While those Republican who love placebaiting about pastoral virtues over decadent values in the evil metro often wax lyrical about hunting as a rural resident pleasure, the truth about deer hunters in Minnesota is more complicated. Those buying hunting permits are just as likely to be metro residents as hearty yeoman near Roseau.
On Monday, the DNR sent out a press release on the new state deer plan, and a series of 35 public comment meetings, the Outdoor News reported that day in State deer plan public meetings start April 16.
A Dakota County lawmaker noticed something discriminatory about that--and brought it up in the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee:
35 public input meetings. One in Rosemount and one in Shakopee. Epic Fail again IGNORING the metro area. Where do deer hunters live? 2015 data pic.twitter.com/rncoLGod4q
— Rep. Rick Hansen (@reprickhansen) April 10, 2018
.@reprickhansen shares a map showing where deer hunters live in MN based on zipcode. Highest numbers of hunters live in Hennepin County, followed by St Louis and other metro counties. #mnleg #enviro @MNDeerHunters pic.twitter.com/QWJkf2zUZI
— Jamie Becker-Finn (@jbeckerfinn) April 10, 2018
Here's video of the discussion (there's a classic moment when Minneapolis DFLer Jean Wagenius that at one time when hunters per legislative district were enumerated, her district was on top):
Later, Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South Saint Paul), Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn (DFL-Roseville) and Rep. Fue Lee (DFL-Minneapolis) released the following statement:
“More white-tail deer hunting licenses are issued in Hennepin County than anywhere else in the state. To hold 35 meetings on deer management across Minnesota, but not hold a single meeting in Hennepin County or Ramsey County ignores a significant number of hunters. If we are truly committed to engaging more people in Minnesota's outdoor traditions and reaching out to people of color, women and younger generations, we must do better than scheduling nearly all of the meetings outside of urban and suburban areas. If we’re going to reverse the decline of those who hunt and fish, we must engage all Minnesotans, especially people of color, new immigrant populations and younger people in the seven-county metro region.”
The DNR added a new section to the list of meetings in Be part of Minnesota's deer planning process:
Metropolitan area (more being scheduled)
On Monday, Metro wasn't even a category in the list.
Screengrab: Rep. Rick Hansen illustrates where the deer hunters are.
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