outdoors

Beginning today, when the Department of Natural Resources opens two days of meetings in St. Cloud with key constituents, the agency and its new commissioner, Mark Holsten, must demonstrate they are relevant to Minnesota conservation.

History argues otherwise.

In the past half-century, the DNR has been on the sidelines of nearly every major conservation movement begun in the state.

Certainly it was in the formation of Muskies Inc., the Minnesota Waterfowl Association, Pheasants Forever, the transplantation and rebirth of wild turkeys in Minnesota, the formation of new trout- management philosophies in the southeast, and, most recently, the coalescing, on the Capitol mall, of conservationists arguing in behalf of ducks, wetlands and clean water.

The DNR was even slow to back the idea of dedicating a portion of the state sales tax for conservation. The agency, more often than not, has been a lagging indicator of the state of the state's fish, wildlife, lands and waters, not, as it should be, a leading indicator.

That needs to change if Minnesota is going to save itself from its seemingly relentless pursuit of policies that expand development and industrial agriculture at the expense of its waters and remaining open spaces.

The DNR, along with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Board of Water and Soil Resources -- both of which also have able new leaders -- would seem to be poised to fundamentally change the way they do business.

Meaning they stop standing by while more of the state's waters are fouled by farmland runoff, while ethanol expansion continues willy-nilly in the state without proper safeguards for southern Minnesota's aquifers, while development continues apace in and around the metro with scant regard for its effect on Twin Cities rivers and lakes, and while the state's northern forests -- treasures worthy of far more attention than they are given-- are, by turns, ignored, locked up, packaged and sold.

The Pawlenty administration has seemed, in recent years, to appreciate that what's at stake is nothing less than the state's soul -- why people live here.

A supporter of dedicated funding for conservation, Pawlenty spearheaded the drive to reconstitute the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources as the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, an important change that should excise pork-barreling from the distribution of nearly $20 million a year in conservation funds.

But the governor's new term could be starting more positively. His staff says he is too busy to attend the DNR meetings today and Saturday, a break from recent tradition that many in attendance will consider an insult, given that Pawlenty wouldn't have been re-elected without carrying the state's substantial sportsmen's vote.

Also, the governor's Conservation Legacy Council, formed in the run-up to the November election, is off to what some believe is a slow start, in part because DFL Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller has yet to appoint his representative to the council.

To be effective, the DNR -- and BWSR and MPCA -- must focus with laser-like intensity on a relative handful of the state's biggest conservation challenges.

Outgoing DNR Commissioner Gene Merriam helped set the stage for significant progress on these fronts, assuming Holsten and his staff are up to the task -- and assuming Pawlenty gives them a green light to think big.

Merriam wasn't perfect, and he didn't win the hearts of all DNR employees. But he cleaned up the agency's books, beefed up the Enforcement Division, reduced overhead, set and achieved goals, and in general ran the place professionally, no small feat.

In Sunday's Star Tribune, I'll detail the biggest conservation challenges facing the state, arguing that unless progress is made now, the "too late" we all fear -- the time when many of our lakes and rivers are irreversibly polluted and more of our wild lands are lost -- will arrive sooner than anyone thought possible.

Dennis Anderson • danderson@startribune.com