Deforestation?
Last Sunday, the strib cover page was about how pine forests are being eliminated in favor of... potatoes.
http://www.startribune.com/local/290436161.html
The forests of central Minnesota — a region that has the state’s highest deer densities and that protects a largely pristine but vulnerable aquifer — are being cleared at an accelerating pace, and regulators are scrambling to find a way to protect them.
Today, the strib reports that the DNR is halting this conversion until further studies.
http://www.startribune.com/local/290946331.html
Not knowing much about the history of Minnesota, or the upper midwest, I was surprised to find out that the land is a private land owned by the potatoes farmers.
I would have thought that the land was a state or federal land but it seems it is not. Even if it were, I think that in the past decade, or so, the state was eager to shed land it owned. I remember at a gathering mentioning how more developing along lakes would increase contamination of them and someone said: of course the state is shedding its land. Lakefront property fetches a nice sum.
As for the DNR - from my limited observation, I think that preservation and conservation is the least of its concerns. In this case, DNR is concerned about impact on soil and water, not about preserving the forest. Too late, I suppose. Unless the state will purchase the land.
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