The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

When it rains in Minnesota it rarely pours. I am talking about the legislatures support of its Natural Resources management arm. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has had about as many years with a hiring freeze as it has without.

This year’s session has seen about the biggest turnout for our natural resources as I have seen in my 40 years of following the department’s workings and funding. We have, or at least had, the largest budget surplus in the state’s history. Some of this is due to higher tax receipts and to a large part has to do with federal funds that the state received from the Federal Covid money bailout of a few years back. It certainly looks like this budget surplus won’t be a surplus for very long. The investments made in our natural resources are sorely needed and way overdue. Some of the other spending priorities cannot be resolved by my outdoor mind.

Many of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes have naturally reproduced fish populations. This is certainly not true state wide. Many of not almost all of the lakes in the southwest part of the state rely on supplemental fish stocking that takes place approximately two out of each three years. The fish hatcheries that the state operates have been in terrible disrepair for years and the ask to fix them up has been ongoing. If you are into fishing then this is going to be the beginning of some good times for you.

There is about $318 million going to the DNR this year with a little over 5% of that coming from the surplus. The Waterville Hatchery will get some very seriously needed upgrades to the tune of about 20 million. Boat access work including new ramps and the infrastructure they use gets a cool $35 million.

Add to this another cool $35 million for shore fishing access improvements and things start to look very different then the past two decades. As part of the total package there is funding to fill all sorts of vacancies in the different departments across all divisions. I had a conversation with the section chief of the Division of Wildlife nine months ago and one of her highest priorities were to fill the empty positions on the regional level. Many of you will disagree, but I can tell you for a fact that personnel staffing levels within many departments on the ground floor of the DNR operate today with less then 50% of the staff they had two decades ago. Natural resources do not manage themselves. Filling these empty spots will make a major impact on resource outcomes. Many of these positions will be on the fisheries side of the balance sheet.

There were some other noteable provisions that made it into the bill. There is a moratorium on new deer farms in the state. We have done a unsatisfactory job when it comes to stopping the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease across the state. Until they can figure out how to stop the spread of this always fatal disease in our wild deer herds then at least stopping the expansion of captive deer farms that have had a part in this spread is a great start.

The old on-going battle about crossbows in the archery season is now over.  The bill allows anyone of any legal age to utilize a crossbow for the entire archery season.

An increase in license fees was killed. Wolf hunting is still on the table if they are ever taken off the endangered species list and if a hunt is part of Minnesota’s’ wolf plan. Those who complain that the state does not take care of the lands that they currently have should be happy that this years’ bill includes $10 million for grassland and wetland improvements on current state lands, or better, described by me as citizen owned lands in the state.

I could not find the outcome of the elimination of the shotgun gun zone in the farmland portion of the state. I will keep my eye on this one and report back to you another day.

By and large this year’s natural resources funding is like finding a pot at the end of the rainbow. One word of caution, budget surpluses like this one will most likely never happen again. Natural resources did well this session but this is certainly not the end of the discussion. A rising tide floats all ships. The natural resources of the state are currently on a high tide. Be vigilant, for high tides are not a permanent thing.

  

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.