Audit of Minnesota DNR spending on wildlife management areas IDs some concerns

St. Paul — While the DNR and other vested parties await the results of a special review by the Minnesota Office of Legislative Auditor – “The Department of Natural Resources’ timber harvest decisions in wildlife management areas” – DNR officials say the department received a passing grade in a related federal government audit.

The state’s legislative auditor’s review stems from reports of DNR use of federal funds –Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program dollars – on WMAs where timber harvest may have occurred at the expense of wildlife management. The matter dates back to 2020, when a group of DNR area wildlife managers expressed their concerns.

The state legislative auditor’s office originally expected to complete the review during “the second half of 2024.” Later, it was “to be completed in the first half of 2025.” Currently, the office’s website states: “scheduled to be completed in summer 2025.”

The audit report by the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) focuses on state funding from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. It’s often referred to as Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson funding made available by excise taxes on the sellers of items such as guns and ammunition, and boats, fishing, and related equipment.

Those dollars are apportioned to states based on factors such as hunting and fishing license sales, and a state’s size. DNR officials say the audit is completed once every six years.

During the current federal fiscal year, the DNR was eligible for upwards of $40 million via the program.

The July 30 OIG audit report “found that the (Minnesota DNR) ensured that grant funds and license revenue were used for allowable activities and complied with applicable laws and regulations, (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) guidelines, and grant agreements. We did not identify any reportable conditions.”

However, the report addressed both the long-running issue of timber harvest within state WMAs, as well as “unfunded pension liabilities” that some states improperly allocated to Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration (WSFR) grants. The latter activity prompted a “management advisory” from the auditor to the USFWS, which “discussed issues with a state charging WSFR grants to help pay down the state’s unfunded liabilities …”

Per the audit, Minnesota “charged approximately $108,972 to WSFR grants to pay for such liabilities. The audit states that the USFWS is “working to address our recommendations in the management advisory …”

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A lengthier examination was made by the audit report of timber harvest activities on WMAs in Minnesota, and whether federal dollars were being used in those locations for wildlife conservation, as required by federal law.

“According to a 2020 draft monitoring report, USFWS officials noted that the (Minnesota DNR’s) Forestry Division appeared to be performing forest-management activities on WMAs with limited input from the department’s Fish and Wildlife Division,” the audit report states. “In some cases, FAW staff had limited knowledge that the Forestry Division was conducting these activities on WMAs. Timber harvest practices conducted under grants also seemed to be lacking wildlife conservation and management objectives or appropriate procedures and accepted principles of wildlife conservation and management.”

The audit notes that as the USFWS and DNR debated the matter, in August 2023, the USFWS “paused further disbursements of the (state fiscal year) 2022 to 2023 grant funds and placed a hold on awarding the (state fiscal year) 2024 to 2025 grant follow-on grant until the (DNR) fully complied with the grant terms and conditions. Nearly two months later, the (DNR) and USFWS reached a mutual understanding” and WSFR grant fund were released.

“The audit confirms what conservation advocates and whistleblowers have long alleged: logging activities conducted by the DNR may not have supported – and in some cases likely contradicted – the conservation purposes of the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program,” according to an Aug. 5 news release from the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Included in that release was a statement from Gretchen Mehmel, a retired Minnesota DNR wildlife biologist: “This report validates what we’ve been sounding the alarm about for years. When wildlife staff are pressured to meet timber targets instead of ecological objectives, the mission gets lost – and so do habitats,” she said in the release.

The audit report states that several DNR divisions – Fish and Wildlife, Forestry, and Ecological and Water Resources – are involved in forest management on WMAs. The Fish and Wildlife Division is “primarily responsible for administering the WSFR program” in Minnesota.

The report acknowledges the DNR’s attempts to better coordinate between the divisions in the realm of WMA habitat management: “We applaud the (DNR’s) efforts to enhance operational collaboration among its divisions in accordance with the department’s interdisciplinary forest management framework. However, (the USFWS) has valid concerns regarding potentially competing priorities within the department and the ability to ensure timber harvest activities on lands with a federal nexus maintain wildlife conservation and management objectives.”

The DNR offered an Aug. 1 statement regarding the federal audit, stating in part that, “The report includes two … topics focusing on unfunded pension liabilities and timber harvest activities. The unfunded pension liabilities topic is a broader national issue being addressed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“We have been working with the USFWS and resolved their concerns about timber harvest activities in the fall of 2023. In fact, the draft 2020 monitoring report cited by the audit was never finalized because the issues were addressed.

“We also continue to work collaboratively to address the concerns of DNR staff through our Forest Coordination Continuous Improvement Action Plan (CIAP), which we launched in early 2024,” the statement says. “That process improved our collective understanding that forest coordination experiences on the ground were not always aligned with what our policies intend. We continue to make the necessary improvements to address this gap through the CIAP process.

“It’s worth noting that while the OIG auditors talked with staff in DNR’s Fish and Wildlife Division, they did not include interviews with other staff whose roles are integrated into the work funded by these grants, namely those in our Ecological and Water Resources and Forestry divisions.

“However, we took time to hear from staff from all three divisions, and we have those internal cross-divisional conversations regularly as we make progress on the CIAP.

“In fact, the OIG made a point to praise the DNR’s work to enhance operational collaboration among its divisions in accordance with our interdisciplinary forest management framework,” the DNR’s statement said.

The audit report states that “(DNR) leadership stated that they have undertaken a continuous improvement project to address concerns from its field staff. We did not review this effort during our audit.

“Furthermore, as part of their role in grant administration, it will be beneficial for states that intend to adopt a more sustainable, centralized approach to timber harvest activities to work closely with (the USFWS) to ensure that controls are in place to protect lands with a federal nexus for conservation purposes,” the report states.