Current Actions

Protect County Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Aid

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Gov. Walz has proposed cutting the County AIS Prevention Aid formula in his 2025 budget recommendations by 50%.

If the County AIS Prevention Aid is cut:

Property taxes on your lake place will increase to fill the budget hole,
Local jobs doing lake work will be lost,
Support for lake association programs will be lost,
AIS will spread, impacting lake ecology and diminishing recreation and fisheries,
Local tourism economy will suffer.

The data is clear, the County AIS Prevention Aid formula, started in 2014, has had a huge impact in bending the New AIS Invasion Curve. In addition MN's County AIS Prevention Aid program:

AIS Prevention Aid funded grant programs award around $1.8M annually to 200 local partner’s projects leveraging over $1.2M in additional funding.
AIS Prevention Aid programs conducted AIS surveys on over 640 lakes and rivers in 2022 resulting in 45 new AIS infestations detected in 35 Counties and reported to MN DNR.
AIS Prevention Aid supported an average of 883 jobs and leveraged 7305 hours contributed by 538 volunteers.
Networks involved 285 lake associations, over 40 conservation groups, 250 businesses, 80 schools/youth organizations and 145 local governments
Local planning and implementation efforts have been guided by 35 county AIS task forces and committees which are largely supported by county AIS plans
Enforcement by training 112 local officers who enforced AIS laws in nearly 20 counties reaching over 5,600 boaters
Communications and outreach which educated nearly 39,000 residents and visitors during nearly 190 public events, over 30 counties that taught nearly 13, 400 children about AIS prevention and 25 counties posted prevention messages on social media.

Contact your legislators and urge them to protect the County Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Aid formula. It is saving the state money, protecting resources and our resource based economy, and it is working.

Support DNR's AIS Surcharge Increase to Fund Local AIS Management Grants

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Lake associations, local communities and shoreline owners are told that they do not own the public waters and have no authority over them, but when there is a problem, such as an Aquatic Invasive Species infestation, they are handed the bill.

In Minnesota locals must pay for nearly all the AIS clean-up and management costs on the state's public water. For instance, the Lake Koronis community spends about $170,000 annually just to keep the public access usable. This model is dysfunctional, unsustainable and unjust. The MN DNR currently requires a $10.60 surcharge on a three year boat registration which provides about $400,000 in Invasive Plant Management Grants available to Tribes, Lake Associations and Local Government Units.

The 2025 Minnesota State Budget Proposal recommends increasing this surcharge to $25 for a three year boat registration (about $8.30 cents a year). This investment will more than double the AIS Management Grants. Local economies depend on lake-based recreation, and without grants the expense falls to local governments, that must either raise property taxes to pay for it, or cut local services. Lake shore residents often step in to pick up the slack and pay out of their pockets to manage the state's public waters.

MLR strongly supports this section of the budget proposal.

Support Keep It Clean Legislation to address waste left on lake ice

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 05:00:00 GMT

The invention of "wheel houses" has changed the nature of ice fishing. These new houses are vastly different than the old "ice houses" we are familiar with. They have made it possible for people to "ice camp" and spends many days and nights out on the ice. During the summer months, people camp at state parks where they have facilities for garbage and human waste dumping facilities. Now that people can comfortably camp on the ice, it is unstructured, unsupported and unregulated. There are no facilities on the ice.

In 2023 MLR supported a group of partners in the Keep It Clean effort to successfully pass legislation to prohibit the placement of garbage and human waste on or under the ice of state waters. This was a critical first step in protecting Minnesota’s ice-covered waters from the leftovers of human activity.

Through the hard work of Keep It Clean volunteers and with amazing partnerships, the coalition has attracted members representing thousands of lakes around the state, eager to take on the KEEP IT CLEAN challenge. They have developed education campaigns, participated in media events, shared free resources, and, through grant funding and donations, provided signage and waste-removal support at lake accesses.

Now it is time for the state to help support these volunteer efforts so that this new outdoor recreational opportunity can be expanded without damaging the resource - our iconic lakes. Local communities need infrastructure to handle the waste products of a growing ice camping and winter angling recreational boom.

Protect County Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention AID

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Gov. Walz, in his budget recommendations to the Minnesota Legislature for the next biennium, writes:

The Governor recommends reducing the Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Aid from $10 million to $5 million starting in FY 2027. After accounting for property tax and income tax interactions, this results in a reduction of $4.810 million in FY 2026-27 and $9.620 million in FY 2028-29. This reduction is intended to align with strategic

decisions to minimize impacts on people served while addressing responsible reductions to the state’s budget.

The current allocation of $10 million, distributed annually to counties to prevent and manage the spread of AIS, is innovative, efficient and cost effective. It provides funding to the people with the most urgency to act and leverages an estimated $8 million in local dollars and in-kind volunteer hours. The County AIS Prevention Aid formula made the national news an is a model for every state in the nation.

Good governance would suggest that we expand the program, not end it.

Cutting the county AIS Prevention Aid formula will do irreparable damage to our lakes and rivers and to the $13.5 billion dollar boating, fishing, and tourism economies that depend on healthy lake ecosystems.

Protect County Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Aid Funding

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Senator Ann Rest, Chair of the powerful Senate Taxes Committee, will be deciding if critical Aquatic Invasive Species, AIS funding is continued, or if it is phased out.

Gov. Walz has proposed cutting the County AIS Prevention Aid formula in his 2025 budget recommendations. But, before Gov. Walz's recommendation can become law, it will have to go through Senator Ann Rest's Committee.

If the County AIS Prevention Aid is cut:

Property taxes on your cabin will increase to fill the budget hole,
Local jobs doing lake work will be lost,
Support for lake association programs will be lost,
AIS will spread, impacting lake ecology and diminishing recreation and fisheries,
Local tourism economy will suffer.

Contact Sen. Ann Rest and urge her to protect the County Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Aid formula.

Support State Boating Act - Allow States to Add an AIS Surcharge to Boat Registrations

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 04:00:00 GMT

Protect AIS Funding in Minnesota.

For decades Minnesota, and a number of other states, have charged an Aquatic Invasive Species, (AIS) surcharge on boat registration to help pay for AIS prevention and management. MN currently charges $10.60 on a three year boat registration. The proceeds pay for the MN DNR's AIS program, help fund AIS research at the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center, and provide about $450,000 for Invasive Aquatic Plant Management Grants to Tribes, Lake Associations, and local governments to help pay for the management and control of AIS in lakes and rivers.

Recently the US Coast Guard informed Minnesota and the other states that this surcharge does not conform with federal law. Without this revenue, the MN Aquatic Invasive Species prevention and management program would collapse.

The State Boating Act, (S4113), introduced in the US Senate would correct the Federal language, and allow states to add an AIS Surcharge to their watercraft registration programs. This legislation is critical to protecting Minnesota's lakes and rivers, and the recreation economies and communities dependent upon them.