Legislative Session number- 85

Bill Name: SF2651

5E Relating to natural resources

ARTICLE 1 - STATE LANDS

Requiring the
commissioner of administration to send state agency land surplus notices,
raising the land value for appraisal and requiring commissioner land survey,
requiring licensed appraiser appraisal and conformity with certain uniform
standards, requiring surplus state-owned lands to be sold minimally for
appraised value, requiring purchaser minimum payment percentage at time of sale
and remainder within a certain amount of time, requiring commissioner of
administration quitclaim signature and eliminating contract for deed; creating
the Minnesota forests for the future program to identify and protect private
working forest lands, providing for land eligibility, easements correction and
termination under certain conditions, landowner payments and a rulemaking
exemption for certain easements; authorizing the commissioner of natural
resources (DNR) to acquire permanent interests in lands and an advisory team for
program management, specifying application process, requiring the commissioner
to establish a long term monitoring and enforcement program for future
easements, requiring financial contributions; establishing a forests for the
future revolving account in the natural resources fund and appropriating money
to the DNR for forest lands acquisition; authorizing the commissioner to agree
to match a contribution contingent on a future appropriation under the critical
habitat private sector matching account; including state aquatic management
areas in the outdoor recreation system; modifying certain requirements for
alternative recording of state forest roads; specifying appeals process of
property owners affected by the recording; modifying certain state timber sale
and permit requirements; providing for expedited exchanges of public land
involving the state and governmental subdivisions of the state, the
determination of the valuation of land and conveyance process, specifying
classes of land involved in expedited exchanges and status for certain classes
of land; requiring examination of title by involved parties, unanimous approval
of the land exchange board and deeds to include a reverter under certain
conditions; providing wetland bank credit under certain conditions for state
held conservation easements; authorizing county boards to convey a road easement
across unsold tax-forfeited timber land to a private entity; clarifying aquatic
farm organizations right to operate without restraint; providing for
the
disposition of proceeds of leased land in Itasca county under the land
replacement trust fund; requiring the commissioner of natural resources to
consult with the legislature on proposed forest management investment account
allotment reductions for fiscal years 2008 and 2009; adding certain lands to
Buffalo River state park in Clay county, Frontenac state park in Goodhue county,
Monson Lake state park in Swift county, Savanna Portage state park in Aitkin and
St. Louis counties, Scenic state park in Itasca county, Soudan Underground Mine
state park in St. Louis county and William O'Brien state park in Washington
county; deleting certain lands in Frontenac state park in Goodhue county, Jay
Cooke state park in Carlton county, Lake Carlos state park in Douglas county,
Lake Shetek state park in Murray county and the Moose Lake state park in Carlton
county; adding certain lands to state recreation areas in Garden Island state
recreation area in Lake of the Woods county; adding lands to Birch Lakes state
forest; authorizing St. Louis county to lease tax-forfeited land for a wind
energy project; authorizing and providing for public and private sales,
conveyances and exchanges of consolidated conservation lands, tax-forfeited
lands and surplus lands not bordering public water and bordering public water in
Aitkin, Beltrami, Roseau, St. Louis, Wadena, Carlton, Chippewa, Clearwater,
Dakota, Hennepin, Itasca, Marshall, Otter Tail, Rice, Wabasha and Washington
counties and within Carver Highlands wildlife management area in Carver county
and within Lake Louis state park in Mower county; authorizing Itasca county to
grant an easement for a certain number of years of the tax-forfeited land to the
Itasca county regional rail authority; requiring the DNR in cooperation with the
attorney general, stakeholders and a representative of the Voyageurs national
park to report to the legislature on Voyageurs national park navigable waters
under the jurisdiction of the state for enforcement purposes; repealing certain
requirements for sale and disposition of surplus state owned land and the
recording of contracts for deed and assignments

