On John Muir and Trees

A Minnesota State Senator lately said a constituent told him he's been offered $5,000 for a tree. Not just any tree but large black walnut tress that are fairly scare in the driftless area of southeast Minnesota. "There may be hundreds of thousands of dollars of value there,'' Senator Drazkowski said. He is referring the many harvestable black walnuts that are present in Whitewater and Frontenac State Parks. It has been suggested that the DNR (which now both houses of the state legislature want to mandate) cut down these trees to pay for the funding of these two parks.

I was reading my John Muir last night and here is what he said:

"Nothing dollarable is safe, however guarded. Thus the Yosemite Park, the beauty glory of California and the Nation, Nature's own mountain wonderland, has been attacked by spoilers ever since it was established, and this strife I suppose, must go on as part of the eternal battle between right and wrong."

Muir got it right. Nothing dollarable is safe, however guarded. He was right and his ideological descendants reasoned that to make the resource safe one must make it dollarable and thus the 1930's witnessed the efforts that led to great tourism boom post WWII and 1950's (centered around facilities constructed by the Park Service, States, and the CCC) and the creation of an industry around the national and state parks.

However, since we are now deciding to forgo raising revenues from the sources where we once sought them to maintain the parks and their facilities(i.e. a progressive income tax, estate taxes, culture of donating, adequate user fees, etc.) these resources are no longer dollarable in the most progressive (right, correct) sense.

The sad irony here is that we are now proposing to destroy the resource in order to save it.

Here is what both bills include:

H.F. 1010 - Omnibus Environmental Finance Bill (McNamara)

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H1010.2.html&session=ls87

This bill dramatically reduces taxpayer support for natural resource protections by disproportionately cutting general fund dollars to environmental and conservation programs, well beyond the historic low of 1% of General Fund. Programs to protect water resources are particularly hard hit. This bill contains appropriations from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund which diverge substantially from the recommendations of the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources. Some of the bad policy provisions in the House bill include:

* weakening existing water quality standards for sulfate discharges (to facilitate permitting of sulfide mining in Northern MN)
* removing natural resource conservation from permanent school trust fund goals, thus permitting greater (unsustainable) levels of timber harvest
* removing protections for new Scientific and Natural Areas
* mandating that the MNDNR harvested all marketable black walnut trees from Whitewater and Frontenac State Parks!
* appropriating funding to convert the North Shore State Trail (through the headwaters of North Shore trout streams) to ATV use in such a way as to avoid environmental review and MNDNR oversight or input


S.F. 1029 - Omnibus Environmental Finance Bill (Ingebrigtsen)

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=S1029.1.html&session=ls87

This Senate bill dramatically reduces taxpayer support for natural resource protections by disproportionately cutting general fund dollars to environmental and conservation programs, well beyond the historic low of 1%. The bill contains several troubling policy provisions, including ones which would:

* weaken existing water quality standards for phosphorus and sulfates
* prohibit new water rules to protect and restore our lakes, rivers and streams
* repeal protections for the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area
* exempt ethanol facilities from mandatory environmental review (although theoretically one could petition the relevant RGU to require a “discretionary” EAW be prepared)
* weaken permitting standards for large feedlot facilities
* directly appropriate funding to convert the North Shore State Trail to ATV use in such a way as to avoid environmental review and MNDNR oversight or input
* substantially alter the recommendations of the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, including cutting research projects approved following technical reviews and competitive screening.

When I think of what this country has become I sadly imagine a day where I go to a favorite trout stream and find it on fire and the local newspaper editorials praise the blaze as a pinnacle of environmental stewardship and all suburbs look up from their HDTVs and their video games and chant "amen."

Let's end it with Muir...

"These temple-destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar."