SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Today, the House Legacy Committee discussed the 2022 funding recommendations for the state’s Outdoor Heritage Fund, proceeds of which come from the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Constitutional Amendment. Rep. Rob Ecklund (DFL – International Falls) is chief author of the legislation that includes $159 million toward 46 programs across the state to preserve, protect, and enhance wetlands, prairies, forest, and habitat for fish, game, and wildlife.
“Minnesotans deeply care about our outdoors, and we have a responsibility to protect our prairies, forests, and wetlands for future generations,” Rep. Ecklund said. “We can easily calculate the acres of land this funding benefits, but the real impacts of this work are almost too vast to measure. We can think about kids fishing along a restored trout stream, thriving forests that provide good-paying jobs while sequestering of millions of tons of carbon, and pollinators – like bumblebees and monarch butterflies that we need to grow food – feeding in lush prairie flowers. Without continued investments in our outdoors, including the projects in this bill, the outdoor heritage we value could be in jeopardy of being lost forever.”
The Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, of which Rep. Ecklund is a member, vetted and recommended the projects in the bill. The bill invests in activities including native prairie protection, wetland restoration, trout stream enhancement, public wildlife land enhancements, shallow lake enhancement, forest fragmentation prevention and strategic land acquisition in fee and conservation easements. In total, the legislation provides for restoration, protection, or preservation of 80,929 acres of wildlife habitat and 127 miles of shoreline. Additionally, an estimated $33.3 million worth of federal, state, and private funding will be leveraged as a result of the investments in the bill. A complete list of projects is available here.
In 2008, voters overwhelmingly approved the Legacy Amendment. The Outdoor Heritage Fund is one of four funds created under the amendment, with one-third of the proceeds from the three-eighths of one percent sales tax dedicated to the Outdoor Heritage Fund. Since 2010, lawmakers have invested over $1.2 billion from the Outdoor Heritage Fund, investing in more than 400 projects across the state toward conservation and preservation.
Documents and other information from the hearing are available on the committee website, and video of the hearing will be available on House Public Information Services’ YouTube Channel.