Steam Valve

Giving New Meaning to "Wildlife Area"

I hear about the need for more open space and wildlife habitat all the time.  Just the other night we attended the Vermillion River Corridor meeting for our area.  The proposal for funding this project represented one of its goals as: "Identifies and integrates wildlife habitat protection/restoration and outdoor recreation (public access and trail) projects and priorities with water quality improvement activities"

Now wcco.com reports on "ongoing problems" in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Burnsville, where police are cracking down on males who frequent the wildlife area in order to have sex in public with strangers.  I'm guessing that's not exactly the kind of wildlife that the federal government intended to sponsor in this 14,000-acre refuge.

Although I suppose one could broadly interpret portions of the refuge's 2004 Comprehensive Conservation Plan promoting "native species and natural processes" to somehow support this natural use of the wildlife refuge.  Fortunately, however, local police do not adopt this point of view and instead call it "unacceptable behavior."

We're told that the Burnsville police will continue their enforcement in the area at least until next week.  After that, who knows?

Cross-posted at www.mnpropertyrightswatch.org

Creating Victims

In its never-ending search for victims to write about, the Star Tribune is trying to whip up sympathy for homeowners whose eminent domain award goes to their lender to pay down their mortgage.  It reports: 

In an unusual twist brought about by stressed lenders and highly leveraged real estate, homeowners across the metro who are facing the loss of land due to eminent domain projects are increasingly getting notices from banks claiming rights to the proceeds. In the past, such notices were sent so rarely that county officials never saw a need to keep track of how often it happened.

What "unusual twist?"  Standard mortgage provisions require paying eminent domain proceedings to the lender.  Homeowners benefit by getting their mortgages paid off sooner, with more of their payments going to reduce principal instead of paying interest.

Minnesota law requires that the condemning authority provide notice to lenders, as well as owners, lessees and anybody else with an interest in the property when property is sought to be condemned. 

In an interesting non sequitur, the article first tells us that homeowners are getting notices from their banks claiming rights to the condemnation proceeds.  Then, in the very next sentence, we are told that county officials have never kept track of how often "it happened" that homeowners received such notices. 

How would the county have any record of notices that were sent to homeowners?  Does the Star Tribune expect the government to be the nanny that watches over pitiful homeowners unable to read the documents they sign, and to record every time lenders enforce their contractual rights against these poor, unsuspecting homeowners?  Just exactly how much intrusion into our lives will be necessary to protect us from our own ignorance?

Did this writer even attempt to get to the bottom of this non-story? Or, in her mission to infantilize homeowners and pave the way for more governmental intervention, did she think that was unnecessary?

Birds Thrive in Urban Sprawl

Surprise.  Moderately settled suburban subdivisions, a/k/a "sprawl" was found to increase biodiversity for birds.  And the most birds were not found around tightly clustered homes in the middle of open space or forested land.  Instead, University of Washington Professor John Marzluff explained:

"The diversity peaks in these moderately settled subdivisions, what we think of as sprawl. That was really a surprise. We expected that sprawl would be the worst thing for birds, but in fact it increases diversity."

Marzluff points out openings, some edges, some forest remnants, and urban features are all close together here. He says that variety of habitat in the typical leafy suburb promotes the feathered riches.

The finding jives with what longtime neighborhood resident Milton Dick sees beyond his five acre lot. Dick says it seems like there are more birds around.

Dick: "Lots of birds here, all kinds. A lot of people feed them. A lot of people have bird feeders down here. The birds come back, year after year you see them."

Do the Math First

Hennepin County commissioner Jeff Johnson did the math on the solar panels recently installed on the county’s Public Works building in Medina.  He heard that the panels were a terrific cost savings measure for the county taxpayers because they would save $15,000 per year in energy costs.

And then he asked how much it cost the county to install the solar panels.

They cost $900,000.

Doing the math, Johnson concluded:

Yes, these solar panels will begin to save the taxpayers of Hennepin County $15,000 per year in 2070.  My 5th grade son, Thor, will be 71.  I will be dead.  And I’m willing to wager that the Hennepin County Public Works building in Medina will be long gone.

Why can't public officials do the math before these projects are implemented?