From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Jul 10 14:32 UTC
Short link
See:
http://environment.umn.edu/scpp/finalplan.html
Executive Summary
Statewide Conservation and Preservation Plan
Final Plan – Phase II
June 30, 2008
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Executive Summary
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Th e remarkable place known as Minnesota is
situated at the convergence of the Great Lakes, the
Great Rivers, and the Great Plains. Th e citizens of
Minnesota cherish and take pride in the abundant
and varied natural resources of this place. We
also value our quality of life and our standard of
living, and desire the same for our children. All of
these values and desires are intricately connected:
Continued economic prosperity depends on a
healthy and sustainable environment, and vice versa.
To foster the conditions we value, we must balance
long-term plans for conserving and protecting our
priceless natural resources with those for ensuring
a healthy public and healthy economy. Th is
document, the Minnesota Statewide Conservation
and Preservation Plan (SCPP), lays out a deliberate
strategy for doing so in a unifi ed, integrated fashion,
using an interdisciplinary approach with multiple
perspectives and expertise.
Th e Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota
Resources (LCCMR) funded a unique partnership
among the University of Minnesota and the
consulting fi rms of Bonestroo and CR Planning
to evaluate the state’s natural resources, identify
key issues aff ecting those resources, and make
recommendations for improving and protecting
them. More than 125 experts, including University
scientists and public and private natural resource
planners and professionals, participated in the 18-
month eff ort.
Th e team addressed Minnesota’s statutorily defi ned
natural resources of air, water, land, wildlife, fi sh,
and outdoor recreation in two distinct phases. In
Phase I, it assessed the past and present condition of
the six natural resources, described (where possible)
drivers of change immediately impacting them,
and identifi ed key issues that could be addressed
to protect and conserve them in an integrated
fashion. In Phase II, the team addressed the key
issues in depth, developing recommendations that
would positively impact as many natural resources
as possible while taking into account demographic
change, public health, economic sustainability,
and climate change. Th ese recommendations
were then synthesized into a framework with fi ve
strategic areas. Recommendations were identifi ed
as being either policy and action recommendations
(those that could be put into eff ect directly by the
legislature) or recommendations that add to our
knowledge infrastructure, (research needs, data
gathering and monitoring needs, or educational
activities). Th e steps and outcomes are shown
in Figure 1, Process and Outcomes of Statewide
Conservation and Preservation Plan.
Initially the team identifi ed drivers of change that
negatively impact each natural resource. Th ese
included both proximate drivers (e.g., nutrient
loading impacting water quality) and higher-order
drivers (e.g., shoreline development causing the
nutrient loading that impacts water quality). It
developed a map that showed these relationships,
and then used a matrix prioritization process to
objectively identify the key issues that, if addressed,
would benefi t the greatest number of natural
resources to the greatest degree. Th e seven key areas
identifi ed were:
• Land and water habitat fragmentation,
degradation, loss, and conversion
• Land-use practices
• T ransportation
• E nergy production and use
• Toxic contaminants
• I mpacts on resource consumption
• Invasive species
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Each of these key issues is more fully described in
the preliminary plan. Because of time constraints, a
subset of these issues was chosen for investigation in
the second phase of the project. Th e key issues for
which recommendations are made in this report are:
• Land and water habitat fragmentation,
degradation, loss, and conversion
• Land-use practices
• T ransportation
• E nergy production and use, and mercury as a
toxic contaminant related to energy production
Figure 2, Natural Resource Values Assessment
of Recommendations, shows the action or policy
recommendations for each of the key issues, arranged
according to the degree of integrated benefi ts across
all values associated with natural resources. Th is
gives an overall snapshot of how much integrated
value a given recommendation has. For example, the
fi rst recommendation under the key issue of Habitat
Loss has signifi cant impact across the majority of the
resource values, and has little impact on air quality
and human health. Th is fi gure also identifi es which
recommendations benefi t a given resource value
the most (e.g., Habitat and Land-Use Practices:
Forestry recommendations have the most impact on
Biodiversity).
Th e framework is shown in more detail in Figure
3, Strategic Framework for Integrated Resource
Conservation and Preservation. Th e fi ve strategic
areas, identifi ed at the top of the fi ve boxes, include:
• Integrated Planning
• Critical Land Protection
• L and & Water Restoration
• Sustainable Practices
• E conomic Incentives for Sustainability
Recommendations for each of these strategic
areas are listed within a given box. Action or
policy recommendations are at the top, with
recommendations having the broadest impact
across multiple resources listed fi rst, followed
by those that are more targeted or specifi c in
their scope. Recommendations for building the
knowledge infrastructure for that strategic area
are at the bottom of the box. Th ese are ordered
according to the key issue they address. All of these
recommendations are described in detail in the fi nal
plan.
