The Minnesota House has approved a bill that would prohibit the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council from recommending new land acquisitions outside the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area for a year. Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, had sought a 10-year moratorium, but Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, successfully amended the proposal to one year. Some believe it's doubtful the Senate will comply.
Sports and resort groups have expressed outrage over the idea of restricting land acquisitions under the Legacy Amendment.
"Public lands are not only the basis of outdoor recreation in Minnesota, they are also the hinge-pin for water quality and wildlife habitat," said Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. His group, along with Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, Sportsmen for Change, the Minnesota Resort and Campground Association and the Congress of Minnesota Resorts, recently placed ads in the weekly Outdoor News, opposing the idea.
Hunting, fishing and wildlife watching is a $4 billion industry in Minnesota, Johnson said.
"It's ludicrous," David Hartwell, chairman of the Lessard-Sams council, said of the amendment. "It's not what we told the voters."
When the Legacy Amendment was approved in 2008, many supporters believed some of the millions of dollars it raised would be used to acquire critical lands as part of the amendment's "protect, enhance and restore" mandate, Hartwell said.
More on ducks Last week, Steve Cordts, DNR waterfowl specialist, finished the state's spring breeding duck survey, which he flies each spring. The results won't be available until early June, but he offered a few impressions. "It was very wet," he said, which should bode well for ducks. And he counted more mallards.
Did you know? • Officials are investigating the shooting of numerous white pelicans found near Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge in western Minnesota. Anyone with information can call the Turn-in-Poachers hotline at 1-800-652-9093.
