The Kohler Company has requested to reconstruct the entrance to Kohler Andrae State Park with a rotary, build a road through the Park to their property, and build 3 maintenance buildings with a parking lot totaling almost 30,000 sq. ft., all on state land. The Company has its own land to use for an entry but chooses state land instead.
Saturday, September 23, Jim Buchholz, 26 year superintendent of KASP, led a group organized by the Fox Valley Sierra Group through the lands Kohler has requested to reconstruct. Jim's photos are below. "I based my photo locations on their development map and the many survey markers and flagging I found in this area of the park. I thought it might be helpful to show what this "unused" and "unimportant" area of the park looks like to those who have never actually seen it. It seems like many of those in favor of Kohler bulldozing this area flat and building a massive shop facility and huge parking lots seem to think of the area as an old dump site or possibly an abandoned corn field or whatever. In reality the entire area is an extension of the State Natural Area across the road and is comprised of open and wood sand dune formations complete with rare vegetation and active habitat for the areas wildlife. In the short time I walked the area I saw a couple deer, a hen turkey with 8 or 9 young chicks, a Cooper's hawk, a pileated woodpecker, a bluebird and a fox den just to name a few."
Please note: The land Kohler wants for the maintenance buildings, the road to his course, a construction entrance, and rotary was purchased with Land and Water Conservation Act funds for the recreational use of the public. It was not donated by the Kohler family.
