Minnesota’s Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Fund was created by the Minnesota legislature to receive 33 percent of the sales tax revenues resulting from the constitutional amendment passed by the voters in the November 2008 election.
In the month of August the Lessard-Sams Council held a series of planning meeting throughout the state. The results of are meant to provide the Council with direction on the regional conservation needs of the state over the next 25 years.
The Council would like public input on the priorities and targets developed at those meetings.
Each meeting considered a unique natural area of the state. The results and a description of the section of the state covered are available at the Council’s Website, and can be accessed by the following links:
Prairie
Metropolitan-Urbanizing
Southeast Forest
Northern Forest
Forest/Prairie Transition
The Council encourages all citizens to review the results prior to their presentation to the Council in mid-September.
Comments can be sent to the Council at LSOHCplanning@state.mn.us. The public is asked to please state in the subject line which section of the draft their comments pertain to.
If preferred, the public may submit comments via mail or fax. Contact information is below.
L-SOHC planning, C/O Management Analysis & Development
Minnesota Management & Budget
203 Administration Building
50 Sherburne Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55155
FAX: 651-297-1117
“This effort is fundamental to the Council’s work to develop priorities for the use of the Outdoor Heritage Fund” said Bill Becker, Executive Director of the Council. “Conservation practitioners in each part of the state, identified by conservation leaders, gave their opinion of what needs to be done to protect, restore, and enhance the state’s habitat. The next step is for the Lessard-Sams Council to evaluate that work and decide how to use the Outdoor Heritage Fund. What portion of the effort should the Outdoor Heritage Funds support? What can we expect from our investment?”
The results of the meetings and related public input will be reviewed by the Council at its meeting scheduled for September 15 and 16, 2009, in Saint Paul. After reviewing the input, the council will develop its 25-year framework for the use of the Outdoor Heritage Fund and priorities for the Council’s Call for Funding Requests for state fiscal year 2011. The recommendations for fiscal year 2011 are due to the Minnesota Legislature no later than January 15, 2010, for review and action in the 2010 legislative session.