Shortsighted sale of School Trust Lands?
August 12th, 2024
UPDATE: Short-sighted? Well, it’s not so simple. There’s a lot of history, and a lot of attempts to deal with the conundrum of state School Trust land in this wilderness area. Needed more info, so I went directly to the source! Had a good lengthy with DNR rep, and I’ll be updating this. The fed’s page is missing crucial info – see “Press Release” below. Until I get to a thorough review and update, check that out, it answers most of my questions:
The DNR has proposed a sale of our School Trust Lands to the feds The School Trust Lands, and it’s a mess, has been for decades. A major aspect of this is that the state cannot lease or sell off timber or mineral rights within the national park, so it is NOT generating revenue. It’s a quite literal stranded asset, it’s the state’s but the state can’t do anything with it to generate revenue for the trust!
COMMENTS DUE SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 11:59:59 PM (Central Standard Time).
Per the DNR’s site, are “2.5 million surface acres and 1 million additional acres of mineral rights included in the School Trust Land portfolio.” “Funds that are distributed from the Permanent School Fund are determined by student enrollment on a per pupil basis rather than by the concentration of School Trust Lands in a given school district.” However, as above, those parcels within the Boundary Waters wilderness aren’t generating a dime.
There has been an attempt to exchange, through a number of parties, for Potlach landwhere trees just weren’t growing fast enough and Potlatch wants out. Sounds reasonable, but…
In addition to the DNR and the School Trust folks, there’s the feds owning and operating the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and there’s also the tribes’ jurisdiction over 1854 Ceded Territory, which covers most of the area where the School Trust land is. A letter was sent by area tribal governments notifying the DNR that there would be no expansion of School Trust lands within Ceded Territory, no partial or full land exchange in that area.
Ceded Territory covers almost all of the Superior National Forest, plus pretty much doubling the area heading south to Pine County. What’s left? Perhaps there’s that area outside the Ceded Territory to the northwest of St. Louis County into Koochiching County, but … So now what? It seems that outright sale of the land is the only option.
This difficult position is probably why the fed’s page doesn’t make sense, it’s not explained.
From the fed’s page, here’s Phase One of the Plan of DNR and the Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands, CHECK IT OUT:
Phase One of the Plan
The federal Draft Environmental Impact Statement was withdrawn on July 3 2024:
Huh??? It was completed a long time ago and has sat there moldering. Now it’s history. So what does that mean?
A little birdie told me about this Comment page, and from there I started digging:
COMMENTS DUE SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 11:59:59 PM (Central Standard Time).
From there, there’s a link back to this project page to see what it’s all about (clear as mud), what’s proposed, what land is affected:
School Trust, St. Louis County, and TCF Land Purchase
According to the Press Release, “The SNF anticipates analyzing the comments and environmental effects of the proposed project and making a decision using a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).” That means NEPA will not apply, an Environmental Impact Statement is not necessary, the end. So will comments have any impact? And given no expansion of School Trust land in Ceded Territory, what options are left?
????????????
HERE’S THE PRIMARY DOCUMENTATION
On that project page, you can find these documents – BUT NOT THIS PRESS RELEASE. AGAIN, IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT EXPLAINS PROCESS AND LACK THEREOF, i.e. use of CATEGORICAL EXCLUSION:
… Press Release is the best place to start, and do review the links below. Yeah, it’s a lot, but at least skim, so you can make an informed comment:
School Trust, St Louis County, and TCF Land Purchase (66600)
School Trust, St. Louis County, and TCF Land Purchase Scoping Cover Letter.pdf
School Trust, St. Louis County, and TCF Land Purchase Scoping Package.pdf
Attachment A_School Trust Candidate Parcel Overview Map and Land List.pdf
Attachment B_St. Louis County Candidate Parcel Overview Map and Land List.pdf
Attachment C_TCF Candidate Parcel Overview Map, Index Map, Area Maps, and Land List.pdf
Attachment D_School Trust, St. Louis County, TCF Overview Map.pdf
EPA page on Minnesota Power “discharge”
August 8th, 2024
I’ve not seen anything about the Boswell “discharge” lately (that term “discharge” is an improvement over “leak” or “spill,” those sound too dainty!). It seems KAXE is reporting, but STrib and MPR? Concerned, I fired off a missive to the MPCA to get the latest, and turns out, it’s a federal issue, and it’s the EPA in charge:
EPA page – Minnesota Power Discharge
The July 19 update was jawdropping — the first sentence, confirming the July 20th KAXE report:
5.4 million gallons…
Color me skeptical, but can that be cleaned up? How? What comes to mind is the bogus “Dilution is the solution to pollution.”
Here’s the EPA’s latest update:
July 22 – August 8, 2024: Site Update
It’s been about a month an a half…
The EPA page bears watching. Once more with feeling:
EPA page – Minnesota Power Discharge
Harris picks Walz for VP
August 6th, 2024
Kamala Harris has picked Tim Walz, yes, our Gov. Tim Walz, as her choice for Vice President. I’m heartened and looking forward to the next 90some days.
The clips, stories, videos turning up are perfect. You betcha there are some things he’s done, some of his policies, that I’ve fought, objected to, grimaced, but for this ticket, at this point in time, what a great choice. And he got to this point so quickly, though from a look at his life, his career(s), he’s been preparing carefully, one step at a time. Exceedingly well rounded background, with no scandals, no felonies much less 34, no platoon of ex-wives, no grifting.
Harris and Walz — Looks like a winning combo to me. “Let’s Make America Not Too Bad Again” How Minnesotan can ya get?
Meanwhile, I’m rather down for the count, a cracked tooth yesterday morning on peanut butter toast(!), spent yesterday and today at dentist, and it’s not salvageable (I’d TOLD them it was cracked, and it is, top to bottom), so next week, I get to lose another tooth. Meanwhile, I am a CRABBY-PANTS! Look out!