Sportsmen Take Action

Unfortunately, the Lessard-Sams Council that recommends Legacy Fund projects to the State Capitol took one on the chin in the last round of funding when they caved into interests that have tried unsuccessfully to raid the fund in the past.  Metro Parks and their team of lobbyists have been trying for the last 5 years in the hope of clawing a big chunk out of the Legacy Fund. Now, they finally did it with $2.8 million being approved by Lessard-Sams.  

The newest raider on the scene is the Minnesota Coalition of Lake Associations. This group wants boat inspections on as many lakes as possible and now wants to add decontamination stations (boat power-washers) on as many lakes as they can.  Any biologist will tell you that these are futile steps and Zebra Mussels cannot be stopped.  They are in our bait buckets, get sucked up into the internal pumps of our outboard motors, and hide between boat trailer rollers/bunks underneath boats where you just can’t flush them loose.  Inspections and boat washing would basically be on an 8:00am to 5:00pm schedule. So, all other boats launched before then and after would be missed and this does not even cover the many private boat launches on each lake. Yet, the Lake Associations submitted a whopping $25 million proposal to 2013 round of funding to the Lessard Sams Council and was approved for $3.8 million.  Surely, this raider will be back in 2014 for even more money-wasting projects.