A First: DNR Ceases Most Activity

Lake Minnetonka traditionally sees some of the highest water activity of the year during the first week of July, and sweltering forecasts point toward 2011 being no exception.

What will be different this Fourth of July is the virtual absence of DNR enforcement officers on the lake.

The shutdown of state government means most DNR operations will cease until a budget deal is in place, and the task of patrolling the state’s waterways will fall to just 186 conservation officers.

Steven Briggs and his son, Sam, regularly make the 20-minute drive from their home in Jordan to fish Lake Minnetonka. Although DNR patrols will be few and far between, father and son say they still plan on doing so this holiday weekend.

“I worry that people are going to say ‘hey, the government is shutdown and there is no DNR, so lets go crazy,’" Briggs said. "Hopefully those knuckleheads will be the exception rather than the rule.”

In addition to drastically scaled-back enforcement patrols, all nine of Lake Minnetonka’s public boat accesses will go unmaintained for the duration of the shutdown.

“If a tree falls across a boat landing, no one will be there to clear it,” said Rich Bruns, operations manager of the DNR Parks and Trails Central Region.

State parks, recreation areas and campgrounds are also closed until further notice. All were locked at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Statewide, 73 state park and recreation areas will close, as will 40 state forest campgrounds, according to Courtland Nelson, director of the DNR Division of Parks and Trails.

“We are discouraging people from coming into the parks while we’re closed because there won’t be emergency services—no staff to respond to injuries, no water or sanitary facilities,” he said. “While we discourage activities in parks while we are gone, some people will come in, so hopefully those people will be kind to the parks and not cause damage."

Regional parks like Minnewashta Regional Park, administered by Carver County, and those operated by the Three Rivers Park District won't be affected. Similarly, the  should escape most effects of a state government shutdown.

Inspections for , a top DNR priority this summer, will come to a halt. Zebra mussels were discovered in Lake Minnetonka last summer, and the DNR had planned to ramp up monitoring this summer.

Volunteer invasive species inspectors were checking boats coming out of Lake Minnetonka as late as Tuesday of this week.

Environmental impact studies, monitoring of protected waters, non-game wildlife programs, biological survey programs and ground water monitoring have also been halted as of 12:01 a.m. Friday.

“If it was a short duration the impacts would be relatively minimal,” Steve Hirsch, director of the DNR’s Division of Ecological and Water Resources Division said. “If it’s a longer duration, I think we would start to become concerned.”

Just about all of the DNR’s 2,500 employees will go without pay for the duration of the shutdown, and no fishing, boating, hunting or ATV licenses will be issued until the state government resumes operation.

More than 36,000 fishing licenses were sold state wide on Thursday, more than double the 14,000 sold on June 30, 2010.

This is the first time in the DNR's history that the agency has ceased virtually all of its operations and services.

The DNR made contingency plans for a state shutdown back in 2005, but implementation wasn't needed because the DNR’s budget was approved prior to the state government shutting down.