outdoors

Everyone agrees more money is needed to clean up the state’s waters, restore its uplands and protect its forests.

But increasingly, more attention is being paid to how Minnesota manages and delivers conservation  — how state agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Board of Water and Soil  Resources act and interact, for example.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 15-member Conservation Legacy Council is studying conservation management and delivery in the state and is expected to recommend changes in April. Below, weighing in with ideas of their own, is a sampling  of outdoors and farm leaders.

GARY BOTZEK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MINNESOTA CONSERVATION FEDERATION

Repairs can be made to the way state agencies operate. But most important, the local delivery of conservation has to be figured out. The DNR and BWSR and PCA don't have the programs to make changes across the landscape on the land and water. We need additional resources to get work done on the ground. But no one wants to fund those additions to state agencies -- meaning no one wants to add more people. They want the money to go into the ground in the form of habitat.

Consequently, at the local level we need to work with watershed districts, lake associations, sportsmen's and other groups. They have people on the ground, and engaging them is where and how the most work can be done with the least money. Local people must help make local decisions and deliver programs. But the programs must be outcome-based and measurable. The money must be targeted. If we get dedicated funding, we'll get one shot at getting it right.

THOM PETERSEN, DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, MINNESOTA FARMERS UNION

Conservation is very important to farmers for many reasons. One is that the federal farm bill has gotten progressively greener since 1985. But a lot of those federal dollars require state dollars for a match, or state technical assistance. So both state and federal farm conservation programs are important.

Farmers need conservation payments to be competitive, so they sign up for, and implement, conservation programs. This is especially true with corn prices being higher today.

On the state level, a lot of conservation delivery mechanisms come through BWSR and the DNR, not through the Department of Agriculture. But communication needs to be a lot better between the DNR and farmers. It's good on the top levels. But if we're talking about delivery, a lot of farmers I talk to have a lot of questions about DNR programs. It tells me there might be a communication problem.

As for a constitutional amendment to dedicate a portion of the sales tax to conservation, our farmer members support it. Whether we'll support it at the ballot depends how it is worded exactly. We'll have to see. For us, it will have to be an increase in the sales tax. But if it's for the outdoors and especially clean water, that's what we're interested in.

RYAN HEINIGER, MINNESOTA DUCKS UNLIMITED DIRECTOR OF CONSERVATION PROGRAMS

We need to address overlap and redundancy among agencies and conservation groups. Minnesota has top-notch fisheries and wildlife professionals. But in my view they often are too distant from one another to coordinate effectively.

Should there be separate, local DNR, Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) and Soil and Water Conservation District offices? Or should we put all of those habitat functions together in some regions?

One plan would break the state into eco-regions, with team leaders who would coordinate with a state conservation governing body. Fundamentally, when you break it down, such a plan is about the empowerment of local people. This takes money; everyone is in agreement about that. But the primary challenge in developing a new conservation paradigm in Minnesota is this: How do you link local citizens who are informed and passionate about natural resources with teams of professionals who wake up every morning thinking about this stuff? That kind of joint effort is what's needed to accomplish projects big enough to change the landscape.

GARY LEAF, SPORTSMEN FOR CHANGE

I, among others who attended the two Ducks, Wetlands and Clean Water rallies at the Capitol, believe if we get conservation funding through a dedicated portion of the sales tax, but implement no conservation-management changes, we could be worse off than if we got no money at all.

I would separate conservation management into three distinct roles: taxation; citizen-based governance; and competition among rivals to undertake conservation projects.