 November/December 2000 | ||||
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More Stories: Minnesota’s Sturgeon Resurgence Where have all the big pike gone? Where are Minnesota’s biggest bucks? Slot limits measure up on Winnie Antlerless-only permits not a solution
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Plates of gold
Donald Ney received plenty of offers for his 160 acres of cropland, pasture, and hardwoods overlooking the Minnesota River in southeastern Scott County. Individuals had approached him several times over the years offering to buy the land as a home site. Ney wasn’t interested. “We’ve always wanted to see this land preserved for wildlife,” he says. “We wanted to make sure people could always hunt there and watch birds.” Conservation groups such as Pheasants Forever had been interested, too. If converted to prairie, the upland would make prime nesting habitat for pheasants and wild turkeys--not to mention meadowlarks and other ground-nesting songbirds. And the bluffs were prime deer habitat. But the land was valued at roughly $400,000--a price tag too steep even if several groups chipped in. The DNR had noticed the Ney land as well. Fred Harris, an ecologist with the agency’s Minnesota County Biological Survey, had identified the hardwoods as part of one of the last big stands of Big Woods forest communities remaining in the region. “It’s a real nice tract of mature maple, basswood, and red oak, with a diverse assemblage of wildflowers,” says Harris, who surveyed the area in 1998. “There are not all that many places like that left in the Big Woods Region.” In the past, the agency has often lacked funds to buy prime parcels of wildlife habitat such as the Ney property. But in 1996, the state created the Minnesota conservation license plate to generate revenue for just such purchases as part of the DNR’s Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Critical Habitat Match Program. Kim Hennings, program coordinator, says the conservation license plates have just recently broken the $2 million mark in revenue generated for wildlife habitat. “That’s a lot of money that wasn’t going into the land just a few years ago,” says Hennings. He says license plate dollars helped the DNR buy the Ney property earlier this year and designate it as a public wildlife management area (WMA). “Mr. Ney actually sold the land to us for about half of what it was worth,” Hennings says. “If not for his donation, and the license plate money, we wouldn’t have been able to buy it.” Hennings also credits the Scott County Chapter of Pheasants Forever for contributing $5,000 and helping bring Ney and the DNR together on the deal. The special license plates, featuring two deer by a lake on a tan background, first went on sale in 1996 with the support of Minnesota’s major conservation groups. The plates cost $40 the first year and $30 each year to renew. So far, more than 25,000 people have purchased plates. The money generated by the plates goes into the RIM Critical Habitat Match Program. Under the program, which is widely supported by environmentalists, hunters, and anglers, the DNR can draw from a special RIM account to match donations of land or cash to buy public land critical for fish, wildlife, and native plants. In this way, says Hennings, each dollar generated by the plates is actually doubled by a donation coming in from landowners, conservation clubs, or others who contribute to the RIM program. The license plate revenue is helping the DNR match a backlog of donations from citizens and private organizations. In addition to the Scott County wildlife area, the RIM conservation license plates have helped purchase WMAs in Fillmore, Itasca, Norman, Morrison, and Anoka counties. Two aquatic management areas along lakes in St. Louis and Crow Wing counties have been purchased with conservation license plate dollars, and a statewide bald eagle survey was funded with matching money from private donations to the DNR’s Nongame Checkoff Program. “We’ve got a bunch of additional projects in the works right now, including one of the best natural areas in western Anoka County,” says Hennings. As for Donald Ney, he’s happy knowing that his family’s property is now in good hands and will be available to the public from here on out. “This time of year you can look out and see the river, and it’s real pretty up there,” he says. “I’m hoping that now a lot more people can enjoy that view and the wildlife that’s up there.” | |||
