That newly elected Mark Dayton, as governor, will find, and probably soon, someone to lead the Department of Natural Resources will be testament either to the appointee's need for a job, his naïveté, or both. Worse is that so many alleged conservation groups are attempting to sway the process. They should instead boycott it, thereby highlighting the irony of a state agency whose job is to protect the state's lands and waters bravely -- with a gun to its head.

In Minnesota, it has been so at least since the mid-1850s, when the state and federal governments first ceded vast lands to the railroads, and for a century thereafter aided and abetted Minnesota loggers and, simultaneously, farmers who would drain the state's croplands. Commerce in this state always has come first, plow to the field, saw to the forest, while "conservation" is relegated to a kind of parallel universe where a lot occurs, but not much happens.

Those with even a basic understanding of Minnesota government have long known that the DNR's agenda is controlled by the governor, while its purse strings are held fast by the Legislature. Which is why the agency treads lightly indeed, concerned, in the end, for example, that in the process of saving the state's waters it might make too many waves. And be sent down the river.

It needn't be, and many times, by many people, the folly of intending to conserve what's left of this state while hamstringing those given the responsibility to do so has been pointed out. But legislators, however wacky, aren't dumb: They know the way to prevent too much conservation from transpiring -- thereby rubbing wrong protected interests -- is to keep the DNR right where it always has been, under their collective thumb.

Comes now a new governor, Dayton, who has yet to prove he can govern, much less change conservation history in Minnesota, and -- once again -- state "conservationists" line up, backslapping, hoping to get their guy in the DNR's top job. What a crock. Really. Because under the current system, it won't make no nevermind whether Bill or Joe or Jimmy or Tom saunters up to the sixth floor at 500 Lafayette Road in St. Paul. Each will learn soon enough how to kowtow to the governor and bray to the Sansabelt stretchers in the Senate and the House.

It needn't be. And if Dayton is as bright as his transition lapdogs think they are, he'd call a halt to the whole shebang, the DNR appointment process, and leave the current commissioner, Mark Holsten, in the big chair while everyone involved does a little thinking, soberly.

First on the agenda should be to recall that Minnesotans care about their natural resources, and to a large degree define themselves by them. In 2008 nearly 60 percent of voters agreed to tax themselves for a chance at cleaner water, more fish, more wildlife and better parks and trails. Mom and apple pie couldn't fare as well. Yet for some reason, Minnesota politicians can't quite bring themselves to put in place a conservation structure that hopes to keep pace with the adverse effects on our resources of urban and rural sprawl, and the monoculture wasteland that industrial agriculture begets.

Missouri has it figured out. In conflicts over resources, by constitutional fiat its Department of Conservation is obligated to consider first the well-being of that state's lands and waters. Additionally, Missouri dedicates funding of that department, removing to the largest degree possible legislators' ability to play bully with the agency's cash drawer. What's more, the department's top administrator answers not to the governor but to a citizens commission, which does the hiring and firing and sets policy.

We do things differently in Minnesota, a state where the DNR commissioner, when he isn't ducking brickbats tossed by blowhard lawmakers, is gulping Red Bull, driving home late from one distant banquet or another, stuffed to the gills with yet another rubber chicken. Truly. This is what we make our DNR commissioner do: Meet and greet. And eat. And talk a good game.

But hereabouts, it's only a game. And while the talk continues, farmers pattern-tile every acre they can, reducing to zero or nearly so the chance that invertebrate-rich sheet water will, in five years, 10 years or 15 years, continue to greet and nourish northbound waterfowl in spring. Ditto any chance, as we talk and talk and talk, that the metro's outside rings will be developed any more delicately.

This state needs a governor before it's too late to realize that what we have doesn't work. Yes, the Legacy Amendment will help conserve some lands and waters. And the 25-year conservation plan that the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council soon will finalize will provide a vision for the future.

But until we organize ourselves in a way that allows for effective, ongoing conservation, beginning with changes in the funding and control of the DNR, and other conservation agencies, our future will remain at risk.

Dayton, the new governor, would do well to acknowledge this early on in his tenure, and muster the moral courage to do something about it. Either that or get a guy on board ASAP at the DNR, and talk, talk, talk. The rubber chicken circuit awaits.

Dennis Anderson danderson@startribune.com