Audubon Victories in the Legislature

Strengthened Protection for Minnesota's Birds

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Audubon Minnesota, state chapters and our Environmental Issues Committee played a pivotal role in passing legislation this year that will provide long-term, strengthened protection for our state’s native birds.

A legislative session is usually scored by passage or failure of a bill, for example: “House File 1276 was signed into law today.” But a session is really about conversations. Below are the state legislative issues Audubon was involved in, and the final result of those issues. We had many conversations about these topics of importance to Audubon and played an important role in their final outcome. They are outlined here as a David Letterman “Top Ten” style list – which means our favorite result is listed at the bottom as #1 – recognizing that all are important victories in our efforts to protect our native birds and the habitats they need.

“TOP 10” SUCCESSES THAT WE WORKED HARD TO SECURE THIS SESSION:

10. Keeping the wolf depredation program out of the nongame wildlife account.
(The DNR originally proposed $120,000 from the nongame account for this effort, but was convinced the funding should come from elsewhere.)

9. Deleting motorized interests from the Legacy bill.
(Off-highway vehicles were originally considered for a task force to guide the Parks and Trails portion of the Legacy funds and later they were inserted as a potential recipient of the funds. Both were defeated as the legislature wound up.)

8. Cleaning up the forest lease bill before it passed.
(The original language allowed the DNR to lease state forest acres to timber interests with no parameters. The final language limited the size and scope considerably and added best practices to any logging that would take place.)

7. Re-establishing the Green Acres tax incentive program.
(Last year the legislature eliminated this agriculture/conservation program because of perceived abuses. This year it was reasserted.)

6. Creating new incentives for wind, solar, geothermal, etc.
(The economic stimulus and the energy omnibus bills are loaded with incentives for clean, renewable energies, conservation of energy, electric cars, etc.)

5. Requiring the DNR to enact new rules to protect the Mississippi River Critical Area in the Twin Cities.
(The river’s designated “Critical Area”, a stretch that runs through the Twin Cities and is an Audubon Important Bird Area, had not had its commercial and residential development guidelines updated since 1979.)

4. Prohibiting the sale of wildlife lands for the purpose of budget balancing.
(Every year for the past several, the state was selling off conservation lands in order to raise money for the state budget. This requirement is now eliminated.)

3. Requiring state buildings and their tenants to turn the lights out during the spring and fall migrations.
(The state modeled its new law after Audubon’s Lights Out Program.)

2. Allowing for seizure and forfeiture of off-highway vehicles in cases of repeated wetland offenses.
(This tough new law is intended to send a message to the rider community that the state is serious about enforcing laws against reckless wetland activity.)

1. Omnibus Clean Water, Land and Legacy bill including the 187,000 Upper Mississippi Forest Project.
(The newly passed constitutional funding will support wildlife habitat, lakes and rivers and parks on a level we’ve not seen before. The marquee project for year one was the conserving of a massive forest project centered in Itasca County and nearly twice the size of Ramsey County.)

OTHER LEGISLATION THAT AUDUBON MINNESOTA WORKED ON AND THE RESULTS:

Bills/Policies we supported that passed into law

• Omnibus Environment Finance Bill.
• Omnibus Environment Policy Bill.
• Omnibus Energy Policy Bill.
• Omnibus Clean Water, Land and Legacy bill including the 187,000 Upper Mississippi Forest Project.
• Requiring the DNR to enact new rules to protect the Mississippi River Critical Area in the Twin Cities.
• Delaying the merger of the DNR’s Ecological Services and Waters divisions.
• Prohibiting the sale of wildlife lands for the purpose of budget balancing.
• Requiring a report on the value of carbon sequestration in Minnesota’s forests.
• Allowing for seizure and forfeiture of off-highway vehicles in cases of repeated wetland offenses.
• Reestablishing the Green Acres tax incentive program.
• Requiring state buildings and their tenants to turn the lights out during the spring and fall migrations.
• Creating incentives for electric cars.
• Establishing incentives for solar cities.

Bills/Policies we supported that did not pass

• Closing the loophole that allows alcohol consumption while on an off-highway vehicle.
• Closing the loophole that allows riders to trespass while on an off-highway vehicle.
• Allowing charter schools to use economic stimulus money for on-site solar and wind development.
• Ending the policy that allows off-highway vehicles on any unposted trail in our state forests north of highway 2.
• Requiring that at least 50% of all state forests are for traditional non-motorized uses only.
• Requiring financial assurance for any new nonferrous metallic mining operations.
• Requiring California’s clean car emission standard for cars sold in Minnesota.
• Enacting a low carbon fuel standard.
• Creating tax credits for telecommuting.
• Allowing fuel-efficient vehicles on high-occupancy vehicle lanes.
• Creating wind and solar investment incentives for local small operators – commonly called feed-in tariffs.

Bills/Policies we opposed that passed into law

• Funding for the off-highway vehicle Ambassador program.
• Conservation Partners Program administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
• Changing the definition of off-highway vehicle to allow for more powerful engines.

Bills/Policies we opposed that did not pass into law

• Funding Outdoors Minnesota through an over-reliance on the nongame wildlife account.
• Funding Wolf depredation through the nongame wildlife account.
• Creating a parks advisory council consisting of many motorized interest groups.
• Allowing ATVs on County Roads
• Adding bear baiting to the list of exemptions for which an ATV may be used off-trails.
• Creating a Class 3 all-terrain vehicle for government use.
• Allowing for the wholesale leasing of state forests to timber companies. A pilot program did pass, but with significant and helpful revisions.
• Allowing for motorized recreation to get a part of the Parks Legacy money.