By Taylor Templer
On September 11th, 2019 Shelli-Kae Foster, YES! Program Director and Taylor Templer, West Central Coordinator, participated in the Legislature-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) tour of site visits in the West Central area. The day included a luncheon at the Grandview Winery in Belview, MN where YES! staff participated with other ENRTF stakeholders to provide input for their strategic plan that will guide funding from the ENRTF for the next six years.
The Commissioners stopped Lac qui Parle State Park where the Lac qui Parle Valley High School YES! team joined staff in presenting to the LCCMR members. Coach Rachel Rigenhagen told the Commissioners that she has been a coach for 12 of the 13 years YES! has been around. She stated that “without the seed funds, none of our projects would have happened.” Each of the 8 students who presented to the Commissioners spoke about recent water quality projects including the restoration of a 35-acre site back to native prairie and the importance of the having this opportunity in their community. One student said “I like being involved with YES! because I get to help my local environment.” The students and their coach made quite an impression on their audience!
Major YES! funding is from the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) in recommendation by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). The role of the LCCMR is to make funding recommendations to the legislature for special environment and natural resource projects, primarily from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF). The LCCMR is made up of 17 members: 5 Senators, 5 Representatives, 5 citizens appointed by the governor, 1 citizen appointed by the Senate, and 1 citizen appointed by the House.
To find out more about LCCMR please visit their website!
Listen to Taylor’s interview about YES! with Prairie Sportman’s Bret Amundson on Sporting Journal Radio!
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
