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FeedConservation easements go under the microscope in Minnesota
St. Paul — The state legislative auditor plans an examination of two topics that have been prominent in recent legislative sessions: school trust lands and conservation easements.
The state Legislative Audit Commission selected those topics and five others at its meeting last week.
Conservation easements long have been used to protect land while at the same time keeping it in private ownership. Since the passage of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment in 2008, though, there’s been an increased emphasis on them.
According to a topic selection background paper, the Outdoor Heritage Fund, which takes in one-third of the money the amendment raises each year, since 2009 has funded $145 million worth of conservation easement projects.
Another primary funding source for easements is the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, which since 1999 has funded $26.5 million worth of easements.
According to the background paper, $31.7 million of the Outdoor Heritage Fund easements, and $7.9 million of the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund easements, involved nonprofit organizations.
Among the topics that may be included in the audit are:
- How is land selected for easements? How is value determined?
- How well do state agencies and nonprofit groups monitor the requirements of easements?
Some have raised concerns about the public oversight of conservation easements that non-profit groups administer, according to the background paper.
“There is no overall state plan for nonprofits’ easements or how they fit with state agencies’ conservation easements,” the paper says. “A 2010 (Office of the Legislative Auditor) evaluation, Natural Resource Land, recommended improving DNR’s management practices for easements. OLA has not previously evaluated easements administered by nonprofit organizations.
“An evaluation of publicly funded conservation easements could compare those administered by nonprofit organizations with those by state agencies. The amount of state oversight for easements is up to legislative discretion. An evaluation by OLA is feasible and, given expectations that conservation easements will continue to increase, also timely.”
School trust land
Lawmakers this sessions are considering several pieces of legislation related to school trust lands, which the DNR manages. The land includes about 2.5 million acres – and another million acres of mineral rights.
In 2011, school trust lands generated about $23 million in investment revenue for public school districts in the state, according to a background paper on the topic.
Among the topics an audit may consider are:
- Has DNR managed school trust lands, which primarily are in the northern Minnesota, to provide the greatest economic return?
- Would a different decision-making structure for trust lands provide increased revenue or clearer oversight?
These are critical questions regarding topics governments are do incredibly poorly. I'm not sure how government can be entrusted to manage trust lands for maximum economic return. That's not what they do. Political concerns will always be more important than economic return. If economic return were a concern, the lands would be developed, but that's not happening.
Conservation easements are another big concern for me. Sure they provide public hunting opportunities, but is it really wise as a society for us to lock up all this land and prevent private use and development? It seems to me that the principles of freedom should encourage private ownership and management of lands. Public ownership of large blocks of land encourage dependency and grants more and more control to the state. I know it's heresy here and I take advantage of our public WMAs and WPAs more than most, but it seems at some point that there has to be a tipping point where not enough people are productive and paying taxes to pay for all the goodies. The tax on sporting goods is one thing, but when a statewide tax is piling up huge $s and huge stretches of land I'm concerned.