USAnudist.com

Mazomanie, a well known nude beach on the Wisconsin River, has been traditionally used by naturists for a very long time. Since 1998, a radical evangelist, Ralph Ovadal has done his best to make life miserable for anyone wishing to take advantage of Wisconsin’s only legal nude beach.

Ovadal, and the members of his Pilgrims Covenant Church have, on several occasions, videotaped naturists going to the beach, lining both sides of the trail to the beach with signs and people trying to make visitors turn back. Ovadal himself was convicted for harassing a visitor in 2001.

The demonstrations at Mazo, seem to have been very frustrating for them. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources ruled to continue to allow nude use of the beach, under certain limitations, and banned the Ovadal group from demonstrating on the beach itself, limiting their activities to the parking area and trail.

Naturists & Nudists aren’t the only group to face the self-righteous wrath of Ovadal and his flock. They also regularly target abortion clinics, planned parenthood offices, gays, who they refer to as homo-fascists, The Roman Catholic Church, and the Neo-Evangelicals, such as Dr. James Kennedy. The annual Cornerstone Festival, a five-day Christian Rock concert, is a also a favorite place for their public evangelizing.

The DNR, last week, cut down several willow trees on the beach to remove potential places for alleged sexual activity, even though no one has been arrested in the past year. It does open up more sunny areas for sunbathers, and provides additional nesting sites for local turtles.

I’m sure Ovadal will soon be there, preaching about the evils of naked turtle sex.

Original Story HERE or

Only turtles can ‘nest’ at Mazo beach
By Judith Davidoff

Willow trees lining the Mazomanie nude beach on the Wisconsin River have been removed to cut down on alleged sexual activity and provide more sun for nesting turtles, the state Department of Natural Resources announced this morning.

“These willows just became a cruising area for people looking for sexual activity out there,” Steve Colden, property manager for the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway, said in an interview this morning.

Despite suspicion of increased sexual activity on the beach, Colden acknowledged that no arrests were made last year, even though a part-time ranger patrolled the park looking for illegal activity.

“When you have two people naked and they quickly separate, it’s hard to get the visual evidence you need to make those types of cases,” he said.

Prosecution of such offenses has also been a low priority for the Dane County District Attorney’s Office, Colden added.

Bob Morton, executive director of the Oshkosh-based Naturist Action Committee, said his group applauds the DNR’s attempts to control sexual activity on the beach.

“If there is overt sexual activity in public, it jeopardizes the beach,” Morton said.

“Naturists do know the difference between nudity and sex and we wish everyone did,” he added.

Colden said cutting the willow trees will also help softshell and hardshell turtles that nest on the beach, adding that a DNR biologist noticed a decrease in the number of nesting turtles because the beach had become too shaded by willows.

The nude beach has been used by naturists for more than 50 years, but Monroe evangelical pastor Ralph Ovadal launched a crusade in the late 1990s to close it down. Ovadal, now pastor of Pilgrims Covenant Church, and a small group of his followers started protesting at the beach in 1998, handing out written Bible verses, holding signs and preaching.

Ovadal was convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $1,000 for harassing a sunbather in 2001.

Colden said Ovadal did not protest at the beach last summer, “which has actually been good for us because we’ve been able to concentrate on the other problems out there.”

After-hours drinking and drug use also plague the beach, Colden said. The DNR obtained a permit to cut down the willows from the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board, a nine-member citizen body that oversees the aesthetic integrity of the river.

The trees were cut down last week.

A wooded area next to the beach will also be closed to the public from April 1 to Sept. 15 to prevent sexual activity from moving there, Colden said.

E-mail: jdavidoff@madison.com
Published: March 26, 2007