While I no longer live in the state of Minnesota, I've followed the process the state is using to pick a new flag. Most puzzling were comments in the media by flag commission members about how it would be inappropriate to have a loon--the state bird--on Minnesota's new state flag because the real bird isn't found in the southern part of the state.
That was news to me.
As a child growing up on the shores of Le Sueur County's Lake Emily, I was thrilled whenever I heard or saw migrating loons on their way to and from their breeding grounds in Northern Minnesota.
Fortunately, a Star Tribune reader shared the same thought. In the latest letters to the editor section, Jason McGrath writes:
The chair of the State Emblems Redesign Commission says the loon "doesn't really represent the people of Minnesota everywhere in the state" ("Why the new flag won't have a loon on it," Nov. 29). Earlier, commission member Bjorn Olson, a state representative from Fairmont, said, "I've never seen a loon in southern Minnesota" ("Flag fans cry fowl over lack of loons," Nov. 23).
Maybe Rep. Olson isn't looking hard enough, as the eBird website shows multiple sightings of loons right there in Fairmont, on both Budd Lake and Hall Lake. In fact, during spring, loons can be seen all over Minnesota, including in the Twin Cities and south.
But beyond that, "not common in all parts of the state" is a ridiculous standard. Are grizzly bears a routine sight for residents across California? No. But it's one of the few American state flags that just about anyone across the country can bring to mind immediately. It represents all Californians not because they see bears daily but because it's on the state flag and it shows all Californians' regard for the state's natural heritage. How could that not be obvious?
Another rare state that has a flag known across the country? Texas. Memo to the Minnesota commission: There's already a Lone Star State.
The best design was a variation on the North Star design that had a beautiful profile of a loon in white between blue water below and a green background above (submission F590). The commission should reconsider its absurd and inaccurate "everywhere in the state" standard and go back to the pool instead of sticking with the mostly bland and repetitive designs it's now calling the finalists. I live in Minneapolis and don't see loons that often, but I never feel more Minnesotan than when I go to one of our many splendid state parks in summer and hear the cries of the loons across a tranquil lake.
Jason McGrath, Minneapolis
Jason is a friend, and when I saw his wife sharing on social media that the letter was being drafted, I asked him to check on eBird to see if the common loon still visits Lake Emily. I reprint the letter with his permission.
It's a number of counties east of Martin County, but indeed a loon had been spotted at Lake Emily on April 28, 2018 (I won't republish the screenshot McGrath sent me, since it contains the user's name; I have no desire to dox a stranger).
It's likely other loons have passed through when no eBird member was there to witness them.
As for Bjorn Olson, I'll simply file his thoughts about loons in the same folder as his musings about ditch mowing Bluestem explored in the post In House transportation committee, Bjorn Olson hostile to state right-of-way & ditch mowing law.
Image: A loon and a star combine in submission F408 for Minnesota’s revised state flag. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society/ via St. Paul Pioneer Press, Here are some interesting and offbeat submissions for MN’s new flag and seal, by Molly Guthrey).This isn't the flag Jason recommends.
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