Cravaack bill on BWCA

[Lee Borgersen]

                             Cravaack bill on BWCA

BWCAW Land Exchange Legislation Headed to House Floor.


  BWCA bill will be on the Floor between 12-12:30 pm ET - on CSPAN

  read more......

http://cravaack.house.gov/press-releases/bwcaw-land-exchange-legislation-headed-to-house-floor/

[Lee Borgersen]

Minnesota School Trust Land: A 154 Year Investment in Our Future
 The history of school trust lands in Minnesota began in March 1849, when the United States Congress established a territorial government for Minnesota.  Nearly a decade later, when Minnesota became a state in 1858, sections 16 and 36 of every township were set aside in trust for the benefit of schools.  The state could use, lease, or sell the land to raise money for education.  A Permanent School Fund (PSF) was established to manage land revenues.  Also, interest earned on these funds was designated to fund the PSF on a yearly basis.

In 1858, Minnesota had a total population of 150,000, and was two-thirds rural.  Much of the trust land was sold by the mid 1880s for agriculture and development, and now there are only about 2.5 million acres remaining in Minnesota.  Moreover, most of the school trust land is located within ten northern Minnesota counties.  In fact, approximately 86,000 acres of state trust lands are currently locked within the borders of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW).  These lands within the BWCAW cannot be logged, leased, or mined.  Thus, they are not generating money for the school trust.
 

The BWCAW covers approximately 1.09 million acres.  In terms of state ownership, both the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the counties manage 122,247 acres (about 11.2 percent of the total).  Of this, approximately 93,260 acres (8.5 percent) are Trust Fund lands.  Although these lands are designated “school trust,” they do not produce revenue for schools because commercial extraction of natural resources is not permitted inside the BWCAW.  Importantly, the state land was there before the wilderness area was designated.  In 1978, Congress passed the BWCA Wilderness Act, which ended logging activities.  Since that time, there have been thousands of acres of land in Permanent School Trust Fund status within the Boundary Waters, where federal laws prohibit management for timber.

Since the BWCAW founding, the school trust land within the Boundary Waters has not been earning money for Minnesota students.  This goes against Minnesota law, which specifies that these lands must earn money for the Trust.

[Lee Borgersen]

                        ........Latest update

 December 18, 2012
 
     St. Louis County board tackles Boundary Waters land swap

The St. Louis County Board of Commissioners will consider a resolution today supporting a land swap between the federal and state governments for 86,000 acres in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.


  the scoop ......

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/253141/group/Outdoors/

[greatoutdoors]

Our current 8th District Representative, Chip Cravaack, had a pretty good bill in the House, but Franken and Klobuchar wouldn't propose one in the Senate until after the election ended.
Now the environmentalists  are going to push for the PURCHASE of all county and state land within the Bdub, instead of an acre for acre exchange for federally owned land outside of it.
The environmentalists DO NOT WANT any land under current federal control, turned over to county or state control, even though it isn't within the BWCA.
This new 8th district Rep, Rick Nolan, THEY elected is not going to be a friend of northeastern Minnesota for mining, outboard motors, or logging.
Remember, when he last served in the US Congress, he was one of the major players that co-sponsored the Burton Vento Wilderness Bill of 1978, which took out more outboard motor use, and all the snowmobile routes that were allowed under the Wilderness Act of 1964.

[Lee Borgersen]

I was talking to Nancy McReady President of the CWCS (Conservationists With Common Sense) http://www.cwcs.org
 and she's not happy with this guy Rick Nolan for the same reasons as you Jim. Let's hope he doesn’t get appointed to head any committees with his anti agendas.  

[greatoutdoors]

Yeah Lee, he sure is going to be bad news for this area, just like he was in 78 when he was in Congress the first time.
Maybe he'll change, but I don't see any signs of it with his quotes to the paper, and the lie filled, rotten, campaign he ran!!
IMHO, a sleaze bucket from the start!!