Court rejects fishing regulation challenge; bill in Outdoors Wrecks will show them who's the boss

Update: Bob Collins has more in Court upholds DNR fish restrictions on Mille Lacs, including a pdf link to Judge Minge's opinion, along with other good things. [end update].

Doug Smith at the Star Tribune reports in Court of appeals rejects challenge to Mille Lacs fishing regulations:

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has rejected a challenge to the Lake Mille Lacs fishing regulations by a group of local residents and resort owners.

The court ruled Tuesday against a suit filed by Save Mille Lacs Sportsfishing challenging the validity of fishing rules imposed by the Department of Natural Resources last year. Among those rules was a night fishing ban, a two-fish walleye limit and a restriction allowing anglers to only keep walleyes between 18 and 20 inches.

Erick Kaardal, a Minneapolis attorney for the Mille Lacs group, argued that the DNR hadn’t considered the 1998 constitutional amendment ensuring Minnesotans’ right to hunt and fish when it developed the fishing regulations. The court agreed the DNR didn’t state on the record that it considered the amendment before adopting the fishing regulations, but the three-judge panel said it believed the agency considered the amendment’s objective.

Besides, the court argued, the DNR’s failure to cite or consider the amendment doesn’t affect the validity of the regulations. . . .

Said Chris Niskanen, DNR communications director: “It’s clear the court felt we were following our statutory authority. The agency is dedicated to preserving the values set forth in the constitutional amendment, and that means using good science to set the fishing limits.”

Kaardal said his group doesn’t plan to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, and will instead work to get the Legislature to pass a law requiring the DNR to consider, in writing, the constitutional amendment when it makes rules and regulations. Such a bill already has been introduced in the House. . . .

That bill is HF 395, authored by freshman legislator Dale Lueck, an Aitkin Republican who serves as Vice-Chair of the Mining and Outdoor Recreation Committee. It was pulled from consideration by the committee in Tuesday's meeting. From the committee's page today:

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

2:45 PM

Room: 10 State Office Building

Chair: Rep. Tom Hackbarth

Agenda:

If you would like to testify on HF 382, please e-mail Committee Legislative Assistant Claire Leiter at [email protected].

The hearing of HF 395 has been temporarily postponed.

Bills:

HF382 - (Erickson): Lake Mille Lacs; Report on management costs for fisheries required.

Bills Removed:

HF 395 - (Lueck): Commissioner of natural resources required to consider the impact on the state's hunting and fishing when adopting rules and making funding decisions. ...

We'll be watching this one, since it seems to attribute sinister anti-fishing motives to the DNR when we doubt they exist. (Senator Carrie Ruud is the author of SF449, the Senate version).

The other Mille Lacs walleye bill

The committee did hear another bill related to the walleye fishery in Mille Lacs. Session Daily's Jonathan Mohr reports in Bill calls for reporting of DNR fisheries management on Mille Lacs:

A yearly report detailing how much money the Department of Natural Resources spends managing fisheries in Lake Mille Lacs is the goal of a bill heard by the House Mining and Outdoor Recreation Policy Committee Tuesday.

HF382, which was laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill and has no Senate companion [we found it in on the revisor's page], would direct the DNR to outline fisheries management costs related to the 1837 treaty giving the United States territory that had belonged to the Chippewa nation. In exchange, the Chippewa kept certain hunting and fishing privileges. These have been the cause of some controversy during the years, including a court case that culminated in a 1999 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of the Chippewa.

Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton), who sponsors HF382 and represents a portion of Lake Mille Lacs, told members she is asked frequently by her constituents about the cost of managing the lake’s fisheries, but the last time the DNR had reported these costs to her was 10 years ago and the amount was over $1 million.

“This is a bill about transparency and accountability,” Erickson said.

With the challenges brought by the decline in walleye population on Lake Mille Lacs and the ongoing regulatory response to those issues, Erickson said her bill would “preserve the integrity” all state agencies should have. She also offered an amendment, which was adopted, that would make the report available on the DNR’s website.

Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) asked Erickson why a law was needed.

“Can’t we just get this information without having to pass a law,” he said. “It seems like the DNR should be forthcoming and should be very willing to provide information.”

Erickson said she preferred not to legislate the issue and hoped the bill would begin a discussion that propelled the DNR to begin producing the report.

Don Pereira, DNR fisheries chief, told the committee it shouldn’t be difficult for the agency to provide the data but that there would be a fiscal impact and the DNR “will probably have to proceed to do a fiscal note if this bill passes and we’re required to make this report.”

There's a lot of discussion starting here, but as with so much the new Republican majority in the Minnesota House wants, there's not much talk about the cost of these agendas.

Photo: A walleye. Something's fishy about these arguments and it's probably not the DNR.

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