Minnesota legislative auditor opens probe of DNR's oversight of public hunting lands

The Minnesota Legislative Auditor's office has launched a preliminary probe into the Department of Natural Resource's oversight of the state's large network of wildlife management areas. Katherine Theisen, director of special reviews for the office, said DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen was notified of the action this week.

Theisen said the so called preliminary assessment will help determine whether the office should conduct a special review that would result in a public report. "It's a standard part of the process … to determine how to best use our resources," Theisen said. According to a document obtained by the Star Tribune, certain DNR field staff already have received data practices notices from the auditor's office.

The notices alert them to interview possibilities. The auditor's inquiry is related to concerns raised in public of allegedly inappropriate or possibly illegal timber harvest. By law, any logging on federally subsidized wildlife management areas (WMA) must be for wildlife purposes. But critics of the DNR's Sustainable Timber Harvest program have been saying for nearly five years that the program's hard cord targets often serve the wood products industry while sometimes damaging wildlife habitats.

Shortly before the auditor's office decided to look into DNR's oversight of WMAs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service incorporated more detailed conditions for DNR to keep receiving millions of dollars in Pittman Robertson Act grant money for the betterment of wildlife habitat on those lands.

The properties, scattered around the state and totaling more than 1.3 million acres, are generally open for hunting, hiking, bird watching, wildlife photography and other recreation. The parcels were acquired and improved over decades with money from license sales and excise taxes related to hunting and fishing.

As detailed last month in a new $17.5 million grant letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the DNR must show, in advance, how each new timber sale on federal aid land will improve wildlife habitat. DNR Fish and Wildlife Division Director Dave Olfelt said Thursday that the latest wildlife habitat grant conditions are "more clear and specific than the last set." Olfelt said the requirements were developed collaboratively to address previously ambiguous language, but a pair of former DNR field employees likened the conditions to an "ankle bracelet" or "probation." Regarding the latest development, DNR spokeswoman Gail Nosek released the following statement Friday afternoon: "The Minnesota DNR is aware that the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) is initiating a preliminary assessment of DNR's oversight of wildlife management areas.

We value the role of the OLA and will, of course, cooperate fully. We are confident in the terrific work our staff do in managing WMAs and the work we've done with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We look forward to the results of the OLA's assessment.".