MINNEAPOLIS — Brian Myres of Clear Lake is a thinker.

So are Dave Zentner of Duluth, Matthew Smith of Willmar and Greg Kvale of Baxter.

They’re also cabin owners, some of them; walleye fishermen, all of them; and hikers, campers, hunters, paddlers and boaters.

They’re active, also, in Ducks Unlimited, the Izaak Walton League, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Pheasants Forever and other conservation groups.

Like a lot of Minnesotans, their outdoor interests help define their lives.

But Myres, Smith, Zentner and Kvale have a problem.

They think Minnesota’s woods, waters and fields are in trouble.

Songbirds are fewer. Water wells are tainted. Wetlands are being drained. The state’s lakes — 40% of them — are polluted. Ducks are down, and invasive plants are up.

And always — every day — there are more people and more pavement.

Kvale, 79, is a retired, 31-year employee of the Department of Natural Resources, where he was a realty specialist and lands and roads coordinator.

He says he’s not the only ex-DNR employee who thinks the state is headed in the wrong direction, conservation-wise. There are plenty of others. And he’s no rabble-rouser, he insists. He was a conservation professional and proud of his work.

But if his choice in retirement, he said, is to fade into the background or to speak up for the state’s natural resources — it’s a no-brainer.

“We need a different conservation system in Minnesota,” he said, “one that includes considerably more public input. Not the type of public input the DNR has always said it wanted, which too often we just rubber-stamped and forgot about. We need a much higher level of public involvement.”

Zentner, a past national president of the Izaak Walton League, agrees.

“In virtually every other state, citizens play important roles in the ways their natural resources are managed,” he said. “It’s time Minnesotans did, too.”

Zentner is referring to citizens commissions and advisory councils that virtually all other states have established to help guide fish, wildlife and other natural resources management.

Zentner, Smith, Myres and Kvale are among Minnesotans proposing that a similar group — the Citizens Conservation Advisory Council — be established here. The idea grew out of the Minnesota Duck Summit, held in Nicollet in March.

The intention of these commissions, or councils, is twofold. To remove politics, to the largest degree possible, from natural resources management. And to provide input to resource professionals from citizens who are experienced and knowledgeable about fish, wildlife, their habitats and other resources.

These commissions and councils aren’t perfect, Myres said. But they’re better than what Minnesota has.

In Minnesota, he said, conservation does or doesn’t occur depending on whether the state’s governor prioritizes natural resources management.

The governor, in turn, appoints a DNR commissioner, and the two of them, along with key legislators, decide what is accomplished — or, as often, what is not accomplished — to sustain the resources that many Minnesotans depend on not just for recreation, but for their physical and mental well-being.

“If the public played a bigger role in resource management,” Myres said, “chances are the DNR wouldn’t have logged state wildlife management areas in recent years. They also wouldn’t have dragged their feet on establishing an invasive carp impediment on the Mississippi River, closed northern Minnesota fish and wildlife offices, or abandoned the state’s roadside wildlife management program. And they would have pushed for a new St. Paul fish hatchery.”

Here’s how Smith, Kvale, Zentner and Myres, and their supporters, envision a Minnesota Citizens Conservation Advisory Council:

— The council would have no regulatory authority, only advisory. “In some states, such as South Dakota and Missouri, where their conservation commissions set seasons and hire and fire the equivalent of their DNR commissioners, the system works well,” Smith said. “In other states, not so much. As we’ve structured our council, we believe it can effectively gather Minnesotans’ opinions and make sure they are acted on, or at least strongly considered.”

— The 10-member, all-volunteer council would be nonpartisan and would not replace current DNR citizens groups that advise the agency on specific species or its budget.

— Two members with hunting, fishing, wildlife and/or conservation knowledge or experience from each of five Minnesota regions would serve on the council. Meetings would be held monthly around the state and would be live-streamed and recorded.

— While the council’s recommendations would be science-based, its intention would be to connect science with citizen experience.

— The council would advocate for the DNR when appropriate. “We know DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen is against this idea, and that’s unfortunate,” Myres said, referring to a Sept. 4 opinion column in Outdoor News in which she said a volunteer group, the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee, already exists to counsel the DNR. “That said, the Citizens Conservation Advisory Council will not be a DNR adversary. We want more conservation, not less. The council’s role will be to connect the public to the DNR, the governor and to legislators — in other words, to bring Minnesotans’ very considerable conservation interests to bear on the state’s leaders.”

This last point is important. Minnesota has changed, and continues to change. It’s less culturally monolithic than it was 20 years ago, for example, and more urban.

But it’s still the state whose residents in 2008 voted to tax themselves to pay for more fish and wildlife habitat, more parks and trails, more arts, arts education and arts access, and to preserve the state’s history and cultural heritage.

As recently as 2024, Minnesotans also voted to rededicate a portion of state lottery proceeds to the environment.

Recent surveys at Game Fair and Prairie Pothole Day, Myres said, showed 86% of respondents support the council idea.

“The key to implementing the council,” Zentner said, “is the governor’s race. Both Lisa Demuth and Amy Klobuchar said at Game Fair they would consider the idea. It’s critical that whoever is elected follows through and appoints a DNR commissioner who supports it also.

“The new governor has a chance to make conservation history and can help save what most Minnesotans want saved.”

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