This column is about one of the favorite sports in all of Wisconsin and our new Governor who, with apologies to Arnold Schwarzenegger, is now known as The Terminator.

It's been a hell of a couple of weeks with Scott Walker, who has been exposed as someone bent on destroying just about every legislative initiative that has been enacted in the last 50 years.

I think his behavior is an effort to become the first presidential candidate for the Tea Party (Or Tee Party as a PGA Tour blog called it).

Walker has created a national profile for himself while laying waste to his own state. He's given tax breaks to rich guys and big companies. He's put a bunch of state power plants up for sale so his rich friends can buy them and get even richer. He's been all over on television. The news channels even carried one news conference live. The guy is on a roll of destruction.

I've known Walker for over 20 years and I've often heard it said the most dangerous place in Wisconsin is between Walker and a TV camera. He's a media hound and his message is one of radical change.

He's promised to create 250,000 new jobs in the state and his path to doing that apparently, is to first eliminate a bunch of old jobs. He says "Wisconsin is Open for Business." Really?

I can't really see any company wanting to locate in Wisconsin where about half the state is marching because they think the governor ought to be put on an ice floe and sailed slowly out over Lake Michigan. It's certainly not a wonderful and welcoming climate for business.

There is almost nothing left unscathed from Walker's sweeping scythe.

Which brings us to the most favorite sport in all of Wisconsin. It's "Goin' Up North."

"Up North" in Wisconsin is less about latitude and more about attitude. It's the area with trees, lakes, beaches and more trees, lakes and beaches. It's for fishing and hunting and swimming and hiking and pitching tents and cooking around a campfire. It's about putting the pier up before the harshness of winter strikes. It's about outdoor volleyball and building castles out of sand. It's sliding along a trail on skinny skis with wax on the bottom. It's about having a big steak after a long day on the water or a shore lunch created by a couple of fishermen or fisherwomen.

A lot of that land comes with the imprint of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardeship Program.

This program, named after a great Republican and a great Democrat, provides for the state to buy land and hold it for recreation and to protect it from commercial development. Since it started in 1990, the state has bought about 600,000 acres of land to be reserved for public recreation.

The money for the program does not come from taxes. It comes from state bonding although there are some piddling amounts of general fund revenue spent on interest payments. No matter what political party you belong to, the Stewardship program has always enjoyed broad support.

Now Governor "I Never Saw a Development Opportunity I Didn't Like" has jogged into the picture and he's appointed his puppet, former State Senator Cathy Stepp, to be the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources. Stepp had nothing to recommend her except that she sometimes went hunting. Can you say Sarah Pallin? Somebody described her appointment as like putting "Lindsay Lohan in charge of a rehab center."

Stepp has already reduced the funds for the Stewardship program for the next fiscal year. In addition, and much to my horror, she is already talking about land the state owns but, as she put it, "doesn't have adequate staff to maintain." She's talking about selling off some of that land.

Do you see the circular plans here? Walker tells Stepp to cut the number of employees because of tough budget times. Because there is less staff, fewer acres of state owned land are being maintained by the staff that isn't there. So then, let's just sell off some of that land to greedy developers who want to build another water park with glazed nut stands, more plastic than you'd find at a gathering of Hollywood wives, bad music and chilli dogs that cost $10 each for eager Chicago visitors.

I'm not a big tree hugger. But I've been "Up North." I've fished for the feared muskellunge. I've walked the trails of the Indian. I've seen the sun both rise and set over the same small lake.

So, Scott and Cathy and the rest of you who just want to get rid of everything that this state holds dear, here's my message: you can have my land when you pry the key to the lock from my cold dead fingers.