Partisan conflict in Minnesota House threatens to hold up $200 million in conservation funds

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Minnesota Reformer) — A procedural hangup in the deadlocked Minnesota House threatens to derail nearly $200 million in funding for habitat conservation and restoration across the state.

At a Capitol press conference Thursday, representatives from at least eight environmental groups implored lawmakers to put aside their differences and pass a package that would allow dozens of Outdoor Heritage Fund projects to begin or continue in the coming months. They include ongoing restoration work on western Minnesota’s remaining tallgrass prairie lands; riverbank stabilization and habitat restoration work at multiple points along the Mississippi River; fish habitat preservation across north-central Minnesota’s lake country; and a slew of forest and wetland restoration efforts from southeastern to northwestern Minnesota.

“The impacts would be felt in literally every corner of our state,” said Rob Schultz, executive director for Audubon’s Upper Mississippi River division.

The projects’ funding requests for fiscal year 2027, which begins on July 1, have already been approved by a bipartisan council appointed by the governor and Legislature. To ensure they receive funding on time, the House and Senate must pass an appropriations bill before the legislative session ends on Sunday night.

If they don’t, it would be the first time in the Outdoor Heritage Fund’s more than 15-year history that a partisan dispute delayed funding for work that enjoys broad support among environmental groups and outdoor recreation enthusiasts, Brad Gausman, executive director of the Minnesota Wildlife Federation, told the Reformer.

“It would be unprecedented not to have this funding approved… these are shovel-ready projects,” Gausman said.

The Outdoor Heritage Fund and Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council were authorized in 2008 by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy amendment, a voter-approved measure that created long-term funds to support arts and culture, clean water, parks and trails, and environmental programming across Minnesota. The money comes from a dedicated state sales tax rather than the state general fund.

Members of the House Legacy Finance Committee have said little in public about the dispute, but legislative records indicate it turns on staffing and appointed membership for the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council.

Lessard’s voting membership is a mix of private citizens and local and state officials. Its two longest-serving members, Chair David Hartwell and Vice-Chair Ron Schara, have been in place since 2011 and 2013. Two others were first appointed in 2019.

At the House committee’s April 15 meeting, GOP members introduced amendments to the appropriations bill that would impose eight-year term limits on council members and change the hiring process for its executive director. Both measures failed, along with a DFL effort to move the bill out of committee.

Ann Mulholland, The Nature Conservancy’s chapter director for Minnesota and the Dakotas, nodded at the press conference to “concerns on both sides of the aisle about governance issues” on the council, but she said her group and the others assembled had no dog in that fight. They just want to see the appropriations authorized, she said.

Kateri Routh, executive director of Great River Greening, said her organization had five “shovel-ready” projects awaiting OHF funding. A delay would significantly increase those projects’ costs, she said.

“If this bill doesn’t pass, we don’t just lose a year of funding. The land continues to degrade and the work becomes more expensive,” Routh said.

Gausman echoed those comments, warning that “jobs are potentially on the line” if funding doesn’t come through in time.

“We’re just at a point where we need to make sure we figure out a way to get the funding out (and) that the desire of some to reform the council doesn’t get in the way of the appropriation of the funds to do this necessary conservation work,” he said.

(Story written by Brian Martucci – Minnesota Reformer)