Outdoor Heritage Fund Planning

The Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council (L-SOHC) scheduled planning meetings in August 2009. At each of these five planning meetings, invited conservation professionals, such as field scientists, identified goals and objectives for the ecological sections. The general public was invited to observe the process and then participate in a comment period.

This planning project created five section-specific sets of goals and objectives that the L-SOHC used to develop their vision for the section and short-term priority actions. These visions and priority actions were, in turn, used review and recommend requests for fiscal year 2011.

These August planning meetings were not for the purpose of proposing or discussing specific OHF funding requests, however, they did provide guidance to those who wanted to apply for funding. They also provide the public with an opportunity to offer input, which was summarized and reviewed by L-SOHC. The public was also asked to provide written comments and suggestions on the draft goals for each section.

The L-SOHC met in mid-September 2009 to review the public input, discuss the goals and objectives from each planning meeting, and seek majority approval. The plan, containing minimum criteria, statewide priorities and sectional priority criteria, was adopted and the first Call for Funding was issued November 2, 2009.

Each year members review and evaluate each funding request received. Once proposals are evaluated, those scoring the highest for meeting the priorities set forth in the Call for Request for Funding, are asked in for a hearing. Of those called in for a hearing, a selection will be recommended to the legislature for funding.

In May 2010, the Council started the process of developing a 10 year plan and 25 year funding framework for the Outdoor Heritage Fund, as directed by Minnesota Statutes, section 97A.056, subdivision 3(i). The Council contracted with Management Analysis and Development to convene a working group of conservation professionals from a variety of state and federal agencies to write the framework that will provide a roadmap for future Council recommendations. The framework will build upon the regional meetings held last summer and the vision and priorities adopted by the Council. Following a 2-week public comment period, the final report was forwarded to the Legislative Coordinating Commission in January 2011.