wild Ones announcements and info

Thu, 22 Feb 2001 19:21:01

Below you will find information on two local meetings that will occur in

March that look like they would be very interesting to attend (thanks to

Joanne Rasberg for sharing this info). This is followed by information

regarding the need for citizens to write letters in support of funding the

Mn Biological Survey. Feel free to share this with anyone else you think

may be interested.

1. The Million Acres conference is coming up soon and will be held in

DULUTH! there will be classes on 76 different subjects taught by

experts from all over the country. Some examples are Wildflowers of

the North Woods, Turtles of Minnesota, White pine history and management,

Fire and Ice on the rocks: Geologic story of

Northern and Central Minnesota and etc. This conference takes place at the

DECC on March 2 and 3. There are tours on Friday (the 2nd) and the keynote

speaker is Nina Leopold Bradley, daughter of Aldo Leopold. For complete

information check www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/ for

( http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/millionacres/index.html provided by Candice R.)

conference updates or call Susan Seabury at 218-879-0850 ext.

108 or Mimi Barzen at 218-327-4119. There will also be an exhibit

hall. This should be a great learning experience and right here in our own

backyard!

2. Guest speakers at the March meeting of the Carlton County

Master Gardeners will be Michelle and Clayton Oslund who established

Shady Oaks Nursery and have written a book "Native Plants of

Minnesota". The Meeting will be held at the Cloquet Forestry Center March 27

at 7:00 PM, everyone is welcome. Contact Joanne at rosbe002@umn.edu for

more information.

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WRITE YOUR LEGISLATORS - FUND THE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY!

Letters to legislators in support of the Minnesota Biological Survey are

needed to help ensure that DNR receives adequate funding to continue their

work. This is critcal for getting info that Wild Ones needs for the

Arrowhead region, as the funding affects completing the survey work in

Carlton, St. Louis, Lake, Cook, Aitkin and Itasca counties in particular.

I spoke today to someone at DNR who informed me that letters are of use

through March, but the sooner the better, as the letter is more likely to

affect a legislator's decision if they receive it soon. Also - although DNR

is requesting support for the proposed Governor's budget, we could say that

proposal is the MINIMUM that should be spent on this.

The following info came from DNR: Support of the proposed Governor's budget

for the DNR budget, especially the Mn Biological Survey, would be good at

this point and hand written letters are best...the legislators can read them

during hearings. What is needed are letters in support of MCBS from people

living in counties where we are working, such as St. Louis, Lake, Cook,

Carlton, Aitkin and Itasca Counties in Northeastern Minnesota.

Handwritten letters are best...and should be sent soon. They can be as

short as... "Please support the Minnesota County Biological Survey this

legislative session. This program is important in providing information for

(informed development, park planning, protection of Native vegetation,

etc....)" The letter can be written to their legislator, with copies sent

to:

DNR Commissioner Allen Garber, MN DNR, 500 Lafayette Rd. Box 37 , St Paul,

MN 55155-4037,

MCBS Supervisor Carmen Converse, MN DNR, 500 Lafayette Rd. Box 25, St Paul,

MN 55155-4025

Senator Leonard Price, 235 Capitol, 75 Constitution Ave., St. Paul, MN 55155

and/or Representative Mark Holsten, 381 State Office Building, ST Paul 55155

...or any combination of the above.

Directories of Minnesota legislators with their addresses and phone numbers

can be found on the MN legislature website at:

http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legdir.htm For details of the governor's

budget, see the website:

http://morefinance.state.mn.us/budget/operating/20022003/menudocuments.shtml

General information on MCBS, what we do, how we do the surveys, status Of

the program, and results of our work can be viewed on the DNR website at:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ecological_services/mcbs/index.html

Details on the budget:

The original amount of funding (for two years) requested from LCMR was 2.1

million. Last summer the LCMR advisory committee voted against any support

for MCBS and two other programs in the Division of Ecological Services

(Mussel Survey and Forest Songbird Initiative) - cutting over 2 million

dollars from the DNR's Ecological Services budget for July 2001 through June

2003. The announcement last summer meant that DNR administrators had to

search for other sources of funding. In the fall, the LCMR advisory

committee decided

to approve a portion of our original budget request ($800,000), and the rest

of our proposed budget (total 1.86 million dollars) was pieced together from

other sources in DNR. This is the budget that DNR Commissioner Garber

presented to the governor, and it's in Governor Ventura's current budget

proposal to the legislature.

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