Legislative Session Wrap-Up and Aquatic Plant Management Rulemaking Update
Attention Lakeshore Property Owners:
Just like you, we own property on Minnesota’s beautiful lakes. We write to update you on the recently concluded legislative session -- legislation that affects lakeshore property owners like you and the upcoming DNR rulemaking process that seeks to further limit your ability to control aquatic plants in the lakes we live on. Our organization, Minnesotans for Healthy Lakes (MHL) is the only organization in Minnesota working aggressively to maintain the right of lake associations and lakeshore owners to control the spread of invasive plants and protect the reasonable use of their shorelines.
MHL has had success at the Legislature fighting for lake shore property owners like you!
In 2007, a successful Senate hearing on our bill forced the DNR to hold off on implementing new aquatic plant management (APM) rules!
In 2008, a nearly two-hour hearing was held in the House Environment Committee (more details are below).
In 2008, MHL pushed off any increase in APM fees until 2010 and successfully amended the legislation to require any fee increases to be reported to the Legislature.
As part of the effort to reduce the nearly $1 billion state budget deficit, House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee Chair, Representative Jean Wagenius (D-Minneapolis), proposed lifting the cap on aquatic plant management permit fees. Currently, these limits are $35 per individual property owner and $750 per lake association. The proposed change in the supplemental budget bill (HF 1812) would have allowed for a potential tripling of these fees! However, during the budget conference committee, Senator David Tomassoni (D-Chisholm) worked with MHL to get agreement on an amendment to the bill that will require any DNR rule that changes APM fees must not take effect until 45 legislative days after it has been reported to the Legislature. This will provide for legislative oversight in the appropriate natural resources committees in the House and Senate. In addition, any change in APM permit fees will not occur until 2010, instead of 2009 as originally proposed.
A big thank you to all MHL members and allies for their great grassroots action on this issue! We proved to legislators that there are tens of thousand citizens affected by the APM program and we are watching the Legislature and the DNR closely!
In addition to fighting against the increase in APM permit fees, MHL had a successful, nearly two-hour hearing on our bill this session, (House File 4157) in the House of Representatives in April. MHL was granted nearly two hours of testimony and discussion time by the committee chair, Representative Kent Eken (D-Twin Valley), which is almost unheard of for a legislative hearing. The length of the hearing is an indication of the concern legislators have with the Department of Natural Resources management of the Aquatic Plant Management (APM) program; the DNR has regularly opposed lakeshore property owners' fight against invasive aquatic weeds. Since the House Environment committee did not hear our bill last year, this was the first time that some legislators had heard from MHL – as well from the DNR – in a formal committee hearing on our bill. This was an essential step toward passing our bill in the future.
MHL members did a great job challenging the DNR's claims and answering legislators' questions. You can listen to the hearing here and read the story in Session Weekly.
Special thanks to our bill author, Representative Tim Faust (D-Mora) for his strong advocacy for the rights of lakeshore property owners, and for securing a hearing for us during a busy and short legislative session.
This summer, MHL will need your help to combat restrictive new DNR rules that will limit the ability of lakeshore property owners to have healthy lakes. As you may know, for decades Minnesota lakeshore owners have been allowed to treat 100 feet or the full width of their shoreline, whichever is less, to control aquatic weeds. If approved, the DNR's new rules will change this to 35 feet of shoreline, or one-half the width of the shoreline, whichever is less. This is a huge change and will have significant impact on your recreational use and appreciation of your shoreline, not to mention the impact on your property values. Like you, perhaps, we too often find our permit requests denied or seriously scaled back by the DNR. Moreover, the proposed rule change does not make sense in light of the rapid growth of Eurasian watermilfoil, curly-leaf pondweed and other invasive species in our lakes. We should be allowed to treat invasive species more aggressively, not less aggressively.
These new rules have now been released to the public and are on their way to becoming law unless we as homeowners and voters make our voices heard to our legislators and Governor Pawlenty and fight back through the administrative rule process, likely this summer and fall.
You need to take action now to help stop the DNR rule changes! The proposed rule is scheduled to take effect in Spring 2009. Please take action today through there three simple action steps:
Although the session has just concluded, it is still vitally important to contact your state senator and state representative in person, by phone, letter and/or e-mail and let them know about your concerns. Ask them to support MHL’s bill: House File 4157/Senate File 3433. (If you don’t know the names of your legislators, call 888-234-1112 toll free for the Senate and 800-657-3350 for the House of Representatives). You can also enter your zip code into the search form at this Web site: http://geo.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/districts/start.html. You can visit the MHL web site and review the language of our bill and download a sample letter to send to your legislators.
This is an election year for all 134 members of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Be sure to ask candidates in your area about their position on our bill, and if they are uninformed, educate them and ask for their support for lakeshore property owners. Give them an MHL brochure and direct them to the MHL website. Then follow up with them.
Join MHL in our efforts to represent the interests of lakeshore property owners statewide. We are a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization and welcome your tax deductible contribution. Please send $1000, $500, $250, $100, $40 or whatever amount you can afford and stand with us in protecting the quality of our lakes and lakeshore properties.
Thank you so much for your support. We are lakeshore property owners just like you -- we cannot win this battle without your help!
Sincerely yours,
William Iacoe, Co-Chair
William Goins, Co-Chair
P.S. – Please help us get our message out to the thousands of lakeshore property owners in Minnesota with a tax deductable contribution to MHL today: www.mnhealthylakes.org, or MHL, 1000 Westgate Dr., Ste. 252, St. Paul, MN 55114.
