Ensure Wetland Replacement Rules Stay

Within the Scope of the 2007 Law Changes

 

The MICA Board of Directors urges the 2008 Legislature to carefully monitor the adoption of permanent rules for the Wetlands Conservation Act (WCA) changes enacted in 2007.  The MICA Board of Directors further urges that a comprehensive wetland assessment, monitoring and mapping strategy needs to be implemented.

 

The Wetlands Conservation Act (WCA) has governed wetlands policy in Minnesota for over 15 years.  The act establishes a “no net loss” policy for wetlands but somewhat contradictorily establishes a number of exemptions to that policy including significant exemptions for agriculture and forestry.  Counterbalancing these generous exemptions are expensive replacement requirements that in many instances require affected entities like counties to replace each one acre of wetlands destroyed with 2 (or more) acres of wetlands restored or created. 

 

The Board of Water and Soil Resources is now in the process of promulgating permanent rules that will spell out the details of required replacement ratios and what qualifies for credit against those replacement requirements.  The rules, far more than the law, dictate the practical impact and costs of the state’s wetland conservation policies.  As such, the promulgation of those rules needs to be carefully monitored so they do not go beyond the 2007 Legislature’s narrow expansion of the WCA’s reach.

 

Before the new rules’ promulgation, MICA thinks it is important to first document where the state is at in its current wetland preservation efforts.  The state and federal governments have made considerable investment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program as well as other natural resources land acquisition programs that by the Board of Water and Soil Resource’s own count has added 45,000 acres of wetlands to the state’s inventory in the 2001 to 2003 period, more that offsetting the approximately 2,500 acres that were reported lost during that period.  If this is accurate reflection of wetland conversion and preservation, it is unnecessary to place further unfunded, wetland-preservation mandates on counties.  The only way to make that determination is for a comprehensive wetland assessment, monitoring and mapping strategy to be implemented.  This is a necessary “first step” before making any changes in the state’s wetland replacement policies.

 

Require the DNR to Follow the 60-Day Rule

for Public Waters Wetland Work Permits

and Spell Out by Rule Its Mitigation Standards

 

The MICA Board of Directors urges the 2008 Legislature to impose the same standards on the DNR for its processing of Public Waters Wetland Work Permits as currently apply to local government units administering the Wetlands Conservation Act.

 

Local governments sometimes encounter lengthy and costly delays in the processing of permits for work in “public waters wetlands.” The Department of Natural Resources is in charge of permitting work in “public waters wetlands.”  Unlike the local government units (LGU’s) administering the Wetlands Conservation Act (WCA) for wetlands not designated as “public waters wetlands,” the DNR has no statutory deadline for when it has to process permit applications for work in public waters wetlands.  The same 60 day rule should apply to them as currently applies for replacement plan applications, banking plan applications, and exemption or no-loss determination requests under the WCA.  Furthermore, while the mitigation standards for wetlands governed under the WCA are clearly spelled out by rule in terms of replacement ratios and what qualifies for credit against those replacement requirements, no similar standards are dictated by rule for the DNR.  This leads to arbitrary requirements being imposed as a condition of the work permits.  This inconsistency must be rectified.