MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports on a Minnesota House Committee has voted to sell state land lying within the Federal Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. But it's raised fierce opposition from the environmental community and from within the Legislature. Report includes various speaking and interview clips.
BOB KELLEHER: The Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee voted Thursday to auction four state-owned parcels of wilderness land. It's the latest skirmish in a long debate between the state and federal government over state property that's been swallowed by the federal wilderness area. Minnesota owns 93,000 acres of school trust land that's supposed to be generating revenue for local schools and the University of Minnesota. But in the wilderness, it can't be logged, mined, or otherwise put to commercial use.
Now, Northeastern Minnesota DFL Representatives David Dill and Tom Rukavina are pushing the issue with an amendment to a state lands bill that would put some of the state property up for sale to the highest bidder. Dill argued the idea on the House floor last week. He says it's intended to get attention.
DAVID DILL: We can't get anybody to listen. We can't get the environmentalists to come to the table. We can't get the federal government to come to the table. We can't get the Congress people and the Senators to come to the table and find a fix for this.
BOB KELLEHER: Dill says he'd rather trade the wilderness locked property for federal land outside the wilderness. That would create more state forest carved from the Federal Superior National Forest. State Representative Tom rukavina explained that logging sales on the new state land would create jobs and school money.
TOM RUKAVINA: It's not evil to make a living off the land. You farmers do it all the time. You feed us. Logging isn't evil. You can't log in the Boundary Waters. This whole issue isn't about the Boundary Waters. It's about getting the school trust lands that raise revenue for our kids forever out of there, once and for all.
BOB KELLEHER: Rukavina and Dill failed to attach the amendment to a House budget bill last week, but were successful amending the house lands bill in the Ways and Means Committee. Duluth State Representative Tom Huntley opposed the amendment and says the property would add up to maybe 160 acres.
TOM HUNTLEY: But it's still land inside the BWCA. The commissioner of DNR can sell that land to the highest bidder, be it Bill Gates, or Jeno Paulucci, or whoever wants to build a mansion inside the BWCA can go ahead and do it.
BOB KELLEHER: If the parcel sold, it could be difficult to bring in building supplies or even to visit. Under Federal Wilderness Management, you couldn't, for example, cross parts of the wilderness with a motorized generator, and you'd need an entry permit just to get in. However, it's possible property on the inner edge of wilderness could be developed, as long as it can be reached without otherwise crossing federal wilderness.
Predictably, the plan has heated opposition from the group Friends of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Friends, Sarah Strommen says, they're sympathetic to the school trust issue, but that this is not a good solution.
SARAH STROMMEN: Certainly, we don't believe that auctioning off the Boundary Waters to the highest bidder is the right approach to this issue.
BOB KELLEHER: There are other options. In the 1990s, Minnesota's congressional delegation was working on a direct federal buyout of the state land. But there's disagreement on the relative value of the wilderness locked property. The state DNR has worked toward a land trade, according to DNR spokesman Dennis Stauffer.
DENNIS STAUFFER: I mean, we're not unsympathetic with the objective of getting land that will indeed contribute to the school trust fund again, as those parcels once did before they were designated wilderness. We're open to finding a way to do that. But what we've been exploring so far is doing a land exchange with the federal government.
BOB KELLEHER: But a trade would take lengthy appraisals and negotiations. Amendment sponsors are apparently tired of waiting. The lands bill with the amendment is likely to get house floor debate next week, but a companion bill in the Senate does not include the wilderness sale amendment. Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio, Duluth.
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