Minnesota–Citizen members of the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources elected Brooklyn Park hydrologist Della Schall Young the non-legislative chair late Tuesday afternoon. Young is the first Black Minnesotan to serve as a co-chair of the LCCMR.
She joins state representative Rick Hansen, DFL-S. St. Paul, and state senator Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, as co-chair.
Young ran without opposition.
Her bio from the LCCMR website:
Della Schall Young, of Brooklyn Park, is the owner of Young Environmental Consulting Group, LLC., an environmental planning, permitting and compliance consulting firm. In her role, she combines her resource management passion and unwavering integrity to help clients execute projects in environmentally responsible ways. Della holds a Bachelor of Science degree in natural resources and environmental studies with an emphasis on water resources management and a Master of Science degree in water resources science from the University of Minnesota. She currently maintains roles on the Audubon Center of the North Woods, the Metropolitan Council Livable Communities Advisory Committee and Leader of Girl Scout Troop 15981.
There’s more at Young Environmental Consulting Group:
Young Environmental Consulting Group is a dream come true for owner and principal scientist, Della Schall Young. The dream began many years ago when Della, as a child, visited her grandmother in the West African nation of Liberia. Her grandmother lived in the interior of the country, where water had to be drawn from a well and purified. Della’s passion for water was born after she watched the energy-intensive process required to have clean, drinkable water. Della’s dream further developed while living in Minnesota, within the Mississippi River watershed. The Mississippi River and other Minnesota treasures, like the Boundary Waters, have inspired Della through their natural beauty and ecosystems. Minnesota’s water-centered environments shaped Della’s life-long interest in managing natural resources effectively for everyone. Young Environmental is based on that dream.
Della’s passion led her to earn water and natural resource degrees from the University of Minnesota and pursue a career in water resources management. With 20 years of technical and business management skills, Della combined her proficiency and experience with her passion for water to create Young Environmental Consulting Group.
In addition to Della’s love of water, she is an advocate for providing access to the world of water and business management through mentoring and peer coaching. She is extremely committed to serving her communities, working with both youth and adults to develop their connections to nature and water. Della has a heartfelt need to encourage women in their personal and professional lives and she works actively to mentor women in all walks of life by sharing her expertise and insight. Della currently maintains roles on the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, the Audubon Center of the North Woods Board, the Metropolitan Council Livable Communities Advisory Committee, Girl Scout Troop 15981, and as a mentor in the Minneapolis/St. Paul community. . . .
According to the LCCMR website:
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. The function 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). These projects help maintain and enhance Minnesota’s environment and natural resources. The LCCMR developed from a program initiated in 1963. Since 1963, approximately $1.0 billion has been appropriated to more than 2,300 projects recommended to the legislature by the Commission to protect and enhance Minnesota’s environment and natural resources.
The short meeting’s Facebook livestreamed video archive may be watched here.
While Young’s strong professional and academic credentials are clear, the path to passage and distribution of ENRTF funds is not. At Star Tribune Tony Kennedy reported earlier this month Senate panel again tries to alter projects with constitutional backing:
State lawmakers began the 2021 session saying they would move quickly to pass a backlog of recommended wildlife habitat projects and environmental research tied to state lottery proceeds.
But a key Senate committee this week created an outcry by introducing major changes to the list of outdoors projects that was first settled upon in 2019 by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
The action by the Republican-controlled Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee now has complicated the approval process for $131.8 million worth of LCCMR-recommended investments adopted by the commission in 2019 and 2020. Money for the projects is in the bank.
In the past, LCCMR bills have traveled separately through the Legislature, passing intact or with modest changes. But now the 2019 list of projects has been changed substantially and lumped into a bill that also cuts general fund appropriations to the Department of Natural Resources by $18 million. The big omnibus bill also demands a wolf hunt this fall, allows hunters to leave temporary tree stands inside wildlife management areas and proposes a reduction in the statewide walleye bag limit from six to four.
If the amalgamated bill passes the Senate Finance Committee next week, it would go to the Senate floor. . . .
(Photo: Della Young, in a blue shirt, third from the left, with Summer 2019 Interns who “conducted fluvial geomorphic reconnaissance and assessments for trout streams in the Lower Minnesota River Watershed.” Via Young Environmental Consulting Group’s website.
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