Th is framework is a comprehensive and integrated
environmental strategic plan. Th e recommendations
taken together provide a holistic look, and are not
meant to be viewed in isolation or to be acted on in
a piecemeal fashion. Each of the strategic areas is
summarized below.
Strategic Areas
Integrated Planning
Natural resource management is interwoven
within a larger fabric of economic health, complex
regulatory frameworks, human health, and changing
demographics and climate. No one agency can
address this comprehensively, nor can it be done
in individual agency stovepipes. In addition, there
are multijurisdictional responsibilities on the
geographic scale, from communities to small units
of government to soil and watershed districts to
statewide agencies.
Planning, whether for transportation, energy,
community development, water resources,
agriculture, or forestry, should be integrated across
all agencies and across the multijurisdictional
scale. Doing so can make planning more effi cient
by removing redundancies. Our strongest, most
eff ective federal environmental laws require crossagency
review or partnership, and this approach
should be embraced on the state level for holistic
natural resource protection.
Our recommendations address land-use practices,
transportation policy, and energy production and use
policy as related to natural resource protection. For
Final Plan – Phase II Executive Summary
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example, we specifi cally recommend the development
of a State Land Use, Development, and Investment
Guide to align investment objectives across
social, environmental, and economic sectors. We
recommend that the state embrace a conservationbased
community planning approach. Enhanced
cross-consultation in governance and planning
for transportation, land development, and energy
projects is essential for protecting and conserving
our natural resources.
Critical Land Protection
Be it farmland, wetlands, greenways in urban areas,
or forestland, a clear and comprehensive strategy
must be developed that establishes long-term and
short-term protection and acquisition priorities. An
array of perspectives should inform this strategy,
integrating needs for biodiversity protection, critical
agricultural land protection, ecological services,
recreational opportunities, and opportunities for
climate change adaptation and/or mitigation.
Th is strategy should build on the excellent work
already accomplished by Campaign for Conservation,
the DNR critical habitat studies, the Metro- and
Outstate Conservation Corridors initiatives,
and the work of many nonprofi t land-protection
organizations.
Our recommendations in this strategic area focus on
the protection by easement or acquisition of critical
stream and lake shorelines, priority land habitats,
and large blocks of forestland.
Land and Water Restoration
Th is strategic area addresses both the restoration of
critical land and water habitat and the protection of
strategic land and water habitat that has not yet been
degraded. It not only addresses the inherent and
intrinsic direct benefi ts of habitat restoration and
protection, but also emphasizes the benefi ts of such
strategy for strengthening biodiversity and enhancing
resilience to climate change. Th e recommendations
in this area reinforce and strengthen Minnesota
cultural values, ethics, appreciation of outdoor
recreation, and economic health.
Th e recommendations include specifi c actions
to restore shallow lakes, wetlands and wetland
associated watersheds, and the habitats contained
within lakes and rivers, as well as actions to protect
critical landscapes.
Sustainability Practice
A healthy environment requires a health economy,
and a sustainable economy requires a sustainable
environment. To reach both goals requires
promoting, facilitating, encouraging, and regulating
as appropriate practices that will lead to a sustainable
environment and economy. Th ese sustainable
practices must cross multiple fronts—sustainable
agriculture, sustainable forestry, sustainable water
resources, and sustainable economy and standard
of living, all in the context of energy production,
shifting demographics, and climate change.
Specifi c recommendations promote the sustainable
management of forestlands and action to keep
water on the landscape—including a critical review
of drainage policy and actions to move water more
slowly across and through the landscape to return to
more natural conditions to reduce fl ooding, improve
water quality, and improve biological diversity
through habitat protection.
Economic Incentives for Sustainable Society
Moving toward sustainable practice requires specifi c
incentives to move the state and its citizens and
stakeholders in a transformative direction. Th ere
are broad-scale ideas for achieving a sustainable
economy specifi cally through natural resource
policy: Specifi c natural resource policy, energy policy,
Executive Summary Final Plan – Phase II
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agricultural policy, forestry policy, and transportation
policy can be used to grow and nurture Minnesota’s
economic future. For example, the team recommends
the development and implementation of incentive
programs to develop renewable energy programs and
to promote a successful transition of Minnesota’s
vehicle fl eet to electric power.
Minnesotans share a vision for a healthy and
sustainable future. Th is framework of strategic
recommendations is a collective roadmap for moving
forward to achieve this future.
Final Plan – Phase II Executive Summary