Wisconsin Legislators Introduce Rights of Nature Bills

*photo credit: Rep. Vincent Miresse

Wisconsin legislators celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day by introducing a package of bills at the State Capital that will go a long way to protecting our fragile and deteriorating environment in Wisconsin. Anahkwet (Guy Reiter) who is from the Menominee Nation and one of the leaders in the Rights of Nature movement in Wisconsin spoke at the news conference. He said “Let me be real with you: the laws that are supposed to protect our communities and the natural world are designed to regulate destruction, not stop it. They ask, “How much pollution can we get away with?” instead of “How do we live right with the relationship with the earth?” We are here today because of the Rights of Nature bill packages. It begins to flip that script.” All speakers emphasized the need to recognize that nature has a right to exist and to be healthy. The natural world does not exist solely to be exploited for economic gain. Humanity is part of the natural world, not its owner.

The three bills that were introduced are:

LRB-4418. Re-establishing a requirement for sulfide ore mining projects to prove they will prevent harm to the environment prior to approval.

LRB-4420, creating specific new protections for Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, known to the Ho-Chunk people as Tee Wakacak and

LRB-4400, formally recognizing the inherent right of nature and Wisconsin’s commitment to environmental stewardship

State Representative Darren Madison (one of the authors of the bills) stated that “Right now in Wisconsin, many of our protections are based in well-established law and in individual rights, but we lack a clear framework to protect nature as a good in itself.” These proposed laws actually mirror similar Rights of Nature laws that have been adopted in other jurisdictions across the country and actually across the world.

Please contact your respective state legislator to voice your support for these bills. You can watch the entirety of the 20 minute press conference at https://wiseye.org/2025/10/13/news-conference-state-legislators-honor-indigenous-peoples-day/ . To learn more about the Rights of Nature movement in Wisconsin, please visit our website at http://rightsofnaturewi.org/

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