‘Beetle-mania’ begins in La Crosse, 12 years ago

Most people in La Crosse probably had never heard of the emerald ash borer until a city park board meeting in 2006.  City forester Pat Bonadurer said the beetle had destroyed 700 million ash trees just in Michigan, but had not reached Wisconsin yet.  Bonadurer said if an ash borer is spotted, the federal government would remove every ash within a half-mile.  The ash borer was discovered in La Crosse County a few years later, and local governments took responsibility for removing the trees.  Twenty-three per cent of La Crosse’s trees in 2006 were ash trees.

Mark Green paid a visit to UW-La Crosse toward the end of his 2006 campaign for governor.  The Congressman from Green Bay was unopposed in the GOP primary, after Scott Walker dropped out earlier in the year.  Green called for an outside audit of the UW system, because of reports that too many students from out-of-state were coming to Wisconsin schools.  A big worry was that some of those outsiders were illegal aliens.  Green lost the election to incumbent Jim Doyle.  It was the last time a Democrat was elected governor of Wisconsin.

And the La Crosse Community Theatre showed off plans for building a possible new auditorium within a second building for Logistics Health on the riverfront.  The new space for the LCT would hold 350 seats on the main floor, plus a balcony with an extra 150 seats.  The second LHI building, home of the Cargill Room, does not contain the community theatre…but the Weber Center next door does.  Theatre plans 12 years ago, 2006, yesterday in La Crosse.