Dave's Blog

Many of the summit's more than 300 participants called on state lawmakers to tighten rules in the Minnesota Wetlands Conservation Act, passed in 1991 to achieve a no-net-loss of wetlands in the state. Participants also expressed frustration with federal farm policy, which they said rewards Minnesota farmers to maximize crop yields at the expense of responsible conservation practices.

Retiree Dick Kroger drove to the summit from his home in Yellow Medicine County to decry policies and programs that drain wetlands. "If you go to my county, 99 to 100 percent of the wetlands are gone. We're never going to get them back with the programs we have," he said.

The Minnesota division of the Izaak Walton League of America sponsored the summit, which was attended by duck hunters, farmers, conservation group leaders and officials from the Department of Natural Resources, the Board of Water and Soil Resources and other agencies. A handful of state lawmakers also attended.

Bob Whiting, chief of the regulatory branch of the U.S. Corps of Engineers in St. Paul, explained that a long string of federal laws and court cases have given protection to wetlands since the 1970s, but he acknowledged, "We are still not at a no-net-loss."

State Sen. Steve Dille, a Republican farmer from Dassel, defended farmers' rights to drain their land. "We need to drain our lands to farm efficiently to be competitive,'' he said. He said urban and suburban sprawl also should be blamed for wetland losses and that some state figures show a growth in wetlands in the state.

At one point, a participant challenged the Dille's assertion that farmers weren't the problem, and Dille shot back.