St. Louis County board on School Trust Lands
Nancy McReady president of CWCS was asked to attend the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners September 26, 2017 meeting at Side Lake,
and to bring supporters. Mike Cole CEO of the Minnesota Miners Facebook page and several others also attended.
Commissioner Frank Jewel had a resolution supporting the Conservation Fund's hybrid plan that includes purchasing Potlatch land and trading
them for the School Trust Lands in the Boundary Waters.
Commissioner Rukavina sited all kinds of reasons why the hybrid plan was not good, and that it would take years to do, if at all. The '64
Wilderness Act mandates these lands be exchanged for equal value federal land outside of the Boundary Waters. Rukavina said he was going to
disappoint his constituents, and voted in support of the resolution!
All commissioners, except Commissioner Pete Stauber, voted in support of the resolution. Stauber said the '64 Act must be followed,
even 53 years later.
A week later, Commissioner Rukavina offered a resolution to reconsider his vote. There was no support.
No one has more information on School Trust Lands in the Boundary Waters and has been working for resolution on this matter longer than
St. Louis County Commissioner Tom Rukavina.
Rukavina's concern that the county board may have given too much when a resolution was passed to approve a hybrid proposal that includes
a land swap and purchase procedure was something he should have considered when he voted in support of Commissioner Frank Jewell's resolution.
Noting that Jewell's resolution did not include any mention of the 31,000-acre exchange for federal lands outside of the Boundary Waters
was another concern.
Jewell's pushing the Plan B proposal for the Heart of the Continent is another big concern. McReady has attended several HOC meetings
and it was said they were not about dictating policy. Yet a letter to Sec. Jewell and Sec. Vilsack dated August 2015 addressed the
Heart of the Continent School Trust Lands Proposal. Knowing this, and Jewell's being on the advisory board of the Friends of the Boundary Waters,
should have been red flags to all commissioners voting on Jewell's resolution.
McReady recently met and spoke with Rep. Dale Lueck, chair of the School Trust Land Commission. Lueck is in agreement with CWCS in wanting
the 31,000-acre land exchange for the School Trust Lands in the Boundary Waters for federal lands outside of the Boundary Waters. He does not
support a purchase of the remaining School Trust Lands.
Chances are very good that Sec. of Interior Zinke will be denying the application for withdrawal of over 400,000 acres in the Superior National Forest
from future mining. Once that is done, there will be over 234,000 acres of federal lands to exchange the remaining School Trust Lands
in the Boundary Waters. School Trust Lands are to generate the maximum revenue for all Minnesota schools. Exchanging these lands for
rich deposits of mineral lands will do just that.
Following the '64 Wilderness Act, passed by Democrats, is not a Republican vs Democrat issue. It is a promise made, and the right thing to do. Period!
If not, why have laws?
UPDATE: At the November 14 St. Louis County Board of Commissioners meeting Commissioner Tom Rukavina offered an amendment supporting the
Hybrid Plan B of a purchase and exchange of the School Trust Lands in the Boundary Waters. Rukavina had concerns that only the exchange would
go through.
Rukavina listed 31,000 acres for exchange and 52,000 acres for the Conservation Fund/Potlatch purchase. In making this change,
Rukavina is doing exactly what the Friends of the Boundary Waters stated in their August letter: An exchange of land is not acceptable unless
it is accompanied by a land purchase.
Rukavina's amendment passed with a 6 to 1 vote. Commissioner Pete Stauber voted no and cited the 64 Wilderness Act:
State-owned or privately owned land is completely surrounded by national forest lands within areas designated by this Act as wilderness
State-owned land or privately owned land shall be exchanged for federally owned land in the same State of approximately equal value