If state parks close, citizen backlash will follow at the polls

Winters are long in Minnesota, and people who live here take every advantage available during the relatively few warm months we have. Minnesotans particularly like to visit the best state park system in the nation, and enjoy scenes like the one above, either while observing from high above the North Shore of Lake Superior, or participating in many of the recreational activities available to visitors at state parks, not least fishing.

So as the threat of a state shutdown looms, and the specter of criminals roaming the streets unchecked and veterans being turned out of nursing homes is raised in a petition to Ramsey County District Court by Attorney General Lori Swanson, legislators in particular — and not incidentally, Gov. Mark Dayton — should be concerned about fallout from the state being shuttered due to lack of money.

Yet no action that would follow a shutdown would earn the wrath more quickly, or more unforgivably, of Minnesotans than a shutdown of state parks.

For many months, campsites at many state parks have been reserved by outdoors types who look forward all year to pitching a tent or parking their RV at parks ranging from Forestville in the southeast to Bearhead Lake near Ely. And doing so relatively inexpensively.

These people aren't going to take lightly any news of a shutdown if the Republican-controlled Legislature and Dayton can't agree on a budget by the end of the month.

Republicans in particular are already skating on thin ice with many conservationists and parks and trails advocates. The past session, fruitless generally as it was, saw considerable meddling in the affairs of fish and game management by committee chairs who in some cases didn't even take testimony on controversial policy and finance issues.

Not least was the fiasco that awarded 150 million gallons a year of Poplar River water to Lutsen Mountain management on the North Shore, a transaction that could occur at the expense of steelhead and brook trout.

Additionally, the veto by Dayton of the game and fish bill sent a few good policy moves either into a waste basket or, more optimistically, into a holding pattern, perhaps to be resurrected in a special session. Among these was an allowance to the DNR to open the duck season a week earlier than was the case previously.

But close state parks?

Bad move if you hold an election certificate.