State parks and trails acquisition to receive $3 million from state funds

By Judy Erickson, Government Relations Director

The Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources has recommended a $3 million allocation from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund for state parks and trails acquisition.

“This recommendation continues a long tradition of providing acquisition funding for Minnesota’s state parks and trails,” said Judy Erickson, Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota’s government relations director.  “It will enable the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to continue to move forward with high priority acquisitions. It was our top priority for LCCMR funding this go-around. We appreciate the support of the LCCMR members who helped frame this year’s package.”

The commission will ask the DNR for a revised proposal ranking the state parks and trails land acquisition projects by highest to lowest priority. The criteria will be land threatened by development, in-holdings, highest resource value and public usage.

See article on LCCMR project selection for more details on this year’s overall package.