Lessard-Sams council releases funding plan, braces for spending challenges

It might be a little unkind to say members of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council were flying by the seat of their pants as they cobbled together recommendations for 2009 conservation projects to be funded by the dedicated sales tax that Minnesota voters passed in the 2008 general election.

But the process of recommending $56 million in projects to lawmakers for 2010 is going much more smoothly than the council’s inaugural year, said Mike Kilgore, chairman of the 12-member council of gubernatorial and legislative appointees.

With the whirlwind subsided, Kilgore said the council was able to take time to establish a framework for soliciting requests and traveling the state to collect information.

“I think the biggest difference between this year and last year is we engaged the conservation community about the state’s habitat priorities,” said Kilgore, a forest resources professor at the University of Minnesota.

Kilgore said the council established five geographic areas for projects, identifying priorities in each habitat area. As a result of the new focus, the council received fewer, more detailed proposals.

On Dec. 15, the council chose 25 projects worth $56.2 million. They were culled from $181.7 million in requests.

Overall, there’s $81 million in sales taxes forecast for the 2011 fiscal year in the Outdoor Heritage Fund - one of four funds created for the new Legacy money. The other three are for parks and trails, clean water and arts and culture.

Kilgore said the decline in state revenues has reduced the projected revenue for the fund in 2011 by roughly 5 percent. In addition, $18 million was approved in the 2009 bill to buy conservation easements in 2011 for the Upper Mississippi Forest project, a public-private initiative to preserve 187,000 acres of industrial forest land in northern Minnesota.

The council, which is named after former state Sen. Bob Lessard and the late Sen. Dallas Sams, will meet Jan. 7 to approve the actual bill language to be introduced at the Legislature.

Before then, the council’s staff will adjust the proposals to reflect the amounts that have been allocated. (The state Board of Water and Soil Resources, for example, requested $19 million for a wetlands program. The council has allocated $6.9 million.)

The allocations reflect issues of particular concern to conservationists and sportsmen.

Dave Dempsey, communications director for Conservation Minnesota, which is closely following the Lessard-Sams process, said the bill addresses the declining duck population in Minnesota.

“It has a good geographical spread. If there’s a theme, it has to do with the issues of wetlands and shallow lakes and their relationship to waterfowl,” Dempsey said.

The state Department of Natural Resources and Ducks Unlimited would receive $6.5 million for accelerated enhancement, preservation and protection of shallow lakes and wetlands. The council gave the two organizations a substantial amount of its $7.8 million request.

Due in large part to the state’s continuing budget crisis, conservation advocates in 2010 will be bracing for attempted raids on Legacy amendment dollars. Some state legislators, like Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, have signaled that they want to use the money for projects that stimulate the Minnesota economy.

In the face of these pressures, conservation advocates like Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP) lobbyist John Tuma are already honing their arguments in favor of acquiring forest land and restoring prairies for the good of both environment and the economy.

“We recognize that [a push for job creation] is going to happen. We have to be OK with that,” said Tuma, a former GOP state representative. “That’s doesn’t mean we want to back away from the bread and butter things.”

Kilgore said that both land acquisition and habitat restoration create jobs. For example, converting farm lands to native prairies will involve labor-intensive measures like seeding and breaking tiles.

“Every recommendation will involve jobs. Either habitat enhancement work or, if it is an acquisition, it will have restoration. You need bodies to do the work regardless,” Kilgore said.

Steve Morse, MEP’s executive director and a former DFL state senator, said conservationists will also be guarding against any attempts to use Legacy money to supplant general fund spending, which is legally forbidden under the terms of the constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2008.

“Voters passed this constitutional amendment to ensure that we would have the funds to do more than we had been doing to protect and clean up our lakes, rivers, streams and great outdoors. This money should be used as voters intended-to expand and enhance these efforts,” Morse said.