State legislative auditor takes deeper dive into DNR’s controversial logging program

The Office of the Legislative Auditor is taking a deeper dive into the Department of Natural Resources’ oversight of state wildlife management areas, promising a public report later this year on a lasting conflict over DNR logging practices.

In a notification letter sent late last week to DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen, state Legislative Auditor Judy Randall said her office is launching a special review of the timber harvest controversy. In January, the auditor’s staff initiated a preliminary review of the issue — a routine step that doesn’t always lead to a full investigation.

Katherine Theisen, director of special reviews for the auditor’s office, told the Star Tribune Thursday that investigators will key on circumstances that led to the decision last year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to hold back $22 million in federal grant money from the DNR.

She said special reviews are relatively rare considering the auditor’s office receives about 400 complaints annually that merit initial response. Last year, the office undertook four such reviews, she said.

“We want to take an independent look at the circumstances that led up to the feds’ decision,” Theisen said. “We also will be taking a look at the process which DNR considers the perspectives of relevant staff when it’s making decisions about timber harvesting in wildlife areas.”

DNR’s management of private logging on state wildlife management areas (WMAs) blew up into a public issue in July 2019 when a group of DNR wildlife managers and some foresters complained publicly that a new 10-year timber plan adopted at the urging of the state’s forest products industry was ruining wildlife habitat. In a memo to Strommen, 28 staffers said it was scientifically dishonest for the agency to say that the new “sustainable timber harvest” program was beneficial to wildlife. For one thing, the group said, the program was removing old forest needed for deer and other species. The program also was overriding science-based habitat plans made by wildlife managers, they said.

Later, some DNR field employees told federal officials that certain timber sales authorized by the DNR disregarded wildlife purposes — a violation of law and federal grant conditions.

Said Theisen: “On a high level we are interested in the decision-making process … taking a look at the process for timber harvests on WMAs.”

The financial “hold” last August was ordered by the Fish and Wildlife Service for logging violations on WMAs acknowledged by DNR. The sanction, which lasted several months, was meant to ensure that Minnesota complies with federal environmental laws when selling timber on the state’s extensive network of hunting and recreation lands. Those public areas were created and maintained largely through massive hunting-related grants doled out by the Fish and Wildlife Service to all states. The hold-back sanction is believed to be the first of its kind against any of the eight Midwest states receiving so-called Pittman-Robertson wildlife habitat grants since the late 1930s.

The DNR issued a statement Thursday saying any questions about the scope of the special review should be directed to the auditor’s office. The work is not public when in progress.

“As we have said previously, we value the role of the OLA and will, of course, continue to cooperate fully with them,” the statement said. “We remain confident in the great work our staff does managing WMAs. We look forward to the results of the OLA’s review and any recommendations for our WMA management going forward.”