Most of us are eager and happy to see local businesses succeed and do well. Healthy businesses mean healthy economies and healthy, robust communities with more opportunities for all.
But how much are we willing to sacrifice for that? Are we willing to lose a trout stream or other natural resources and assets that, really, belong to all of us?
Such questions suddenly are swirling around the popular Lutsen Mountains ski resort, Cook County’s wintertime economic engine. A report on Monday revealed that for years the resort pumped as much as eight times the amount of water it was legally allowed to from a trout stream to make snow and to extend its money-making ski seasons. A permit allowed Lutsen to take up to 12.6 million gallons annually from the Poplar River. Last year it sucked up more than 100 million gallons.
And what did the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources do about it? Not a darn thing.
OK, that’s not completely accurate; the DNR — the same khaki-wearing body that’ll bust you and me for having an extra fishing line in the water — “chose to negotiate with the company,” as Minnesota Public Radio reported. And kept on negotiating even as “the company continued to increase the amount of water it took from the stream.”
And not just any stream, but a trout stream important as a spawning habitat, according to Steve Persons, a DNR fisheries supervisor from Grand Marais. Steelhead trout, salmon and the rare native coaster brook trout all use the Poplar River and other North Shore streams to reproduce, relying on their constant and consistent flows of water, even during winter months.
To its credit, the DNR acknowledges its oversight was a failure that may have threatened what should be a state-protected waterway.
Comments (6)
Add commentThere also was a comment that
There also was a comment that was NO fully grown trout living in that part of the stream because the natural conditions aren't very good for trout, with or without water use be Lutsen..
The DNR should go jump in the lake, at the current pace of the strong-armed DNR tactics there won't be a single job in rural MN and all the lutsen workers can go to MSP and die from liberal pollution in the concrete jungle of the city that has already destoyed MN premier farmlands.
THE DNR should be permantly cut from funding.. They don't trust MN hunters to harvest Deer sustainably on their own, because they ain't smart enough and would just go and kill em all those crazy hunters.(thats our DNR) making ridiculous laws on how I can shoot a coyote on my farm-- what a flippn waste of tax money
Streams are important habitat
Streams are important habitat for all parts of the trouts lifecycle.
Not finding adult trout living in a stretch of stream does NOT indicate that that stretch isn't important to trout. Trout spawn in streams that do not support them in other parts of their lifecycle but without that spawning area there would be no trout in other places.
Some species of trout spawn in fall and depend on water flow to incubate the eggs and sustain the fry during winter.
Whoever approved this in the DNR should be signing up for unemployment.
Place the blame where it belongs
in the hands of the legislators who Charlie has the ear of, and the higher ups in DNR who refused to fight for what was right. The rank and file staff are never surprised by these things, they know all about them as they tried to do something about it long ago but were stymied due to political pressure.
Bakk and Dille might be a good place to start.
more government!
The solution to this problem is obviously centralizing more power and money in St Paul.
Dump Bakk and Dill.
Yes dumping Tom Bakk and David Dill would be a great start.
Tom Bakk has a bill that would force taxpayers to pay for the multi-million dollar irrigation system if the ski resort is forced to comply with state regulations.