John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, August 13, 2010

“You go tell your boss that I’ve got a loaded .30-.30 Winchester sitting in the corner of this cabin, and the next person in a uniform who steps on my dock is going to get blown into the lake.”

- Benny Ambrose, April 3, 1963*

In the early 1960s as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northeastern Minnesota took its next major step toward a wilderness designation, Dorothy Molter and Benny Ambrose found themselves at the center of a brewing storm.  A faction of local citizens unhappy with the federal intrusion and land use restrictions elevated Molter and Ambrose to folk hero status.  Neither of them looked for this battle with the federal government, nor were they looking for the notoriety.  They just wanted to live out their years in the wilderness they loved.

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The City of Winona is hosting the state’s first ‘Legacy Weekend’ event Saturday.  The idea behind such events is to show how individual communities are benefiting from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.  It’s hoped this will be the first of many such events that will not only educate and entertain communities but also serve as a tourism draw.

Minnesota Citizens for the Arts is working with Conservation Minnesota to explain how the Legacy Amendment is funding everything from the local Great River Shakespeare Festival to habitat conservation in Winona County.

Over a year and a half ago, Minnesota voters approved the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment and now it’s beginning to bear fruit.

The community of Winona is holding a first-of-its-kind Legacy Weekend featuring programs and events made possible by the Amendment.  Some of the events are associated with conservation and environmental funding from the Amendment, some with arts and cultural heritage funding. A full schedule of events is at the link.  Other communities are encouraged to plan Legacy Weekends.

St. Paul is also seeing results from the Amendment.  Here’s a breakdown.

Bill includes more than $650 million in restoration funds

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (June 30) – A landmark Great Lakes restoration bill advanced in the U.S. Senate today. The Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act of 2010, which authorizes more than $650 million for restoration initiatives, passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a vote by voice vote.

“This is a major step forward in the effort to restore the Great Lakes and revitalize the region’s economy,” said Jeff Skelding, campaign director for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “Millions of people, businesses and communities will benefit from the swift passage of this bill. We encourage the full Senate and House to pass this landmark legislation before the problems facing the Great Lakes get worse and more costly.”

Read rest of the news release from the Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition.

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, July 1, 2010


“Logging roads have recently been indiscriminately slashed through and across park lands, disfiguring their beauty, and opening the way to all the dangers of forest conflagrations against many magnificent evergreen groves and promiscuous forests  which were numbered among the most valuable park holdings the state possessed.”

-  Jacob V. Brower, Former Itasca State Park Superintendent, May 9, 1904

Minnesota’s first state park, and still one of its jewels, was established in 1891 by order of the State Legislature and action by the U.S. Congress.  That happened in no small part due to the tireless citizen lobbying by Jacob V. Brower.  Born in Michigan, Brower moved to Minnesota as a young man.  In 1862 he volunteered to serve in the hastily mustered military regiment under Henry Sibley in response to the Sioux uprising on the western prairies.  He was happy to return to his home in Todd County after the campaign and eventually rose to serve his community as county auditor and county attorney.

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With funds provided by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) will take a scientific look at three contaminants of growing concern for drinking water.  One of the contaminants is an ingredient in anti-bacterial soaps used in the home.

The Amendment specifically requires that at least 5% of clean water funding to used “only to protect drinking water sources.”

More information is here.

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, June 18, 2010

“The eye takes in a score or more graceful promontories, capes and peninsulas, – running their moss and pine covered points down into the Lake. . .”
- Ossian E. Dodge, St. Paul Pioneer, September 20, 1865

The “Lake” that Ossian E. Dodge was referring to in his report to the St. Paul Pioneer newspaper in 1865 was that of Lake Vermilion.  With the recent closing on the purchase of the 3,000 acres from the U.S. Steel Co. setting the stage for the development of the first new major state park in nearly 30 years, it is worth reflecting on its creation.  The above quote from Mr. Dodge points out that this fifth largest lake in Minnesota has long played a critical role in our history.

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“This afternoon we will take the Skyline Trail, the trail that more than any other gives us a feeling of distance and space.  Vistas of wilderness will be ours, frozen swamps and lakes and winding trails through the woods.  Along that trail towards sunset the light effects are more striking than anywhere else, for here the whole country lies before us.”

- Sigurd Olson, The Singing Wilderness, 1956

Sigurd Olson is a giant in Minnesota’s conservation history as one of the leading voices during the mid-1900s for the preservation of wild places like our beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park.  He was also a literary acclaimed writer, penning his classic, The Singing Wilderness, in 1956, a must-read for any environmental activist.  So respected was Olson that his likeness is one of only a few busts displayed within our State Capitol.  It seems almost providential that Olson’s bust stands guard to Capitol Committee Room 107 where most of the Senate environment and conservation issues are addressed. 

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John Tuma’s Capitol Update for May 18, 2010

“I rolled off the pony in a heap.  I staggered toward the stockade gate and fell headlong through the door of a house, where I lay in a stupor for hours.”
- Sam Brown, Fort Wadsworth, Dakota Territory, 1866

Sam Brown was a legendary frontiersman.  He was the son of Major Joseph R. Brown, for whom Browns Valley was named.  That valley lies between the headwaters of the Red and Minnesota Rivers on the western border of Minnesota; right at the tip of that little bump you see on the state map on our western border.

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John Tuma’s Capitol Update for May 14, 2010

“It’s very confusing, and very wonderful.  People disagree, they get angry — and they do it in public and nobody dies.”
- Idil Abdull, May 11, 2010

On Wednesday, Warren Wolfe of the Star Tribune provided us with one of the more pleasant stories from the State Capitol, that of 36-year-old Somali-born Idil Abdull.   She is a citizen lobbyist from Burnsville working to make some changes in a bill to protect Somali autistic children.  “Lobby of one: Making sense of Legislature” provides an interesting perspective of our American legislative experiment in democracy, Minnesota style, through the eyes of a newcomer to our land of immigrants.  Ms. Abdull provides us with a refreshingly honest citizen’s perspective. 

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