Minnesota outdoors about to get some green

Twenty-five years' worth of special funding for rivers, lakes, prairies, parks and wildlife habitat -- by far the largest and longest land conservation effort ever undertaken by a state -- begins Wednesday as Minnesota starts collecting money from a sales tax increase voters approved last fall.

Environmental and conservation leaders said Monday that the extra 3/8-cent sales tax will provide more than $360 million for the outdoors in the next two years alone.

"This was the largest single measure for land conservation ever passed in this country," said Will Abberger, associate director of conservation finance for the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit that tracks such measures.

He said that many other states and local governments have approved shorter-term funding, but that Minnesota's long-term cash infusion will fuel a whole new generation of environmental projects.

Legislators and citizen groups have agreed on a broad range of projects that will receive funding in the first year. One-third of the sales tax increase will fund 18 projects that restore shallow lakes for migratory waterfowl, protect prairies, improve trout streams and conserve more than 200,000 acres of forest, said Mike Kilgore, chairman of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, a citizens group set up to advise the Legislature on funding for outdoors projects. "At least 77 of Minnesota's 87 counties are going to receive funding from the outdoor heritage fund," he said. "We think this is exactly what the state's hunting, angling and conservation community are looking for."

Another third of the sales tax increase will finance clean water projects that in some cases check the quality of rivers and lakes, and in other cases clean up waters known to be degraded.

Many waterways have suffered from neglect or pollution during the past 100 years -- damage that will take significant time to repair and needs the long-term investment the tax provides, said Louis Smith, member of the Minnesota Clean Water Council. "We will not see immediate water quality improvement overnight, but we will see immediate activity on projects that are investing wisely," Smith said.

Along with those two major funds set up by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, two smaller funds are to provide money for parks and trails, and arts and cultural projects.

In addition to approving first-year and some second-year projects, the Legislature requires each of the four funds to establish a 25-year strategic plan by next year setting priorities for how the money will be spent in the future.

Preventing raids on funds

During the past legislative session, conservation leaders were concerned that some of the new sales tax funds would be used to backfill other areas of state government that needed funding in a tough budget year.

The language voters approved specifies the money is for funding new projects to enhance the state's programs and make greater progress than would otherwise be possible, said Paul Austin, executive director of Conservation Minnesota. "We're at the spot where we can be happy that none of the funds of the amendment were taken and used for other purposes in this first year," Austin said. "It's going to require constant vigilance over the next 25 years to make sure that doesn't happen."

While the scope of Minnesota's initiative may set it ahead of other states, it is not alone in the effort. Iowa's Legislature recently voted to put a similar sales tax amendment on its state ballot in 2010. Of the 127 smaller measures on the ballot across the nation last fall, 90 passed, showing that even in a recession, voters seemed willing to dedicate taxes and other funds to recreational and natural land conservation, Abberger said.

Tom Meersman • 612-673-7388