Regulations
ddemmer: Hi, everyone! I'm Anna Stockstad with the University of Minnesota Extension, and i'm digging only with the Minnesota logger education program.
Anna B Stockstad: We're back with another very exciting podcast episode. And today we're going to be talking about regulations, which is everyone's favorite subject.
Anna B Stockstad: and our guest today is David Demer, from the Minnesota Board of soil and water resources. And thank you so much for joining us again, David.
ddemmer: Absolutely. I appreciate you guys having me
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: so, and joked a bit about regulations being our favorite subject. But you know the guidelines do list regulations that are important for us to be aware of.
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: So in a previous episode. You joined us, and you talked about stream and wetland crossings now, relevant regulation. Here is the Wetland Convert Conservation Act. Can you tell us more about what the act is and how it relates to forestry.
ddemmer: Yeah, the Minnesota Welling Conservation Act is the State laws associated with well and conservation. It was passed in 1,991, and it's a goal is to achieve a no net loss of water resources in the State I it does that it by a number of ways.
ddemmer: The most relevant to forestry or login would be the forestry exemption that's in the weather and conservation actor. 2 2 main areas where forestry is called out as an activity, and how it was regulated both under the Forrester exemption, which
ddemmer: recognizes certain wetland impacts associated with silver culture, but also to under the no loss criteria. Those are for temporary impacts to wetlands as a result of solar culture activities.
Anna B Stockstad: And there's also the public waters law. And I know that Bowser Doesn't implement this program. But would you be able to really give a really quick summary for listeners who may not be familiar with it.
ddemmer: Yeah. The public waters program is administered by the Dnr. That administers public waters which could include lakes, wetlands, rivers, and streams.
ddemmer: There's different jurisdictional boundaries associated with that public waters are delinated using an ordinary high water level, which is an actual elevation on the landscape. Like I said, it's Dnr implemented.
ddemmer: It's gonna have different authorities, so use the the area. Hydrologists will issue authorizations for permits for activities in public waters, and it's all done through a separate permitting their lack of it's called the Empires online permitting application.
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: So the guidelines also talk about a contractor responsibility for is that the is that a tool that you know, contract, or the operator in the field is going to to use to, to navigate the the public waters act in Wca, and and then, When would they use actually use the contractor responsibility for?
ddemmer: Yeah, it's a really important question, because the landowner statement and contractor responsibility for the document that is used for both wetlands and public waters. So essentially there are statutes on the books that say that a contractor can't
ddemmer: drain, fill, or excavate a wetland or public waters, without having a statement signed by the landowner, saying that they either have re obtained the necessary approvals, or
ddemmer: that they don't need per appro approvals for it the activity. So it's very important document, like, I said. It's for both wetlands and public waters. The other aspect of it, too, that often gets overlooked. Is this not just the responsibility to get that statement.
ddemmer: but also to get that statement? Mail to the appropriate office with jurisdiction? So for the Webinar Conservation Act. It's
ddemmer: fluency locally. So that signed statement needs to go to what's called a local government unit for public waters. Then that is gonna be the office that's gonna be the area hydro typically for the Dnr.
ddemmer: So important document in the end. What I've seen it do is it kind of clarifies that? Yep, we got all the approvals. So if things do go south, and there is a violation or something like that, the liability is kind of sorted out either land or did their due diligence got this the kind the contractor knew that where they stood on the regulatory set of things or not.
so a very important document for both wetlands and public waters.
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: It sounds a bit like a 3 legged stool of sorts, you know you have a contractor, You, the landowner. You have the governmental unit, and you want to keep the legs in your stool pretty pretty level, or we're going to be falling over, perhaps into wetland somewhere. So I do want to remind our listeners that they ever do need a refresher about the relevant regulations during and timber harvest. They should refer to their fmg Pocket Guide, or the full guidelines, for that matter.
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: in Remember that there are regulations that we haven't discussed here today in our brief podcast, like the noxious weed law which requires the control and removal of noxious weeds on a site.
Anna B Stockstad: And with that that's all the time that we have for the episode today, like I said in the beginning, I know regulations probably isn't the most intriguing topic, but it's really important to understand what regulations are relevant to a timber harvest that you may be conducting because it supports our social license to practice sustainable forestry.
Anna B Stockstad: And I just want to say thank you so much for joining us today, David. It's been great to hear your perspective from Bowser about these regulations. and to our listeners. Stay tuned for the next episode, which will actually be our last episode in the series where Dave and I are going to be wrapping up all the content that we've gone through in these last 11 episodes. So thanks so much for listening.
