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Issues

Environment, Conservation and Land Stewardship

I believe that most of the issues of preservation and re-energizing the land and soil come from ordinary citizens caring enough to conserve the land and care for the land by responsibly making choices that maintain our wetlands and forests, but revitalize by choosing to plant a variety of species on their land, set aside space for Prairie grass restoration and engage in sustainable agricultural practices that minimize the use of petro-chemical fertilizers and toxic herbicides and pesticides.

I also believe that we MUST have a strong Pollution Control Agency that works closely with a strong Health Department to identify operations both agricultural and industrial that are polluting and make them adhere to responsible laws that guarantee the rights to a clean water supply and clean air.

In the past the agency has not used the tools of Environmental impact studies to give them the real hard evidence and data that would discover the risks involved to placing certain operations in delicate areas of our state where harm could come quite easily to our way of life.

I have been very opposed to the manure lagoon concept for handling the fecal waste of large corporate farm operations. There have been large manure lagoons approved to be built all over the state, but a serious trend has been to allow them in areas of our state, such as the delicate Karst region of southern Minnesota where we have a large number of underground limestone cave systems that could be prone to instability and cause cave ins. To place a large manure lagoon in this area without so much as an environmental impact study to determine the risk in real hard core environmental terms is courting if not insuring danger to the area and those that make their homes there.

This must be corrected.

I believe that we must encourage industry and large agricultural operations to assess the potential dangers of their undertakings, and proactively seek out the best solutions to insuring that our water and air supplies are not compromised. I am a person that is committed to Business development of all sizes, but businesses MUST count the cost of their ventures to the health of the environment and citizens of the areas they choose in which to locate themselves, and be prepared ahead of time to provide solutions to every potential harm they could envision, before they come to be.

I would also like to actively bring environmental industries and manufacturing to Minnesota to assist our business, and industrial complex to advise and innovate the equipment that will help them to be responsible participants in our vibrant state economy.

I would consider myself a sensible individual and one who is reasonable. However, I will never agree to compromise the health of our land, water or air, or invest in the outcomes of poor management of our precious resources. Far too many times, we put the dollar ahead of our quality of life, and we need to find a way to see that both can live together with great outcomes to our citizens as well as our natural resources.

I believe that we should continue in the great tradition of hunting and fishing and do so, with conservation and good land stewardship projects as our guide to keeping our hunting lands and fishing lakes healthy and well stocked. Our tourism depends on it.