1. Implementation of Public Land Development Programs
WMA and AMA Programs
Implementation of Public Land Development Programs
Lessard Outdoor Heritage Council
Dennis Simon, DNR Wildlife Management Chief
January 26, 2009

2. Minnesota’s WMA/AMA Land Acquisition Program
Fee title acquisition of WMA and AMA lands has been proven over the past five decades to be the most effective way to assure long-term protection and the continued management efforts necessary to maintain, enhance, or restore critical fish and wildlife habitats such as native prairie, streams, shorelines, wetlands, grasslands, brushlands, and forests on these lands.
The WMA system started in 1951, when the state established its “Save the Wetlands” Program to buy wetlands and other habitats from willing sellers in order to preserve them. As a result of 57 years of support by conservationists, hunters and legislators, 1.2 million acres of land in 1,420 units were brought under the control and management of the Division of Fish and Wildlife as WMAs, making it one of the best and largest WMA systems in the country. Under the AMA program, 620 miles of trout stream and 220 miles of lake and warmwater stream shoreline is permanently protected and available for public use.

3. WMA/AMA Acquisition Process

4. Buying land for fish & wildlife
Habitat
Willing Seller
Funding
County Board Approval-
for WMA and RIM MATCH purchases

5. WMA/AMA Land Acquisition Process Start Finish 9-12 months M.S. 84.0274
The typical acquisition takes from 9 to 12 months from the time the landowner signs the bill of rights letter, assuming there are no title problems and no survey is required. The total time to complete an acquisition requiring a survey will generally take an additional 2 to 6 months. County board approval is needed for lands purchased for WMAs. Board approval will only be necessary for AMAs if RIM Match funding is used. Per Commissioner’s Operational Order #6, the county boards must be notified on all DNR purchases or donations of land for all types of DNR units (state park, state forest, SNA, etc).
M.S. 97A.145
Finish
9-12 months
(no survey)

6. PRIVATE – STATE PARTNERSHIPS
Donations
RIM Match
Habitat Corridor Project
North American Wetland Conservation Act
The DNR and conservation partners work together as a statewide collaboration to focus resources and bring additional funds to Minnesota for WMA and AMA acquisition that may not be otherwise available.
Ducks Unlimited

7. Third Party Acquisitions
Shared expertise and resources
Common goals
Increased efficiency
Shared appraisal
Opportunity for initial development assistance
In addition, these partnerships provide an opportunity to increase acquisition efficiencies and acquire tracts directly by the conservation partners on complicated purchases or when the DNR isn’t able to move quickly enough. Third party acquisitions by nonprofit groups such as The Nature Conservancy, Pheasants Forever, Trust for Public, and Land Leech Lake Area Watershed Foundation, to name a few, have become a more important part of DNR’s WMA and AMA acquisition programs and now account for about 20 percent of all acquisitions for these two programs. Significant savings in time and money can be realized by the ability of the DNR to review and use an appraisal contracted by the conservation partners. The DNR and the groups go through a thorough process involving area, regional, and central office staff to identify and approve priority acquisition projects at the earliest stage to ensure that third party acquisitions meet the goals and priority criteria establish by the WMA and AMA long range and biennial acquisition plans.

8. Acquisition Capacity Division of Fish & Wildlife
2 Land Acquisition Coordinator
1 Land Acquisition Specialist
WMA Activity:
80-90 active WMA fee and easement acquisitions
$12-13 million/year spent last 2 fiscal years
AMA Activity:
35 active AMA fee and easement acquisitions
$5-6 million /year spent last 2 fiscal years
Division of Lands & Minerals
Realty Specialists
Appraisal Unit
Private contract appraisers and reviewers
Acquisition involves staff from the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Division of Lands and Minerals, and the Attorney General’s Office. Currently, about 95% of the acquisition appraisal are contracted to private appraisers and over half of the appraisal reviews are also contracted out. The current system was capable of handling the recent acquisition workload experienced in F& 07 and 08. Bonding funds comprised about $8.2 million per each of these two fiscal years for WMA acquisition. Increased acquisitions from the Outdoor Heritage Fund would be partially offset by reduced future bond funding for acquisition. For FY 09, the acquisition system is at or beyond capacity due to higher levels of acquisition and easement activity and a reduction in staff in the Division of Lands and Minerals. An increase in acquisition capacity beyond FY 07 and 08 levels would likely require additional staff, revised legislation, increased contracting, and/or more innovative and efficient ways to process acquisitions.
Attorney General’s Office

9. Acquisition Challenges and Opportunities
Initial and long-term development costs
Payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILT)
Local units of government
Financial help to landowners
Land protection interests by landowners

10. Payment in Lieu of Taxes
on WMA Lands
Payment based on ¾ of 1% of estimated market value (EMV).
EMV is the purchase price until the county updates the EMV every 5 years.
1. Next update will be 2010.
2. For donated lands, EMV is the appraisal or the county EMV if no appraisal done.
3. For bargain sales, EMV is the full appraisal value.
For portion of PILT attributable to WMA lands - county treasurer shall allocate the payment among the county, towns, and school districts on the same basis as if the payments were private taxes.
July 2008 PILT Payments
$ million total payment
$ million for WMA lands

12. WMA: Two tracts on Pelican Lake WMA, Wright Co.
Swan Lake WMA, Nicollet Co.
Paul Hugo Farm WMA, Washington Co.
McCarthy Lake WMA, Wabasha Co.
Whitewater WMA, Winona Co.

