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State Representative David Dill
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-2190
For more information contact: Charlie Vander Aarde 651-297-8406
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Iron Range Legislative Delegation Calls On DNR and Minnesota Attorney General to Sue the US Forest Service
(NORTHEAST MINNESOTA) - Iron Range lawmakers are rallying to recover millions of dollars for the state’s school trust fund lost by the US Forest Service’s mismanagement of the huge fire in the BWCA Wilderness. Several veteran legislators are calling on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the State’s Attorney General to go after the federal government for the resources lost on state land as a result of the fire.
State Representative Tom Anzelc, DFL-Balsam Township, said: “The state owns thousands of acres of forest land consumed by this fire. It is held in the school trust account, managed by the DNR, to benefit our kids and their education. The fire destroyed this resource, and the US Forest Service should be held accountable for its policies."
State Representative Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, added: “Hey, if the average Joe Camper started this fire by accident at a campsite, he’d be strung up by the Federal Government and it would be front page news. He’d pay thousands of dollars in fines and probably go to jail.” “But,” Rukavina continued, “it is now the federal government that screws up, and they say ‘yup, we should have put out the fire, instead of letting it burn’. Well, anyone with common sense would have put the fire out, and now we have a forest full of ashes instead of trees for the kids’ trust fund.”
Members of the Iron Range delegation asked DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr to do an assessment of the state acreage lost to the wild fire and its economic value. State Senator David Tomassoni, DFL- Chisholm, said: “The DNR manages the land within the school trust, so they should have data readily available to account for the value of the resources lost in this fire. Then, the Attorney General, on behalf of the people, should make a claim against the federal government to reimburse the trust.”
State Representative David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake, said “We are thankful that none of our constituents were injured in the blaze and that houses and cabins were saved by the great work of the firefighters. But we have a responsibility to protect state assets, and the federal government should step up and pay for their intentional decision to let the fire burn. We look forward to action by our Attorney General to redress this wrong.”
“This is further proof,” said State Representative Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing, “that the federal government should buy our land in the BWCAW or trade it for federal land outside of the wilderness. That is the only way the school trust fund in Minnesota will achieve the value we are entrusted to deliver.”
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