Last year I attended an informational seminar sponsored by the DNR on how to protect the Upper Mississippi River waterways. Their main concern was run-off waterways flowing into the river. Living on a lake that has an water outlet that eventually flows into the Mississippi River, caught my attention. The DNR spokespeople were well rehearsed and put on a informational seminar. They took all questions and had all the answers. Fast forward one year the DNR announced the relaxing the "standards" of drainage ditches that flow into our waterways. Hundreds of small creeks have farmland ditches that flow into these waterways and end up in lakes and rivers. These small creeks are not recognized by the DNR because they lack official status as a "public water." The DNR now wants to eliminate many of the "public waters" off their official waterways map. They haven't recognized any new public waterways since the early 1980s. What made the DNR do a complete 180 in a year's time? The DNR was established to protect our lakes and rivers but ended up giving into the political powers. The head of the DNR is not an elected position, it's an appointment by the governor. It doesn't seem to matter, political pressure always wins out. Just when you thought the DNR couldn't do worse than the Lake Mille Lacs debacle, they amazed us again.
Joe Patton
Brainerd
