"You get a chunk of pork belly — it looks like piece of bacon on steroids. They hack that baby up and you eat the whole thing"

August's walkout by three board members exposes friction between members who favor hunting and fishing interests and those who prioritize other outdoor projects.

The recommendations call for the acquisition of almost 2,000 acres of native prairie and would pay for restoration and enhancement projects on another 7,000 acres of such lands.

The Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council last week wrapped up a hard-fought round of hearings on Legacy funding by making $102 million in recommendations for the 2014 Legislature. There are three items in particular that hung on to receive funding despite staunch opposition from some of the 12 members on the citizen/legislator panel.

In crafting its recommendations to the 2014 Legislature, the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council is internally divided on more than $30 million in requests to combat aquatic invasive species in Minnesota waters.

The landscape is shifting for the 12-member citizen-legislator group that recommends conservation habitat land acquisitions to the state Legislature.

After piling on to an old-style, double-decker excursion boat at Rosemount on Wednesday morning, scores of citizens, politicians and government agency employees listened as officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers outlined an ambitious plan to revitalize the most degraded stretch of the Mississippi River in Minnesota.

The House and Senate appear to be heading for a conference committee battle over the marquee land-acquisition proposal in this year’s Legacy bill.

By law, the $540 million in anticipated 2012-13 proceeds from Minnesota's so-called Legacy Amendment, passed in 2008, are dedicated to specific environmental and cultural purposes. But it's been clear since the start of the 2011 session that legislators would seek to dragoon some of those dollars into helping to solve the state's $5 billion budget deficit.

Tom Landwehr's appointment to head the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) represents a return to the place where he cut his teeth in wildlife management in the 1980s and '90s.