A bill in the U.S. House
would redesignate
the Apostle Islands as
Wisconsin's first national park.
Republican Congressman
Tom Tiffany introduced
the measure, and it passed
committee this spring.
But local governments
in and around Bayfield County
and the Red Cliff Band
of Lake Superior Chippewa
oppose the redesignation.
We're pretty much
bursting at the seams
in terms of
what we can accommodate
In terms of lodging
and restaurants.
That affects workforce
of course.
We don't have housing
for people up here.
It's hard to have
to have workforce
come in that can then
accommodate all these tourists
for the businesses.
So, and
I know that Mr. Tiffany has
touted this redesignation
as a boon for tourism
but we're basically
looking for tourism
in other directions.
I think, as a whole, we're
we've done a lot of work
over the last 15 to 20 years
trying to create tourism
as an industry up here
getting people all the way
up to northern Wisconsin to
enjoy Lake Superior and
the inland lakes that we have.
We've done a really
good job of that.
But what we've really been
trying to do subsequently
also, is to try to do that
in the shoulder seasons
and in the winter
to expand tourism
in those areas.
The big problem with
Mr. Tiffany's bill at this point
in time is that
we don't know where
the infrastructure is going
to come to support it.