As more Minnesotans head for the lakes and trees of Brainerd and Alexandria, they're bumping into a contradiction.
Such popular destinations face an emerging shortage of the large, regional parks that help preserve the outdoors attractions that lure people there in the first place, according to a new state-sponsored study.
The two-year effort by University of Minnesota researchers outlines that gap and offers a solution: Over the next two decades, the state should spend a quarter-billion dollars to buy and develop 27,000 acres for high-quality parks in eight fast-growing regions of the state. Otherwise, residents there will have fewer recreational outlets than their Twin Cities counterparts.
"Hopefully, (policymakers) will look at it and see the issue and the problems that are going to arise if something isn't done in the very near term,'' said Mike Wietecki, co-author of the report submitted recently to the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.
Regional parks typically are at least 100 acres in size, appeal to a regional clientele and offer a concentrated array of activities not otherwise publicly available nearby such as camping, hiking, swimming, boating, canoeing and fishing.
The report identified the eight fastest-growing population regions outside the immediate Twin Cities metropolitan area. One-third of the state's population growth between now and 2030 will be in those places, according to the state demographer.
They include rings north and south of the Twin Cities, and areas surrounding Rochester, Willmar, St. Cloud, Brainerd, Alexandria and Bemidji, where populations are projected to grow by 16 percent to 65 percent.
After plugging in population estimates, Wietecki and George Orning, a research fellow at the university, determined how much regional park space would be needed to provide the same level of access available to Twin Cities residents.
Areas from Bemidji to Rochester and from Alexandria to the southern metropolitan area are lagging. Without more land purchases for large regional parks, the study said the situation will worsen.
To make regional recreation opportunities equitable, the two established a benchmark for buying property. That standard - 25 acres of regional park land for each 1,000 people - was adopted by the Metropolitan Council in 1974 as it was building its regional park system.
Those eight areas already are almost 15,000 acres behind that standard and, unless something is done, will be 26,750 acres behind by 2030, according to the report. The state, it said, must spend $89 million to $133 million in 2007 dollars to meet current needs and $161 million to $241 million to meet future goals.
That represents a big spike over current spending for rural regional parks.
Since 2001, less than $6 million total from a variety of state and federal sources has been funneled to those parks and only 2,246 acres have been added to the system, according to Wayne Sames, local grants program administrator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Duplicating the metro model, which is based on large tracts averaging 1,000 acres, will be challenging, according to the report.
"Even though there are large amounts of open space, development tends to cluster in and around high amenity areas (hills, trees and water), which are the same resources needed for regional parks,'' the report said.
"They've got a long ways to go to be close to the standard we have in the metro area,'' Sames said. "And the longer those counties wait to acquire larger assemblages of land, the higher the price per acre will be.''
The Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, which paid $55,000 for the study, hasn't considered it yet. The commission could forward recommendations to the Legislature.
Dorian Grilley, executive director of the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota, said the study introduces another way of looking at recreation in Minnesota.
"We have looked at state parks, we have inventoried the regional parks, but we have never done an analysis of the needs compared to the demographer reports for those areas,'' Grilley said. "I think it's an invaluable tool.''
But Grilley worries that the message will take a back seat to transportation concerns following the Aug. 1 collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis and the attention being devoted to the state's highway and bridge infrastructure problems.
"My biggest fear is that money for everything but highway maintenance and upgrading is going to be pretty tight,'' Grilley said.
Last spring, the Minnesota Legislature reached a tentative deal to increase the state sales tax to pay for wildlife habitat, clean water, parks and arts projects over the next 25 years. But in the waning moments of the legislative session, the conference committee report didn't receive a floor vote.
Leaders pledged then to make the issue a priority during the 2008 session. But it remains to be seen what impact the bridge collapse will have on that effort.
Grilley hopes the sales tax for outdoors and arts remains a priority.
"I think that issue points to a need for an increased and more consistent revenue source like the proposed constitutional amendment because the way these things are funded now just isn't keeping pace with the need,'' he said. "Crumbling infrastructure doesn't just include highways and bridges.''
Outstate parks planners already see a need.
Wright County, for example, has been eyeing a 1,100-acre YMCA-owned parcel called Camp Manitou for several years. Despite teaming up with the city of Monticello, it still hasn't been able to buy the property, which includes three lakes and is targeted by developers, according to Marc Mattice, the county's parks administrator.
"Funding is going to be the main issue,'' said Mattice, emphasizing that people in his community want the same types of recreational amenities available in the metro area. "It's not cheap.''
In Stearns County, park director Chuck Wocken echoes those sentiments.
"What is going to happen is the same thing happening in the Twin Cities metro area - fewer natural areas and less access to rivers and lakes,'' Wocken said. "You need your properties large enough to protect the resource that is attractive.''
Orning said it's critical to identify large blocs of land - the study identifies the most scenic ones - and lock them up before developers buy them and cut them up for homes that don't provide public access.
Getting the money for that will require creativity and a new appreciation from lawmakers, Orning said.
"I don't think a lot of legislators understand the magnitude of growth going on outside the seven counties,'' he added.St. Paul Pioneer Press
