The Minnesota Legislature’s 2024 session ended in acrimony and shouting between political parties last week, but not until after lawmakers had already approved a wealth of new rules and funding for outdoor issues and needs. New rules will allow the state’s northwestern elk herd to grow and potentially supply an elk relocation effort by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to restore the big animals in Carlton and southern St. Louis counties.
Anglers, hunters, cross-country skiers and others won’t have to carry a paper license on their person starting in March thanks to changes to statutes that now allow electronic proof of licenses and an app-based licensing and game registration system. Money was approved to pay for a new invasive carp barrier on the Mississippi River and funding to buy land to expand the state’s managed forests. Except for the state bonding/construction bill that included outdoor projects and failed to pass in the session’s final minutes, most other natural resource legislation was approved on time.
“Most of the important (natural resource) legislation made it across the line before things turned bad at the end,’’ said Bob Meier, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources who oversees government relations. “The big thing we didn’t get was the bonding bill. .
.. But a lot of things were funded in other bills, so many of the outdoor things came out OK.
” Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, chairman .