13. Wegdahl Bottoms AMA Chippewa Co.
Little Knife River AMA Kanabec Co.
Greenleaf AMA Meeker Co.
Bad Medicine AMA Becker Co.
Florida Lake AMA Kandiyohi Co.
Preece Point AMA Beltrami Co.
Camp Miller AMA Pine Co.
Bemidji Lake AMA Beltrami Co.
Mississippi River AMA Crow Wing Co.
Whispering Ridge AMA Redwood Co.

14. Habitat Protection & Management
Existing Public Lands Delivery Systems

15. New Sites – Initial Development
Each new acquisition entails site development work.
Initial development during this period costs an estimated $150 per acquired acre.
In other words, for every 1,000 acres acquired, there are approximately $150,000 of initial development needs.
* Estimates based on sites purchased with 2005 – 2006 Capital/Bonding appropriations.
Needs within the first 2 years of acquisition include:
Boundary survey and posting
Interior and perimeter signage
Parking lots, fencing, gates
Roads, trails, water access
Site clean up (debris, buildings, wells, etc)
Cover bare ground

16. Accomplishments (Acres)
Prairie Grassland Habitat Program
Existing Units (Annual Average FY07 & FY08)
Activity
Accomplishments (Acres)
Expenditures
Hours
Grassland Management
6,702
$920,052
13,835
Woody Cover Development
102
$55,894
1,069
Prescribed Burning
15,883
$685,950
15,077
Noxious Weed Control
4,750
$297,259
6,484
Cooperative Farming Agreements
33,996
$66,381
1,866
Food Plots
2,173
$309,898
5,686
TOTAL
63,606
$2,335,432
44,015
Note: 63,600 acres  99 square miles
44,000 hours  21 full time positions

17. Accomplishments (Acres)
Forest Habitat Program
Existing Units (Annual Average FY07 & FY08)
Activity
Accomplishments (Acres)
Expenditures
Hours
Openland & Brushland Management
5,460
$438,235
5,496
Prescribed Burns – Openland & Brushland
20,926
$403,048
8,982
Forest Stand Management
2,858
$246,752
4,302
Prescribed Burns – Forest Stands
569
$29,224
655
Forest Opening Maintenance
1,776
$274,360
4,795
TOTAL
31,589
$1,391,619
24,229
Note: 31,600 acres  49 square miles
24,200 hours  11.6 full time positions

18. Accomplishments (Acres)
Wetland Habitat Program
Existing Units (Annual Average FY07 & FY08)
Activity
Accomplishments (Acres)
Expenditures
Hours
Water Control Structures
16,383
$983,233
2,933
Wetland Restoration
130
$77,238
1,079
Wetland Impoundment Development 9
$13,616
170
Wetland Habitat Maintenance
168,526
$500,245
10,960
Wetlands Enhancement
15,901
$415,251
4,737
Waterfowl Nest Structures
1,956 Structures
$159,040
1,874
TOTAL
200,949
$2,238,622
21,752
Note: 201,000 acres  314 square miles
21,800 hours  10.5 full time positions

19. Habitat Evaluation and Monitoring
Existing Efforts (Annual Average FY07 & FY08)
Activity
Units
Accomplishments
Expenditures
Hours
Resource Assessments
9.839
$394,888
9,839
Wildlife Lake Assessments
Acres
183,174
$256,359
8,708
TOTAL
$651,247
18,547
Note: 183,200 acres  286 square miles
18,500 hours  9 full-time positions

20. Facilities & Access Existing Units (Annual Average FY07 & FY08)
Activity
Units
Accomplishments
Expenditures
Hours
Facility Management (parking lots, blinds, etc)
Facilities
1,590
$291,800
7,490
Road and trail management
Miles
676
$423,845
8,738
Boundary Management
882
$581,195
9,868
Site Clean Up
Sites
129
$137,028
2,834
TOTAL
$1,433,868
28,929
Note: 29,000 hours  14 full time positions

21. Habitat Protection & Management
Existing Public Lands Delivery Systems
Wildlife area staff
Fisheries habitat crews – in stream and lakes
Contracts with private vendors
Cooperative agreements and grants with partners

22. Habitat Management Implementation
Delivery Mechanisms – FAW Staff
Staff at field offices throughout state with extensive training in:
Prescribed burning
Commercial pesticide application
Power and hand tool safety
Heavy equipment operation
OHV training
Geographic information system training for habitat management planning

23. Habitat Management Implementation
Delivery Mechanisms – Specialized Equipment
FAW fleet includes:
Trucks and tractors
Heavy equipment
Native grass seeding drills and harvest equipment
Tree planters
Spraying equipment
Prescribed burning equipment

24. Current Funding for Habitat Protection & Management
Game and Fish Fund (GFF) - O&M
GFF Dedicated Accounts
- Deer Management
- Deer Bear
- Waterfowl
- Wild Rice
- Pheasant
- Turkey
- Surcharge
Heritage Enhancement (in lieu of lottery taxes)
General funds
Gifts and donations
RIM Match

25. Habitat Protection & Management
Case Study – Water Control Replacement
Need assessment – database and GIS inventory
Phase 1 preliminary design and cost estimate
Secure funding
Phase 2 final engineering and design
Bid specifications
Secure contracts
Secure permits
Construction phase and inspections
Site rehabilitation
Final payment

26. Thank you.