ST. PAUL, Minn. - Several conservation groups are calling on the federal government to require the state to reduce haze over Minnesota's national parks and wilderness areas. Chuck Laszewski with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy says they've petitioned the Departments of Interior and Agriculture to include some tough clean-up measures in a draft plan now being drawn up by the state Pollution Control Agency.
He says one target is emissions from what he cites as one of the area's worst pollution offenders, the state's largest generating plant, run by Xcel Energy in Sherburne County.
"The air over some of our most pristine areas, particularly the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Voyageurs National Park, suffers from haze many days of the year. It shouldn't. When people go to those places, they should have crystal-clear skies to look at."
He also includes the Isle Royale National Parks as a haze victim. The groups want the Pollution Agency plan being drafted to reduce the emissions and haze and improve the region's air quality.
The EPA says the Xcel coal plant in Sherburne County is considered the biggest polluter of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide in the state. Xcel notes that, over the years, it has implemented whatever controls were necessary to meet regulations, and says it will continue to comply with any reasonable guidelines.
Laszewski says the coastal scenery in Isle Royale and other national parks should not have to be viewed through a haze. And he says the sources are well-known.
"It's the particulates, basically, that come out of coal-fired power plants and out of taconite processing plants. In particular, we're asking that they use the best available technology to cut those types of pollutants."
He says the petition asks the federal government to order the state to act more thoroughly than the state plan now being considered. The advocates want tougher rules, and they say getting the feds involved will help bring pressure.
Other groups in the federal petition for stronger haze reductions are the National Parks Conservation Association, Voyageurs National Park Association and Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
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Tributes and memorials are pouring in for victims of the deadly flooding along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County.
The storm stalled over the Texas Hill Country early Friday morning and the river rose 26 feet, wiping out campgrounds, homes, roads and bridges.
Casey Claiborne, a former anchor at KTBC-TV in Austin, and his family are vacationing in the area. He said they escaped the catastrophe because their home sits high on a hill.
"There was a debris line that had gone over the mailbox and it had receded back down but it was just below the little guardrail on the side of a road," Claiborne recounted. "It was an apocalyptic scene. I could see a crashed car. The car was still on; there was some sort of a kayak trapped underneath."
President Donald Trump has approved a major disaster declaration for Kerr County following the storms. The designation means residents will have access to federal funding for recovery efforts.
The banks along the Guadalupe River are home to multiple summer camps. About 700 children were in attendance at a Christian camp called Camp Mystic. Many of the victims of the deadly floods were attending camps.
Claiborne added it is personal for his wife and family.
"This is a small, narrow road that just goes into the middle of nowhere, beautiful Hill Country on the river," Claiborne explained. "There are camps just all up and down the road and so she was a camper and a counselor at one of those camps. And so, she feels a lot of pain for Mystic."
There are no warning sirens in the area. The National Weather Service issued multiple flash flood warnings before daylight on Friday but victims said they did not have enough time to prepare or escape the water.
Christy Noem, secretary of Homeland Security, said the Trump administration plans to fix the agency's technology.
"One of the reasons that when President Trump took office that he said he wanted to fix, and is currently upgrading the technology and the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years," Noem stated.
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Supporters of public lands will gather in Santa Fe next week to oppose pending legislation that would sell off millions of acres in 11 Western states, including New Mexico.
The Monday afternoon rally is scheduled during this year's Western Governors' Association annual meeting. The event includes U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who backs the legislation - while New Mexico's entire congressional delegation opposes the land-sale provision.
"As written, the bill would put more than 100 million acres of public land up for sale," said Kate Groetziner, communications manager for the Center for Western Priorities, "and it would actually mandate the sale of at least 2 million acres."
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has long advocated for public land sales, arguing only "underused" parcels would be considered. But data from the Wilderness Society show more than 250 million acres could qualify - roughly equivalent to the land mass of California, New York and Texas combined. Only Montana would be excluded from the sales, after Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., carved out an exemption.
The second Trump administration renewed the effort to sell public lands to boost oil and gas production, increase logging and mining, and accommodate data centers for artificial intelligence and computer networks. That messaging was expanded in March, when Burgum announced a task force to explore building "affordable" homes on Western public lands to ease the nation's housing shortage.
Groetzinger said the way it's written now, the bill is a giveaway to private developers and the ultra-wealthy who could build luxury homes near U.S. forest land.
"Some of the lands that will be most at risk are those close to Western towns and cities, the lands where people like to get out after work and recreate," she said. "Another concern we have is that there's no affordability requirement; the text of the bill does not include any requirements that the housing be affordable."
The Interior Department is also considering reversing protections for more than 300,000 acres surrounding New Mexico's historic Chaco Canyon, according to a letter sent to tribal governments last month. The reversal would open the lands under mineral leasing laws.
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International tourists visiting U.S. national parks may pay more at the gate starting next year.
Advocates have called it a "common-sense policy" that could raise needed revenue for maintenance. In its 2026 "Budget in Brief," the U.S. Department of the Interior has included a surcharge for the 14 million foreigners who visit America's national parks annually.
A 2023 report from the Property and Environment Research Center found a $25 surcharge would just about double fee revenue to the National Park Service, adding $330 million to its coffers.
Tate Watkins, research fellow at the center, said the revenue could go a long way.
"With a relatively small increase in fees for visitors from abroad, you could raise a really significant amount of revenue that many parks really, really need," Watkins pointed out. "Especially the ones that are bigger, attract more visitors and have seen booms in visitation over recent years."
Watkins noted routine maintenance at Yellowstone, the nation's oldest park, costs about $43 million annually, while the park has a maintenance backlog totaling $1.5 billion. The Interior budget comes as the U.S. Senate's reconciliation bill proposes moves which could hinder park operations, including pulling $267 million in remaining Inflation Reduction Act funding earmarked for the Park Service.
Watkins stressed current park fees make up a small slice of travel budgets for those visiting from outside the country, usually less than 3%.
"When you think of the types of visitors who are able to pay multi-thousands of dollars for a big, often bucket-list trip to some of the incredible sites that we have at our national parks, most wouldn't blink at paying a little bit more, or even potentially a decent amount more," Watkins asserted.
According to the report, it is common practice around the world to charge international visitors more. Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia, for example, charges foreigners $55, almost four times the citizens' rate of $14.
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