Proposed 765-kV transmission routes threaten Sauk County’s scenic landscape, tourism economy and agricultural resources

BARABOO, WI — September 3, 2026 — Sauk County Board Chair Tim McCumber is calling on Midcontinent Grid Solutions (MGS) to fundamentally rethink the proposed BECI 765-kilovolt transmission project and develop a route that respects Sauk County’s longstanding commitment to protecting its scenic landscapes, agricultural lands, natural resources and tourism economy.

“This is not simply a question of where transmission structures can physically be constructed,” McCumber said. “It is a question of how we protect the landscape and economic resources that define Sauk County—resources that our communities have deliberately worked for decades to protect.”

Sauk County’s tourism economy is one of the largest in Wisconsin. According to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism’s most recent county-level economic impact data cited by McCumber, Sauk County generated approximately $1.65 billion in direct visitor spending in 2024, supporting nearly 11,900 jobs, approximately $333.5 million in labor income, and approximately $150.7 million in state and local tax revenue. Direct visitor spending ranked second among Wisconsin counties, behind Milwaukee County.

McCumber argues that those economic numbers cannot be separated from the landscape that draws visitors to Sauk County.

The Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton, Devil’s Lake State Park, the Baraboo Range, the Wisconsin River and Lake Wisconsin, the International Crane Foundation, Circus World, Mirror Lake, historic downtowns, recreational trails, natural areas, farms and cultural attractions collectively form the destination visitors experience.

At the center of that landscape is the Baraboo Range and its surrounding bluff, forest, agricultural and natural areas.

“The Baraboo Hills are not simply scenery surrounding our tourism attractions,” McCumber said. “They are part of the tourism experience itself.”

McCumber pointed to Sauk County’s own history as evidence that protecting these resources has long been a deliberate public policy choice.

During the planning and expansion of U.S. Highway 12 in the early 2000s, Sauk County, Dane County, the State of Wisconsin and other partners recognized that major infrastructure could create impacts extending well beyond the physical footprint of the project. The resulting Highway 12 planning process included conservation planning and ultimately established the Baraboo Range Protection Program.

The County’s Highway 12 Corridor Growth Management Plan, adopted in 2003, called for preservation of agricultural, natural and scenic landscapes west and south of the inner rim of the Baraboo Valley and specifically recognized the importance of maintaining an “unbroken view of the South Range of the Baraboo Hills.”

“That was a policy choice,” McCumber said. “It reflected the understanding that the landscape has value beyond the individual parcels that comprise it. That value is environmental, recreational, cultural and economic.”

McCumber contends that the same standard must apply when evaluating the BECI transmission project.

A 765-kV transmission structure can have visual impacts extending far beyond the parcel on which it is located, potentially affecting agricultural fields, highways, communities, parks, trails and recreational areas. For that reason, he argues that the viewshed itself must be treated as an economic and land-use resource, rather than evaluating impacts only on individual properties.

“The standard should not be whether BECI can build its transmission line through Sauk County,” McCumber said. “The standard should be whether BECI can build necessary infrastructure while honoring Sauk County’s longstanding commitment to protect the Baraboo Hills, its scenic viewsheds, its agricultural landscape, its natural resources, and the tourism economy those resources support.”

McCumber also rejected the notion that impacts to the Baraboo Hills could simply be offset elsewhere through conservation easements or monetary compensation.

“A conservation easement elsewhere, or monetary reimbursement, cannot fully compensate for the loss of the highly prominent Baraboo Hills viewshed,” he said. “Once a tall transmission structure has been placed in this important view corridor, the original landscape cannot simply be restored.”

McCumber is particularly critical of the currently proposed route concepts.

“The current potential routes as proposed cannot, and do not, meet the needs of Sauk County or this region,” he said. “They appear to be strategically chosen to highlight a worst-case scenario that will bring area leaders to the table to compromise. They do not represent realistic expectations.”

Rather than accepting those routes as the starting point for negotiations, McCumber is askings MGS to go back to the drawing board and conduct a more serious examination of existing rights-of-way and other established corridors.

“I respectfully ask that the project evaluate the use of previously established rights-of-ways and other corridors in accordance with state statute,” McCumber said, “while also respecting the well-established policies already protecting this region.”

Sauk County has spent decades building an economy around the very resources that make the county distinctive. McCumber argues that protecting those resources is not simply an environmental objective—it is an economic development policy.

“The Baraboo Bluff Range cannot be moved,” McCumber said. “An unbroken view cannot be reconstructed after it has been permanently altered. The economic value generated by Sauk County’s landscape cannot simply be replaced if the character that attracts millions of visitors is unnecessarily diminished.”

McCumber’s statement was addressed to Midcontinent Grid Solutions and copied to the Sauk County Board of Supervisors, Sauk County Administrator Lisa Wilson, Governor Tony Evers, Wisconsin Department of Tourism Secretary Ann Sayers, State Senator Sarah Keyeski, State Representative Karen DeSanto and State Representative Tony Kurtz.