Protecting Rivers in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area

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Protecting Rivers in the Twin Cities Metropolitan
Area

• Rod Squires, University of Minnesota

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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?

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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)

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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
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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

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A Paradigm for Landscapes

• Public Acquisition of Private Rights
  Public Coercion of Private Rights
• Fee interests Regulation
• Lease Financial
  coercion taxes, loans, grants
• Partial interests Infrastructure
  e.g. public works
• Information e.g.
  public record
• Eminent Domain
• Tax Foreclosure
• Public Land Private
  Land

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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

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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
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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)

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• 72 miles of the Mississippi River and 4 miles of
  the Minnesota
• Includes 54,000 acres of land on both banks
  coincides with the states Mississippi River
  Critical Area Corridor 
• Chosen as one of twenty pilot parks to initiate
  the First Lady Michelle Obama's Lets Move
  Outside campaign

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• 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

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Wikipedia
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Sewage Treatment Plant
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Aggregate Mining Operations
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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
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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

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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

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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)

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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

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

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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)

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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 

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• The mission of Minnesota Valley NWR is two-fold
• to restore and protect the important fish,
  wildlife, and plant communities of the lower
  Minnesota river valley and its surrounding
  watershed...and
• 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

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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 1966
• Secretary directed to build and maintain a
  Visitor Center

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• 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
• the continuation of commercial navigation in the
  main navigation channel of the Minnesota
  River...
• construction, improvement, and replacement of
  highways or bridges, whether or not the highway
  is a federal-aid highway or
• 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

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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
•  

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• 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

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• 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

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

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Park Headquarters
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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 airports 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.

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• 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

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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
• the replacement of approximately 4,000 acres of
  refuge lands adversely impacted by noise
• the construction of a visitor contact and
  environmental education facility located upstream
  from existing facilities and away from the
  aircraft noise
• replacement of other environmental education and
  interpretive facilities
• Total cost of this mitigation package to be
  approximately 26.9 million
• Nearly 60 percent of the mitigation package will
  be directed towards land acquisition

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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

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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