ARTICLE 2 - GAME AND
FISH

Including a citizen member of the Lessard outdoor heritage council under
the definition of public official for financial reporting and fair campaign
practices purposes; requiring the commissioner of natural resources (DNR) to
establish license and other fees to make aquaculture licensing and enforcement
self-sustaining and to develop best management practices; prohibiting the
commissioner of agriculture from issuing new aquatic farm licenses on natural
water bodies restored or subject to a protective easement or other interest in
land paid for with state or federal money, requiring applicant property owner
notification and removing a legislative reporting requirement; permitting
natural resources department (DNR) electronic licensing agents to charge and
permit agents to charge a convenience fee to individuals using electronic bank
cards for payment, requiring agents to post appropriate informational signs near
the point of payment; modifying certain provisions concerning the prohibition of
placing certain equipment containing invasive species in public waters;
modifying horse pass trail requirements; defining shelter to exclude
self-propelled motor vehicles on state waters ice and regulating shelters;
establishing a walleye fishing stamp for the purpose of increasing walleye
stocking and stamp collecting and requiring a department of natural resources
(DNR) legislative report, requiring revenue from the walleye stamp to be
credited to the walleye stamp account; requiring wild turkey management account
DNR legislative reporting; modifying the citizen oversight subcommittee wildlife
operations subcommittee duties, requiring a walleye stamp subcommittee, making
game and fish conforming amendments and specifying a walleye stamp validation
fee; establishing the outdoor heritage fund as an account in the state treasury
and providing for allocation of expenditures for the restoration, protection and
enhancement of wetlands, prairies, forests and habitat for fish, game and
wildlife; creating the Lessard outdoor heritage council, specifying membership,
requiring council recommendations to the legislature, prohibiting certain
council member conflicts of interest, requiring open meetings, specifying fund
auditing requirements, providing legislative oversight and specifying reporting
requirements, providing an effective date upon adoption of the constitutional
amendment; extending the sunset of the personnel costs expenditure prohibition
for pheasant stamp revenue in the pheasant habitat improvement account;
specifying an account dedication amount from each turkey license sold and a
turkey stamp fee and making conforming amendments; authorizing a license fee
refund for identical licenses purchased in error; permitting a separate
pictorial turkey stamp purchase; modifying moose, elk and prairie chicken
licenses eligibility; requiring residency for licenses issued without fees to
owners or tenants of agricultural land; authorizing residents under age 12 to
apply for a prairie chicken license and take prairie chicken without a firearms
safety certificate under certain conditions; modifying firearms safety
certificate provisions for taking big game, authorizing a resident age 10 or 11
to take big game under a parent or guardian license under certain conditions;
modifying and imposing certain resident and nonresident hunting fees, providing
for deer taking by muzzleloader; prescribing fees for resident and nonresident
youth to take turkey and to take deer with firearms during muzzleloader season;
eliminating the fee for a turkey stamp validation; providing for a walleye stamp
validation fee; prescribing a fee for a resident master bear hunting outfitter
license; modifying tag and license validation requirements to possess or
transport deer, bear, elk, or moose taken in the state; modifying firearms
safety certificate requirements for certain young juvenile hunters to take big
game; modifying big game firearms and ammunition regulations; imposing minimum
draw weight archery restrictions to take turkey; including bear and turkey to
game allowed for crossbow hunting during the firearms season; modifying certain
deer zones firearms and ammunition possession restrictions; modifying certain
blaze orange requirements to take small game; modifying qualifications for
crossbow permits due to a physical disability and providing for subsequent
special permit eligibility; limiting deer taking by archery while in possession
of a firearm; modifying and clarifying deer licensing requirements; modifying
regulations for taking more than one deer; permitting nonresidents to take deer
of either sex; expanding regulations for the sale of all season deer or
multizone licenses by the commissioner; clarifying deer baiting prohibitions;
modifying bear licensing and hunting permit drawing requirements, expanding bear
baiting restrictions; requiring the commissioner establish a resident master
bear hunting outfitter license, prescribing a fee and requiring the commissioner
to adopt rules; modifying hours for nighttime raccoon hunting and allowing use
certain firearms and ammunition; allowing a four week fall season for turkey
hunting in a certain area, eliminating the turkey stamp requirement; authorizing
the commissioner to allow the possession of fish on special management or
experimental waters to be prepared as a meal under certain conditions; creating
a conservation angling license, prescribing availability, daily and possession
limits for fish and fee for a license; modifying and clarifying certain fish
house, dark house and shelter regulations; authorizing an earlier open season
for spearing fish; modifying certain angling seasons; clarifying walleye and
northern pike possession provisions; modifying fish packer regulations;
increasing the legal amount of explosives allowed in certain fireworks;
requiring the commissioner of natural resources, after consultation with the
director of Explore Minnesota Tourism and stakeholders, to submit a master
angler proposal and appropriating money, to adopt bear hunting permit drawing
rules and specifying certain conditions, to provide the legislature with wild
turkey hunting management recommendations and to consult with the national wild
turkey federal, to adopt and amend certain rules, to report to the legislature
on disabled hunting, to consult with research scientists, wildlife managers,
tribal interests, other agencies with moose research and management expertise
and other key stakeholder groups on the development of a moose management and
research plan, to stock additional walleye fry in a lake to study the effects of
cormorant control and the lack of natural reproduction of the walleye, to report
to the legislature on uncased firearms for the purposes of hunting, predator
control and trapping, to amend certain rules to modify the number of cock
pheasants taken per day after a certain point in the pheasant season, and to
coordinate a working group with the commissioner of education to report on the
teaching of outdoor education in grades 7 through 12; appropriating money for
the development of aquaculture best management practices, for implementing fish
virus surveillance, prepare infrastructure for outbreaks and implement control
procedures for highest risk waters and fish production operations, and for
walleye stocking; repealing migratory waterfowl or pheasant stamp signature
requirement and certain rules

ARTICLE 3 - LAKE VERMILION STATE
PARK

Establishing Lake Vermillion state park in St. Louis county; prescribing
boundaries; requiring acquisition by the state by purchase or by gift of certain
described lands; providing annual payments for land acquisition and specifying
certain distribution requirements
(Ch. 368, 2008)