Issues & Action >

A BIG thank you to all the Audubon activists that participated in this year’s legislative issue selection process and who attended Audubon’s annual Fall Members Meeting on Saturday, November 10th at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Members discussed, debated and finally prioritized three additional legislative issues for the 2007 state legislative session. We had excellent speakers, participants, discussion and debate. We had a great meeting with lots of good discussion and debate and a strong reaffirmation that Audubon activists in Minnesota have a commitment to advocacy and the opinions to back it up.

This year, the Audubon Minnesota board agreed to automatically forward to this year’s agenda, two issues that have been on Audubon’s priority list for the last six years: dedicated funding and off-highway vehicles. In the end, members recommended to the Board that Audubon focus on the following five issues:

• Forest Legacy Easements Bonding - $30 million
  The Minnesota Forest Legacy Program protects environmentally important forests that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses. The state uses federal funds and local matching funds to purchase development rights and conservation easements in targeted forests to keep them intact. The landowner retains ownership and can continue to foster forest uses such as timber management, recreation, hunting, and hiking as long as they don't conflict with the terms of the easement. All easements are perpetual and any new owner is bound by the terms of the easement.
• Native Prairie Conservation and Protection Bonding - $10 million
  Prairie Bank easements protect native Minnesota prairies that have never been plowed and are at risk of being destroyed. Native prairies are Minnesota's most endangered ecological community and represent an important part of our state's natural heritage.
• Reinvest in Minnesota/Clean Energy (Grassland Biomass) Bonding - $46 million
  This is a program was established, without funding, last session. The RIM-CE program is a working lands bio-energy program focusing grassland biomass production. Farmers would get incremental incentives based on the public and wildlife benefits achieved from their energy crop production practices. Farmers and the biomass production will be coupled with existing heat and power facilities. The Department of Natural Resources and the Board of Water and Soil Resources will administer the program with technical advice from stakeholders. Sustainable grassland biomass growth offers the opportunity to establish thousands of additional acres of ground-nesting bird habitat.
• Dedicate Funding for the Environment
  Last session, this bill made it out of conference committee and in the very last hours of legislative session, the State House ran out of time to pass it off the house floor for its final vote. General fund expenditures as a percentage of total spending are at there lowest point in 30 years. Total general fund spending is down 47 percent since 2001 and several stand-alone conservation accounts have been raided for non-conservation spending. Conservation scientists have documented strong downward trends in wildlife populations, habitat, recreation acres per person, and water quality. Efforts over the past 6 years have made dedicated funding a top-tier legislative issue. Long-term, substantial, dedicated funding is needed for conservation including efforts to benefit bird habitat and wildlife, parks and trails, and lakes and rivers, wetlands and more.
• Protect Minnesota’s Natural Resources from Off-Highway Vehicle Damage
  As in past sessions, we anticipate our work to be a combination of offense and defense in order to protect Minnesota’s natural resources from OHV damage. The agenda will most likely include the following aspects: establishing a uniform trail policy of closed unless posted open; protecting the North Shore State Trail from ATV use; protecting the Mississippi Headwaters State Forest from OHV trails. State Forests provide habitat for many of Minnesota’s birds, and many of these state-owned areas are a part of the Important Bird Area program. Excessive trails and renegade trails create habitat fragmentation for birds and other wildlife.

Thank you the following Audubon members who attended the meeting: Linda Amrein, Gordon Anderson, Bart Anderson, Lou Asher, Gary Botzek, Bill Bruins, Susan Chapin, Kathy Doyle, Joel Dunnette, John and Mark Feight, Ernest Gunderson, Greg Juenemann, Brian Jungels, Ed Lehr, Buck McDonald, Peter Mattson, Dan McGuiness, Jennifer McNichol, Jerry Medley, Rick and Joan Meierotto, Jill Mithun, Gwen and Mason Myers, Richard Newmark, Brenda Olson, Linda Peck, Trudi Poquette, John Rust, Bonnie Sample, Peg Schwendeman, Julian Sellers, Marcia and Burt Sundquist, Pat and Jack Telfer, Bob Titzler, Steve Weston and Bob Williams.

Special thanks to Jenny Vitale, Karen Eckman, Jerry Bahls, Gene and Nancy Larimore, Mark Martell, Lois Norrgard and Mark Peterson for volunteering their skills and times to organize the event. A very special, special thank you to Ginny Black who made sure that all of our recyclable and biodegradable garbage was properly composted, leaving us, in the end, with a very small bag of refuse.

Our excellent speakers included Dr. Lee Frelich, J. Drake Hamilton, Justin Fay, Don Arnosti, Matt Norton, Karen Orenstein and David Hartwell.