Petitioners on September 22, 2006. We have determined, based on the arguments and citations contained therein, that it is not necessary for the Department to file any additional briefs in this matter.

Please note for the record that the Department disagrees with the arguments and characterizations of the record and the law made in the Joint Petitioner's Surreply Brief.

We do not acquiesce in their arguments or characterizations of the law and the record in this case.

Finally, I must point out that there is no support in the record for their assertion, on page 4 of their brief, that the DNR has reduced a "highly complex subject to mere sloganeering".

They include, in quotation marks, a phrase which they seem to imply is attributable to the Department.

The record needs to reflect that this phrase, on page 4 of their brief in "quotations", ("Any increase in water levels is bad, no matter when or how long it occurs or how it affects public safety, navigation of property"), is not something that has been stated by the Department in this case or any others relating to the control of water levels on navigable waters and is not something which exists in the record in this case.

As is evidenced by the record in this case, that statement does not reflect the Department's approach to its responsibilities under Section 31.02, Stats.

I will send a letter for the record to the ALJ and the parties on the service list containing this same information.

Thank you.
P Michael J. Cain
Staff Attorney
Bureau of Legal Services
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources