Protecting Rivers in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area

Rod Squires, University of Minnesota

Caveat

Not talking about environmental concerns or human health concerns – protecting the quantity and quality of water

Land management concerns – adjacent riparian areas – from uses incompatible with the use of the river

How have we managed riparian resources in a metropolitan area?

Landscape as Reflections of Ourselves

“Our human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, or aspirations, and even our fears, in tangible, visible form.... All our cultural warts and blemishes are there, and our glories too; but above all, our ordinary day-to-day qualities are exhibited for anybody who wants to find them and knows how to look for them”

(Peirce Lewis "Axioms for reading the landscape, some Guides to the American Scene" in Donald Meinig (ed.) Interpretations of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979)

The Temporal Context

• The accommodations that have been made among stakeholders

The observable results of past actions that provide a frame for the present

• The accommodations that are currently being made among stakeholders

• The accommodations that will have to be made among stakeholders in the future

As we “muddle through”

Generalizations v Case Studies

For years I have performed a balancing act between

• Describing details of particular places – limited geographic applicability

• Making generalizations to make my work relevant to a wider audience – limited applicability to any particular place

A Paradigm for Landscapes

Public Acquisition of Private Rights Public Coercion of Private Rights

Fee interests RegulationLease Financial coercion – taxes, loans, grantsPartial interests Infrastructure – e.g. public works

Information – e.g. public record Eminent Domain

Tax Foreclosure

Public Land Private Land

A Paradigm for Landscapes

Public Acquisition of Private Rights Public Coercion of Private Rights

Mississippi River National Recreation Area

St. Croix Wild and Scenic River Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Public Land Private Land

Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (1988)

The Mississippi River -

“an unmistakable symbol of this nation”“One of the most recognized historic

transportation routes”“of spiritual importance to Native

Americans”“Provides recreational opportunities to

millions of people every year”

The Mississippi River -

“a working river”“a vital commercial transportation link to

national and international markets, providing safe, low-cost movement of bulk commodities in river barges”

“a source of water, and a sometime sewer”

Demands upon it have often been in conflict, and attempts to manage its resources have frequently challenged state agencies, local governments,

organizations, and area citizens

P.L. 100-996 Nov. 18 1988

Purpose

• To protect, preserve, and enhance the environmental values of the Mississippi River

• To encourage cooperation between the federal, state, and local governments

• To provide – “a management framework to assist the state of Minnesota and local units of

government in the development and implementation of integrated resource management programs and to ensure orderly public and private development in the area”

A Partnership Park (Wikipedia)

72 miles of the Mississippi River and 4 miles of the Minnesota

Includes 54,000 acres of land on both banks – coincides with the state’s Mississippi River Critical Area Corridor

Chosen as one of twenty pilot parks to initiate the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let’s Move Outside campaign

Comprehensive Management Plan (1995) adopts and incorporates the state critical area program, shorelands program, and other applicable state and regional land use management programs that implement the visions and concepts identified for the corridor

This plan does not create another layer of government, but rather stresses the use of existing authorities and agencies to accomplish the policies and actions developed for the area

The MNRRA legislation specified that NPS regulatory authority only applies to lands that the National Park Service owns envisioned in this plan to be less than 50 acres

The Science Museum of Minnesota houses the Mississippi River National Center

Wikipedia

Sewage Treatment Plant

Aggregate Mining Operations

As of February 22, 2010, federal legislation allows people who can legally possess firearms under applicable federal, state, and local

laws, to legally possess firearms in the park

St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (1968)

St. Croix and Namegakan 252 miles of water to confluence with Mississippi

• Upper 200 miles – one of the eight original wild and scenic rivers, managed by National Park Service – the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act

• Lower 52 miles added in 1972 – 10 miles “scenic” and 42 miles “recreational” – managed by the National Park Service, the Minnesota DNR and the Wisconsin DNR

Upper St. Croix

The act added a new type of national park unit, the riverway, called “long sinuous areas with complicated management problems” (Dilsaver, 1994 270), to the existing diversity of units in the park system

Land Acquisition

Acquire fee title within riverway• Purchase - 25 year or life estate, no more than 100 acres/mile of river• Donations of public lands• Exchanges only within one state• Condemnation not allowed in municipalities or if 50% land already in public

ownership Scenic easements

“The story of land acquisition on the Saint Croix would become a saga of controversy and frustration for both the National Park Service and residents of the riverway. Due to conflicting interpretations of the enabling legislation, Congressional restrictions and, most importantly, a perennial shortage of funds, land acquisition remained a constant source of difficulty from 1969 to 1992 (Karamanski, 114)

Lower St. Croix River Management Plan

National Park Service land acquisition authority is limited to the upper 27 miles of the riverway containing 25,346 acres – 9,542 acres owned in fee or encumbered with scenic/conservation easements

“The river borders the eastern boundary of the Minneapolis-St. Paul urban areas and is within easy access of over 2 million people. Ironically, it is this accessibility which places in jeopardy the features which make this river an outstanding natural resource.” Senator Henry Jackson

The lower portion – 15, 804 acres mostly privately owned – protected by a combination of state shoreland standards, local government zoning, and scenic easements

Major Issue with St. Croix

St. Croix River Crossing Project, Minnesota and Wisconsin (FHWA)

St. Croix River Crossing Project (MNDoT)

St. Croix Bridge dealt a big blow (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oct. 15, 2010)

Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge (1976)

One of four urban national wildlife refuges in the nation

Provide habitat for migratory waterfowl, fish, and other wildlife

Currently comprises more than 14,000 acres stretching for over 50 miles from tributary with Mississippi

Eight units separated by state-owned and privately-owned land – adjacent to an additional 2,000 acres of state parkland

The mission of Minnesota Valley NWR is two-fold

(1) to restore and protect the important fish, wildlife, and plant communities of the lower Minnesota river valley and its surrounding watershed...and

(2) to provide top quality wildlife-dependent outdoor recreation and environmental education to Twin Cities residents.

• 10,000 of its authorized 14,000 acres acquired • Wildlife interpretation and visitor center, currently being renovated • Public use programs and facilities

1976 legislation

Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to establish a wildlife refuge when a comprehensive plan had been completed

Original refuge to comprise 9,500 acres of lands, submerged lands, and open water as depicted on a map November 1975 – floodplain of the Minnesota River

Additional real property interests which the Secretary may acquire and include in the refuge

Within 6 years the Secretary may acquire such interests through• Donations• Purchase• Exchange Secretary directed to administer the area in accordance with the National Wildlife

Refuge Administration Act of 1966Secretary directed to build and maintain a Visitor Center

Congress acknowledged of the refuge's urban setting and the need for the Fish and Wildlife Service to work with industry and transportation

Section 9 of the Act, entitled "continued public services" provides that, "nothing in this act shall be construed as prohibiting or preventing the provision of vital

public services, including (1) the continuation of commercial navigation in the main navigation channel of the

Minnesota River...; (2) construction, improvement, and replacement of highways or bridges, whether or not

the highway is a federal-aid highway; or (3) any other activity which the Secretary determines to be necessary; if the provision

of such services is otherwise in accordance with law Any activity referred to in this section shall be carried out so as to minimize the

disruption of the wildlife and the reduction of recreational and scenic values of the area, consistent with economic feasibility”

SPOIL SITES

The Secretary and the US Corps of

Engineers authorized to help local governments to dispose of dredged materials.

Secretary authorized to acquire sites for dumping dredge outside the refuge and recreation area in exchange for those sites in the area in 1975

Exchanges must involve equal value lands of equal value or adjustments were to be made

Black Dog Preserve - 1,400 acres on both sides of a power plant

“ the Secretary may not acquire lands, waters, and interests therein unless such acquisition is compatible with the continued operation of the electric power generation plant presently located within such unit”

Part of the Black Dog Preserve is managed as a State Scientific and Natural Area

Commercial navigation to continue on the main channel of the Minnesota River

Bridge construction and Highway improvement and maintenance to continue

Bloomington Ferry – 400 acres under a six lane highway

Wilkie Unit - 2,100 acres between Valley Fair Amusement Park and Continental Grain terminals

Park Headquarters

Airport Expansion

In the late 1990s the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport planned a new runway which would route air traffic over parts of the refuge.

A real estate appraisal firm arbitrated a settlement to compensate the refuge for the environmental impact of the noise pollution.

The airport’s commission voted unanimously to accept the settlement in 1998 and ultimately paid $26 million into a trust.

Some of that money was used in 2004 and 2005 to purchase 420 acres between the Chaska and Rapids Lake Units.

Under section 9 of the Act, the Fish & Wildlife Service interpreted the expansion of the Twin Cities International Airport to be a "vital public service."

Under the Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, the Fish and Wildlife Service has no authority to regulate airspace above a refuge

However, under section 4(f) of the 1966 Department of Transportation Act (49 U.S.C. 303), the Secretary of Transportation may not approve a transportation project which requires the use of any publicly-owned land from a public park, recreation area, or wildlife and waterfowl refuge of national, state, or local significance

unless no feasible and prudent alternatives to the use of such land and unless the project includes all possible planning to minimize harm resulting from the

use

Airport Noise

Fish & Wildlife Service have found that there is little scientific evidence that the noise of the aircraft would harm the wildlife in the refuge – however, the noise will disturb the people using the refuge requiring refuge facilities to be relocated

The refuge will be so impacted by the noise, that the FAA has agreed to pay the Fish and Wildlife Service over $20 million to compensate them for the "taking" of their property by virtue of the noise and the impact on visitors to the refuge

The major components of this mitigation package included (1) the replacement of approximately 4,000 acres of refuge lands adversely impacted by

noise; (2) the construction of a visitor contact and environmental education facility located

upstream from existing facilities and away from the aircraft noise; (3) replacement of other environmental education and interpretive facilities

Total cost of this mitigation package to be approximately $26.9 millionNearly 60 percent of the mitigation package will be directed towards land acquisition

A Paradigm for Landscapes

Public Acquisition of Private Rights Public Coercion of Private Rights

Mississippi River National Recreation Area

St. Croix Wild and Scenic River Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Public Land Private Land

Public Lands

Lands owned by governments are not accidents of history

They reflect the decisions we, collectively, have made to produce particular goods and services

• from lands owned by the federal government, rather than • from lands owned by the state governments, or • from lands owned privately, by individuals, or organizations