outdoors

A program is needed these days to identify the many players on the Minnesota conservation scene. Here's a brief overview of key groups that will be influencing state natural resources policy -- and politics -- in coming months:

• Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Conservation Legacy Council: This 15-member body held its organizing meeting on Thursday, electing Mike Kilgore, a U natural resources professor from Lino Lakes, as chair.

In theory, this group, which includes four legislators and 11 citizens, should be the Big Deal of state conservation this year. Its charge from Pawlenty is to scrutinize the funding and delivery of conservation in the state and recommend how things can be improved.

All considerations are on the table, we are told, including, for example, how the Department of Natural Resources, the Board of Water and Soil Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency act and interact.

Such an independent body should have been formed long ago to assess how and why we manage Minnesota natural resources the way we do.

Considering most of our wetlands have been drained, many of our lakes are polluted and much of our remaining undisturbed countryside is fast being developed, our processes would seem to warrant review.

But to make a difference, Pawlenty's council will have to think big and long-term. What do we want this state to look like in 25 years? Fifty years?

• The Duck Rally Group: This grassroots consortium of hunting, fishing, conservation and environmental groups grew out of the rallies for Ducks, Wetlands and Clean Water on the Capitol mall the past two Aprils.

In the past two legislative sessions, rally leaders have pushed hard at the Capitol for placement on the statewide ballot of a constitutional amendment proposal dedicating a portion of the state sales tax to conservation.

They came close, particularly last year. But in the end, their efforts were torpedoed by legislators who agreed the state is a mess, but couldn't quite bring themselves to help out.

In the offseason (between legislative sessions) the Duck Rally folks, led by Dave Zentner of Duluth and Lance Ness of the Twin Cities, have regrouped, explored alliances, buttonholed legislators and in general readied themselves for another go.

• Minnesota Campaign for Conservation: The brainchild of David Hartwell of the Twin Cities, this group and the Duck Rally bunch have formed a working agreement of sorts, if not an alliance.

Well-funded and staffed, if a bit mainstream, the Campaign for Conservation, led by John Curry, has explored expanding conservation in Minnesota through bonding, which might in turn be funded by a sales tax dedication.

Hartwell's group also has laid out a plan by which the new funds would be expended. Imagined is a statewide council and regional groups working in concert to fund approved projects.

• Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR): This is the new and improved version of the old Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources, or LCMR. The difference is that citizens have been added to the former group, reducing legislators' control over a pot of lottery money that in a decade or so will grow to some $70 million per biennium.

The LCCMR is in the process of contracting for a long-term conservation plan to be developed for the state. Arguably, that's what Pawlenty's Conservation Legacy Council will be doing as well.

• Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP): This is an umbrella group that represents at the Legislature a broad spectrum of about 90 conservation and environmental organizations.

Headed by former legislator and deputy DNR commissioner Steve Morse, MEP is process-smart, but often excruciatingly deliberative. Recently MEP leaders agreed dedicated funding would be among its top three priorities in the Legislature this year.