Outdoor Insights: Tributes in Minnesota as leadership is lost; and turmoil in Washington D.C.

Condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of former speaker of the Minnesota House, Melissa Hortman. Although I’d met Hortman at a few events over the years, I’d never interviewed her in-depth.

Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed over the weekend when a gunman disguised as a police officer shot and killed them at their house.

In terms of bill authorship, Hortman wasn’t closely involved in traditional outdoors issues at the Capitol, but insiders say she played a crucial leadership role in the passage of matters important to outdoors folks. Front and center was her role in the budget of 2023 that included millions for fish hatcheries and boat landing refurbishment, and she supported chronic wasting disease legislation that had stewed for years.

Mark Holsten, a past DNR commissioner and deputy commissioner and the current leader of MN-Fish, worked with Hortman on multiple policy issues over the years and said she appreciated MN-Fish bringing forth important priorities in an era when emerald ash borers and CWD dominated most outdoors discussions.

Holsten and Garry Leaf, a policy insider who’s worked with MN-Fish, both cited Hortman’s guidance in getting dollars to hatcheries and boat landings during that important 2023 session.

Holsten, a former legislator himself, noted that no one leads a legislative caucus as long as Hortman did without being extremely competent and capable of handling a cauldron of big egos.

“To be a leader of a group like that caucus, that takes an exceptional level of skill,” Holsten said. “She did that through some remarkable political times, which she navigated extremely well. This is a devastating loss.”

MORE COVERAGE FROM MINNESOTA OUTDOOR NEWS:

Minnesota DNR mulls turkey zone changes to obtain better population information

Lower-than-expected elk numbers in Minnesota DNR survey prompts decrease in available tags for 2025

Beat the lake chaos with a deeper understanding of river fishing

DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen, a dedicated public servant for more than two decades herself, was taking the death of Hortman hard, and said that the former speaker had more of an outdoors interest than I realized. Climate and sustainability were two strong personal focuses, as was ensuring funding for community tree-planting grants, and she was a regular, enthusiastic attendee at governor’s fishing opener events.

“And her leadership was tremendous. She had an incredible gift for bringing people together, and she played a massive role in facilitating final agreements on environment and natural resources finance and policy, and bonding bills,” Strommen said. “She brought issues to resolution and believed in doing best for all Minnesotans.”

FEDERAL WHIPLASH? Utah Sen. Mike Lee made headlines Sunday night and Monday morning for some foul, unfunny social media quips about the terrible story that unfolded in Minnesota. That followed a week where Lee was public enemy No. 1 among conservation groups for his proposal to sell off 3 million acres of federal public lands across the West via the big reconciliation bill.

If you’re getting public lands and sulfide-mining-in-the-Boundary-Waters-Canoe-Area whiplash early this summer (see this commentary), join the club. Sporting groups successfully fought off language to sell 400,000 public acres in the House version, only to have Lee pitch his 3-million-acre sell-off plan via the Senate last week.

The BWCA language came out of the reconciliation bill last Wednesday, which was good, then the next day, Trump administration officials suggested an executive order is forthcoming.

Here’s an idea: Write bills for both issues and give them simple up-and-down votes in Congress, then we’ll live with the decision. Of course, that’ll never happen, because the Mike Lees of the world know the only way to pass this garbage is to hide it in 1,100-page budget packages.

Here’s that U.S. Capitol switchboard number again for anyone who wants to chime in on legislation in Washington D.C.: (202) 224-3121.