Parks and Trails make Minnesota great
But a lack of sufficient funding has meant missed opportunities, deferred maintenance and an inability to keep up with the needs of outdoor recreation.
By Linda Picone
Securing funding of $20 million to acquire land for Lake Vermilion State Park was a major accomplishment for Minnesota’s parks and trails this year at the Minnesota Legislature. The land at Lake Vermilion is a beautiful spot that can become a jewel in the crown of the state park system.
That is, if there’s money to build park facilities and then to operate them — only initial development funding is included in that $20 million.
In the past two years, Stearns County has acquired land for two regional parks, Kraemer Lake and Rockville. But it has no funds to develop those properties.
Boaters, swimmers and many families enjoy themselves at Big Marine Park Reserve in Washington County. But a significant portion of the land within the park boundaries is privately owned. Currently, there’s no money available to purchase that land immediately, should any of it be offered for sale.
Parks and trails of the state, regions and counties and of the Metropolitan Parks and Open Space system are an important part of what makes most of us — and many visitors — love Minnesota. We almost take for granted the opportunities we have to hike, canoe, bike, ski, camp and more in the outdoors, within minutes of our homes or a couple hours away.
We also take for granted the idea that our taxes and visitor fees are providing what’s needed to support those parks and trails. But the fact is that at all levels, they are not.
Courtland Nelson, Parks and Recreation director of the Department of Natural Resources, says it costs $35 million a year to run state parks, with inflation pushing that cost up $700,000 to $800,000 a year. Just to stay even, the DNR has to find additional money and/or cut expenses. The department has pared costs extensively over the last few years — currently, it has fewer full-time people working than it has had in decades — and there may not be much room to cut more.
“Unless we get a fairly significant influx of money from somewhere, there are some pretty unpleasant decisions that have to be made four to six years out,” Nelson says.
The Greater Minnesota Regional Park Program doesn’t expect things to get worse: “The current budget for that program is zero,” says Chuck Wocken, Stearns County Parks Director. “We can’t go backwards on this because we’re at the bottom.”
“People just don’t think there’s a problem,” says Glen Skovholt, chair of the Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commission.
The three “buckets”
Nelson categorizes needs for the state parks as being in three “buckets”: acquisition, new projects and deferred maintenance for the existing system and annual operating expenses. The same three categories apply to metropolitan area parks and to those in the Greater Minnesota Regional Park Program—and the same problem exists for all three: not enough money in any of the buckets.
Acquisition. Landowners don’t usually coordinate their desire to sell with a public body’s desire to add to a park, or to secure land already within a park’s boundaries. “You can’t say, ‘We’ll go to the Legislature next session and maybe we’ll get part of it,’” says Skovholt. (An important role of the Parks & Trails Council is purchasing land when it is ready for sale, then transferring ownership to the appropriate public entity when funding is available.) The Minnesota Legislature provided nearly $73 million in bonding for parks and trails in the 2008 session (including the $20 million to buy the land for Lake Vermilion State Park from U.S. Steel Co.), but that kind of regular funding can’t be counted on, and isn’t necessarily applied in the best way. Working the Legislature for money “puts funding by politics rather than funding by quality,” says Wocken.
Minnesota’s state parks include about 220,000 acres of state-owned property and another 20,000 to 30,000 acres within them of privately owned property. The Minnesota Statewide Conservation and Preservation Plan by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, released in July, recommends that the state acquire more land as part of a conservation agenda.
New projects and deferred maintenance for existing parks and trails. The state parks system plan shows a need for $10 million a year for 10 years to upgrade and improve the current system. Nelson says on the list are campsites and campgrounds, most of them built 40 to 50 years ago and “desperately” needing work. Individual campsites in some areas could be separated, tents in one area and Recreational Vehicles in others, he said. Tent campers generally like the idea of quiet, being away from the televisions, video games and noise they left at home. At the same time, those in motor vehicles need longer, larger sites to park on and want better electrical hookups and restroom facilities.
Nelson says group campsites also are underdeveloped. “We just don’t have enough group sites that meet the modern needs for current and future users,” he says. “There seems to be no end to the growth in that particular type of camping.” Reservations for group campsites completely fill for the year on the day they open.
Stearns County has great plans for a granite industry interpretive center, with a goal similar to that of the Soudan Underground Mine State Park. “It would be looking at one more industry area that has shaped the land forms of the local region and left a story waiting to be told,” says Wocken. What Stearns County doesn’t have is the $4 million to develop the interpretive center.
Annual operating expenses. Minnesota’s state parks get $18 million in state general fund revenue to operate. “Nationally, that’s very, very high,” says Nelson. “I’m very proud of the legislators for the kind of support that we get; it speaks highly of the values of Minnesotans, seen through their representatives. But it is somewhat unreasonable to expect that it’s going to stay at that level.” Even at that level, state parks are cutting back services where they can and where cuts seem to impact users the least. But they do impact users in some ways. The relatively new, lovely visitor center at Lake Bronson State Park in the northwest corner of the state is open only on an “as needed” basis. “We just didn’t have the staff and the operational dollars to keep it running,” says Nelson.
The answer to park and trail underfunding: The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment
The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, which will be on the ballot in November, would increase the state sales tax by 3/8 of 1 percent (about $56 a year for an average household) and dedicate those additional funds to clean water, wildlife habitat, parks and trails, and arts and cultural heritage.
The increased sales tax would raise approximately $300 million each year for 25 years. Parks and trails would receive 14.25 percent of the funds, or approximately more than $42 million each year.
The Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota is enthusiastically in support of the amendment. An influx of more than $42 million each year would unquestionably benefit parks and trails throughout the state — and improve all of our outdoor experiences.
“There is nothing more important that Minnesotans can do on behalf of our state’s parks and trails than to vote yes for the constitutional amendment on Nov. 4,” says Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota President Tim Farrell. “Voters may never get another chance to express how much we treasure our great outdoor heritage.”
For more information about the constitutional amendment, go to the Yes for Minnesota Web site at www.YesforMN.org.