Hi all. I just wanted to pass this article along from yesterday’s Duluth News Tribune:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/277261/ This area, as we all know, is very important to birds and birders. I think important questions are: 1) Does this company (Ecosystem Investment Partners- they are incorrectly named in the article) have any experience whatsoever with restoring Sphagnum peatlands? Their website lists projects in the South and one in Montana. 2) What areas would they target for restoration? If ditches are plugged in existing Sphagnum bog areas, the Sphagnum, conifers, and other vegetation could be killed if inundated. Invasion to cattails, Phragmites, and reed canary grass would be a worst-case scenario. It is disconcerting that a project of this scale (22,000 acres), which hands popular public land over to a private company, is being shoved through with little time for public input and scrutiny. “St. Louis County commissioners are set to approve their part of the deal Tuesday (September 10, 2013) in Duluth, allowing the county land commissioner to continue negotiating for how much forest they would receive for the county’s 6,000 wetland acres. The DNR, which oversees School Trust land, also is expected to approve the arrangement. A legislative oversight group has already given its support.” News to me.... Wes Bailey Itasca County ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
