When Minnesota voters go to the polls on Nov. 5, they’ll be asked to decide the future of the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF), a pot of money that dedicates 40% of state lottery proceeds to the outdoors.

The ENRTF has its roots in legislation passed in 1988, the same year Minnesota voters approved a state-operated lottery. As described on the Ballotpedia website, the ENRTF did not have a dedicated revenue source until 1990, when voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to dedicate at least 40% of lottery proceeds to the environment and natural resources. Voters in 1998 then approved a constitutional amendment dedicating lottery proceeds to the ENRTF until 2025.

If passed, the constitutional amendment facing voters in November — Minnesota Amendment 1 — would reauthorize the ENRTF through Dec. 31, 2050.

Previous votes to reauthorize the ENRTF have garnered more than 70% support. Since 1991, the ENRTF has provided nearly $1.1 billion to more than 1,700 projects around the state, according to the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

The LCCMR — a 17-member panel made up of five state senators, five state representatives, five citizens appointed by the governor, one citizen appointed by the Senate and one citizen appointed by the House — makes ENRTF funding recommendations to the Legislature.

Marcus Starr, campaigns director for Conservation Minnesota, said the ENRTF has funded conservation efforts across the state, to the benefit of a broad spectrum of people.

People may not know about specific projects, but when they see the trademark loon logo on a sign, they know ENRTF dollars are at work, Starr says.

“The top thing we’re telling folks is that in the last 30 years or so since this funding has been in effect, over $1 billion have gone to projects across the state for conservation and the outdoors,” Starr said. “So really, whether you’re someone in Minneapolis or someone in East Grand Forks, everybody in Minnesota has benefited from this. If you use a parks and trail system or swim in one of our lakes, there’s a good chance that you’re definitely a beneficiary of this money.”

Research and infrastructure projects are among the beneficiaries of ENRTF dollars. 

By comparison, the Outdoor Heritage Fund — a significantly larger pot of money created by the three-eighths of 1% sales tax increase Minnesota voters approved in 2008 when they passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment — generally goes toward larger habitat projects and wildlife conservation.

In a nutshell, the ENRTF is broader in scope.

“These little projects might have $250,000 to $300,000 of funding that doesn’t, in the grand scheme of things, seem like much,” Starr said. “But to a small community, to a small city, to have that (ENRTF) funding so they don’t have to figure out how they’re going to get it themselves is really huge.”

For the fiscal year beginning July 1, more than $79.6 million in ENRTF funding was available for projects, according to the LCCMR website.

In addition to a broad coalition of conservation groups, including the Minnesota Conservation Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers — to name just a few – groups such as Hospitality Minnesota, the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, the Red River Basin Commission and retailers such as REI Co-op have signed on in support of the measure.

“They really know that parks and trails and clean water is a benefit to Minnesota, and it’s one of the competitive advantages we have,” Starr said. “It’s definitely an interesting group of organizations and businesses.”

Amendment 1 does include a couple of minor changes. In addition to extending the fund through 2050, the measure would increase annual allocations from 5.5% of the fund’s current value to 7%, with the 1.5% increase dedicated to a new “small community grant” program.

“It would just make it a little simpler for smaller nonprofits, or even rural communities, to be able to take advantage of the lottery funds in a way that they just haven’t been able to access before,” it was stated.

The amendment to reauthorize the ENRTF doesn’t raise a fee or tax on anyone, said Brad Gausman, executive director of the Minnesota Conservation Federation, an independent affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation. Nor would it affect the future of the lottery, he said.

“If we were to vote no on the ENRTF, it wouldn’t result in the lottery going away,” Gausman said. “It would just result in those lottery proceeds kind of becoming general funds, so to speak – or at least a pool of money that could be appropriated by the Legislature.

“People vote in favor of natural resources enhancement in Minnesota, and we’ve seen that time and again. So, we’re hoping for a similar outcome this election season.”

A Blank vote is a no vote

Greg Kvale of Brainerd, who retired from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in 2006 after more than three decades with the agency, was among the organizers who worked to get ENRTF legislation passed in the late 1980s.

The capital improvements part of the fund has “provided a ton of on-the-ground improvements to our natural resources,” said Kvale (pronounced KWAH-lee), vice chairman of policy for the Minnesota chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

Public lands, he says, have been a “huge part of my career — both my vocation and avocation.” Failure to reauthorize the ENRTF would be “devastating” to resource management in the state, Kvale said.

As Election Day draws closer, it’s also important to remember that a blank vote is the same as a “No” vote, supporters say.

This story was written by Brad Dokken, published in the West Central Tribune and first appeared in Forum Communications newspapers last week.