DNR is throwing anglers to the sharks

Regardless of the details of the budget deal Republican legislators and Gov. Dayton have finally cooked up, few fishermen -- and even fewer Minnesota resort owners and outfitters -- would drink the government Kool-Aid that Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Landwehr must have gulped Wednesday before he pulled on his jackboots and declared to all the little people they couldn't fish without licenses the DNR wouldn't sell them.

Until then, DNR conservation officers around the state had adapted properly to the state government shutdown, by liberally using discretion when happening upon unlicensed anglers -- a rare occurrence, anyway.

Landwehr tossed that customer-friendly approach under a bus Wednesday, along with boatloads of dollars Minnesota resorts spend each year to market the state's walleyes, northern pike, bass and muskies, when he declared:

"I expect when an officer finds a flagrant violation that they will issue a citation. This is a very simple thing: If you fish without a license, you're blatantly violating the law."

Perhaps.

Then again, maybe it's the state that has been violating the law by not making fishing licenses available at all times. Check out Article XIII, Section 12 of the Minnesota Constitution:

"Hunting and fishing and the taking of game and fish are a valued part of our heritage that shall be forever preserved for the people and shall be managed by law and regulation for the public good."

Sportsmen and sportswomen pushed for the constitutional amendment in the prelude to its runaway 1998 passage in order to preserve hunting and fishing against all threats, among them the closure of hunting and fishing seasons, as has occurred in other states (see California and elsewhere), by not making licenses available.

In retrospect, hunters and anglers perhaps also should have constitutionally protected the uninterrupted sale of beer in Minnesota. But that's another matter.

Owners of three houseboat outfits on the Minnesota-Ontario border, on the edges of Voyageurs National Park, said Thursday they were mad as hell and weren't going to take it anymore.

"If one of our customers doesn't have a license because they can't buy one because the state won't sell it to them, and they get a ticket before the shutdown ends, we'll pay for it," Billy Dougherty said.

Dougherty's family has owned Rainy Lake Houseboats longer than any sitting legislator has collected an undeserved per diem.

Also, impulse vacation bookings over the Internet are commonplace these days.

When the state's top natural resources official pronounces to would-be Minnesota vacationers they'll be cited for fishing without licenses they can't buy, those vacation impulses are dampened, Dougherty said. If not soaked altogether.

"We don't know when the phone doesn't ring who isn't calling and why," Dougherty said.

Jim Janssen of Voyagaire Houseboats on Crane Lake is on Dougherty's side. Janssen has less than half a year to turn a profit on the 33 houseboats he rents.

"We'll pay any tickets our customers get for not having a license [until the shutdown officially ends]," Janssen said, adding: "You think someone from out of state is going to spend $300 in fuel to drive up here just to get a $200 ticket?"

"I told him not to worry; I'd pay any tickets he might get," Janssen said.

Katy Ebel of Ebel's Voyageur Houseboats on Lake Kabetogama is in the same boat. About 45 percent of her customers are from out of state. Until the shutdown is over, she'll also cough up cold cash to cover fines her unlicensed customers might be assessed.

"The beauty of Voyageurs National Park, where all three of us operate, is that the National Park Service is on our side, and they're going to continue to operate the way they have," Ebel said. "They'll give anyone who can't buy a license time enough to get one once the shutdown's over."

Not content to play the tough guy only with fishing licenses, Landwehr told the Star Tribune's Doug Smith on Wednesday that if the shutdown would have extended a few more weeks, Minnesota wouldn't have had a duck season.

Assuming he's soon back to work, the commissioner's time would be better spent figuring out how to ensure that under all conditions, at all times, indefinitely, hunting and fishing licenses are available in Minnesota.