🌲 Superior’s Forest Flip: When “Conservation” Means “Cousin Gets to Build a Deck”

Mayor Paine’s Green Deal Smells Like Nepotism in Pine-Scented Wrapping Paper

🪵 Welcome to Superior, Where Saving Trees Means Saving Face (for the Family)

Folks, gather ‘round the campfire—just make sure it’s outside the conservation zone. Because Superior, Wisconsin, the little city with big forest dreams and even bigger red flags, is pitching a deal that’d make Smokey Bear choke on his cigar.

Mayor Jim Paine—yes, that one—is vehemently against development. So much so, he’s pushing to dedicate 60% of the Superior Municipal Forest as a State Natural Area, locking it up tighter than your dad’s AOL password. Sounds noble, right?

But like all things wrapped in eco-rhetoric and “public good” branding—follow the family name.

🦆 It’s a Bird Sanctuary! (With a Driveway and a Barge)

Here comes the twist like a raccoon in a garbage can: this whole green crusade just happens to include some sticky property owned by the mayor’s own Uncle Fred Paine and Cousin Freddy Jr.

And let me tell you, their slice of paradise is anything but a nature preserve. The land is under a DNR conservation easement—meaning it’s supposed to be for the birds, not for barbecues. But what do we find? Houses, driveways, and a barge—because nothing screams “environmental stewardship” like industrial maritime squatting.

This land was supposed to be protected, and it’s not. Now, rather than deal with it like any regular citizen who broke the rules, the Paine clan’s getting a bailout. Not with money—oh no, they’re getting legal salvation through a neat little trade.

💸 Public Forest for Private Favors: A Paineful Transaction

Here’s the mayor’s pitch: in exchange for lifting the easement on his own family’s land, the city agrees to dedicate massive portions of the public forest as a State Natural Area. That’s right—we give up city-owned land we already weren’t planning to pave, and in return, his family gets to dodge conservation law.

And he calls it a “win-win”. Yeah—win for Uncle Fred, win for the mayor’s reelection campaign, and a big ol’ L for anyone who thought conservation meant you don’t get to drop a boat on protected wetlands.

🧾 The Easement Escape Plan: Conservation Edition

Now look, conservation easements aren’t suggestions—they’re legal commitments. The DNR isn’t supposed to play “Let’s Make a Deal” just because the mayor shows up with family drama and a press release.

If the Paines violated the easement? That’s on them. Pay the fine, restore the land, or fight it in court. What the city shouldn’t be doing is handing over 2,000 acres of forest to shield the mayor’s family from the consequences of turning a bird sanctuary into their own Margaritaville.

This isn’t “restoration.” This is rebranding a scandal as stewardship.

🧺 “We’re Protecting the Forest!” — You Mean the One That’s Already Protected?

Let’s not forget: most of this forest already has layers of local protection. Dedicating it as a State Natural Area doesn’t change much except slapping a shiny new badge on the thing and handing the state even more say in how it’s managed.

Nothing is gained. But something very real is lost: public credibility. And whatever moral high ground Paine was climbing just slid into the swamp his cousin parked a barge on.

🧠 The Optics Are Trash—The Ethics Are Worse

This isn’t just about Paine’s family ties. It’s about the mayor leveraging public trust for private resolution. It’s using your position to reroute consequences—like telling the whole city to recycle while you dump paint thinner in the lake because your uncle’s “not good with paperwork.”

And let’s be honest: if this were anyone else, you think the city would be bending over backwards? Hell no. They’d be serving fines like hot dogs at a Packers tailgate.

📣 Mic Drop: Forests Don’t Lie—But Politicians Do

So next time someone tells you about a beautiful new conservation plan, ask them whose driveway it’s really saving. Ask them what family names are carved into the trees. Because in Superior, forest protection now comes with fine print and family discounts.

This ain’t conservation. This is cover-up. This is cronyism. This is Paineful politics at its finest.

SOURCE : This story was exposed, and sourced from the fantastic reporting of John Ramos from the Duluth Monitor.  

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