A Reader's view:

The St. Louis County Board recently ordered a study of possible policies to keep private land from falling into public ownership (“St. Louis County looks for ways to stem growth of public lands,” Nov. 2). Apparently, the county failed to grasp that the economic and other benefits of public lands exceed any real or imagined gains from putting land on the tax rolls.

Duluth News Tribune
November 14 2010

The St. Louis County Board recently ordered a study of possible policies to keep private land from falling into public ownership (“St. Louis County looks for ways to stem growth of public lands,” Nov. 2). Apparently, the county failed to grasp that the economic and other benefits of public lands exceed any real or imagined gains from putting land on the tax rolls.

This has been an economic truism since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. In March 1904, U.S. Forest Service Director Gifford Pinchot presented Roosevelt with a report showing that the states and territories with the most public land were “progressing rapidly in population and wealth.” In other words, the larger the forest reserves, the more prosperity for a state or territory.

Today, in Cook County, for example, where I hunt whitetails each November, more than 90 percent of the land is in public ownership (vs. 63 percent in St. Louis County). And even after the bursting of the real estate bubble, Cook County’s real estate prices are the highest in northern Minnesota. This isn’t due to a limited private land base but because of the desirability of an area with an abundance of public land and waters. Those same natural resources are the backbone of the economy.

Cook County’s population increased nearly 34 percent during the 1990s, and housing units increased by 9 percent. Also, median household incomes grew more than 15 percent. This growth was higher than in the Twin Cities during the same period (14.4 percent) and nearly doubled the national growth rate of 7.7 percent.

Tourism is a $10.2 billion business in Minnesota because of the state’s abundance of wild, public lands. These public lands are a significant and irreplaceable economic engine, even if a few county board members don’t agree.

David A. Lien
Colorado Springs, Colo.
The writer is co-chairman of Minnesota Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (backcountryhunters.org).

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/183764/group/Opinion/