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WALKER - Educating the public and metro area legislators will be key to preserving water quality in north-central Minnesota, five area legislators told those assembled for a fourth annual meeting Friday at Northern Lights Event Center near Walker.

The legislators included Sens. Mary Olson, Bemidji, and Tom Saxhaug, Grand Rapids; and Reps. John Ward, Brainerd, Brita Sailer, Park Rapids and John Persell, Bemidji.

Association of Cass County Lakes, Pine River Watershed District and Leech Lake Band sponsored the event.

It is a lot more cost effective to preserve lake quality than to restore polluted lakes, Olson said, but much of the money allocated so far from the Legacy Act, the 3/8 percent sales tax for environmental and arts uses, has addressed pollution already in southern Minnesota lakes.

Ward said this issue at the Legislature is not about Republicans versus Democrats; it is about greater Minnesota versus metro.

Jerry Lerom, lakes association chairman, said far too little money has been available to fight the spread of aquatic invasive species. Only special taxing districts for individual lakes, called lake improvement districts, have paid to fight invasive species once they infect lakes. This leaves out any help for lakes without lake associations, he said.

Olson noted the recently passed state law requiring people to empty all water from their boats before leaving lakes to help prevent invasive species spread. She said she will re-introduce special legislation to require dock and boat lift operators to be educated about invasive species.[[In-content Ad]]Ward suggested new possible funding and education to stop invasive species spread could come from increasing the $50 fine for failing to empty water from boats to $250, charging to inspect boats, using volunteers to inspect more boats, increasing boater education especially at fishing tournaments or adding a boat license surcharge.

The legislators saw shoreland protection as part of maintaining water quality here.

With the huge amount of ash trees in northern Minnesota, addressing emerald ash bore invasions will be part of that, Saxhaug said. If all the ashes died, vast areas of soil could be exposed to erosion.

Sailer predicted the updated DNR shoreland management zoning rules Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed will be revised some, then re-submitted to the 2011 legislature and a new governor.

Ward said those rules had a lot of public input and thought put into them before the 2010 legislature approved them. He also expressed support for shoreland native vegetative buffer zones to protect water clarity.

Lerom told the legislators he sees land conservation as key to protecting water quality. Payments in lieu of tax the state makes to counties for non-taxable land is key to this, he said.

County land purchases have been a way to preserve environmentally sensitive land to this point, Ward noted.



A 2010 state audit indicated state PILT payments are more than adequate. Sailer said that finding surprised her. If northern counties lost that funding, it would push them against a wall, she said.

Saxhaug said land exchanges and conservation easements may replace adding to state and county land bases in the future if PILT is cut.

Stewardship of land and water affects public health as well as family recreation, Ward said. The public needs to ask candidates their stand on issues, then follow up after elections by telling their representatives their concerns.

Olson said volunteers and lake and watershed associations are key to educating people and obtaining grants under the Legacy Act. A lot more movement between bodies of water is having a greater affect on lakes today, she said. She also saw some impact due to climate change.

Sailer expressed concern about cutting too much from existing programs during the present state budget crisis, which she compared to dealing with the aftermath of a tornado strike. It will cost more to fix problems in the future if they are not prevented today, she said.

Saxhaug described his district as having the largest clean water aquifer in the country now that the everglades has been compromised. Consolidating managed forests will be key to preserving that in the future, he said, citing efforts state and county official have made to join their holdings through land exchanges.

"Sustainable forests are one of the best ways to ensure clean water," Saxhaug said.

Persell said he would like to see a shift from recreationally based resource management to ecologically based management.

Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.

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