Back on February 6, Bluestem reported in Dominant culture: Lueck gets in a huff about proposal aimed at getting kids into the outdoors that the Aitken County Republican state representative was offended on the part of local environmental education center:
The day after the [House Environment and Natural Resources Policy] committee meeting, Lueck said in an interview that he took offense on behalf of the people at his local outdoors outfit, the Long Lake Conservation Center near Palisade. He perceived that Becker-Finn attacked the ability of those organizations to conduct diverse outreach.
Interestingly enough, Aitkin County Land Commissioner Rich Courtemanche showed up yesterday to support the bill at a special informational hearing at an informational hearing Friday in the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, which met at the Dodge Nature Center in West St. Paul, according to KARE 11's John Croman in New push to get for children outdoors:
Aitken [sic] County Land Commissioner Rich Courtemanche told the panel that many school districts have backed away from the multiple-day trips to environmental learning centers such as Long Lake Conservation Center in north central Minnesota.
He said Long Lake averaged 6,000 student visitors per year before the Great Recession, and now that's down to 3,500 per year even though the economy recovered.
"Since 2010 budget shortfalls have eliminated nearly all funding for environmental education. Environmental learning centers throughout the state are feeling the pinch," Courtemanche explained.
He said if the trend continues there's a risk the next generation won't value the outdoors or understand the relationship between nature and people.
While the Aitkin County Land Commissioner was at the hearing, committee member Lueck was far, far away. At the Brainerd Dispatch, Gabriel Lagarde reports in Eggs & Issues forum participants talk scrambled politics in St. Paul:
The Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce's Eggs & Issues forum is an annual breakfast and interactive panel discussion featuring Brainerd lakes area legislators Friday morning, Feb. 15, at Madden's Resort on Gull Lake.
The panel included state Reps. Josh Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, John Poston, R-Lake Shore, and Dale Lueck, R-Aitkin, . . .
Both Heintzeman and Lueck serve on the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division, but apparently scrambing politics with the local chamber of commerce was more important than hearing testimony in a committee, even if a local official traveled all the way from Aitkin County to a nature center in West St. Paul to give testimony.
Perhaps Lueck can catch up by listening to the audio of the hearing.
Here's the clip of John Croman's story for KARE-11:
We see Fosston Republican Steve Green at the hearing and commend him for attending. We'll be interested interested in reading the roll call to see which members of the division showed up.
Screenshot: State representative Steve Green, R-Fosston, listening attentively to the hearing. Via KARE-11. Correction: Bluestem originally posted another photo of Green that was not from the KARE 11 story. We apologize for the error.
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