The Legislature adjourned for the biennium on Monday. The dust is still settling, but we wanted to provide you with an update on where we landed with a few of our top priorities. We are very pleased to have played a crucial role in paving the way for grants of up to $2 million for trail maintenance, as well as helping fund more local parks and trails grants, and passing needed changes and grant extensions in a Legacy bill.

Community Grants for Trail Maintenance

Advocating for funding to build new parks and trails has always been a priority for the Greater Minnesota Parks and Trails (GMPT) organization, but this biennium, we stepped up and helped shape a trail maintenance grant program that our members and other local governments can tap into.

In 2023, the Legislature created the Community Grants program that would make funds from the Environment and Natural Resources Fund (ENRTF) available to local governments and other entities for smaller grants. In 2025, we helped ensure that trail maintenance was a permissible use for the funds.

During the interim last year, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) drafted a report on how the program would be administered and recommended a $750,000 cap on all grants. For those of you who have done trail maintenance, you know that amount won’t get you far with true rehabilitation. Working with Rep. Josh Heintzeman and his staff, we pushed to raise the trail maintenance cap to $2 million. Multiple GMPT Board members were helpful, as was business member Stewart Crosby from SRF Consulting Group.

The House version of the LCCMR bill (H.F. 3426)—that’s the Legislative Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources, which recommends spending of the ENRTF—included the $2 million cap increase, but the Senate did not. As the House and Senate were negotiating, we sent a detailed letter to the relevant authors and chairs explaining why a higher cap for trail maintenance was needed. Legislators listened, and they included the higher cap in the final version of the bill that passed the House and Senate last week and was signed by the Governor.

Funding for Local Parks and Trails

Ensuring that local parks and trails are funded is always a top priority for GMPT. We are pleased to report that in addition to funding the Community Grants Program mentioned above, the LCCMR bill (H.F. 3426) also included $3.8 million for the DNR’s local parks, trail connections, and natural and scenic area grant programs.

We had hoped that the bonding bill would also include funding for those programs, but it did not.

Improvements to the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission (GMRPTC) and Extensions for Legacy Grants

Another top priority this year was legislation that modified the statute creating the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission (GMRPTC) and extended the timeline for multiple member legacy grants. GMPT worked with the Commission to introduce H.F. 3564 / S.F. 3799. The bill was heard in both bodies and was fairly non-controversial, but getting it across the finish line was far more difficult than it should have been.

The Senate Environment, Climate, and Legacy bill included the extensions in its omnibus finance bill, but did not include the language relating to the Commission. The Senate Finance Chair had asked the Committee Chairs not to include policy in their finance bills. The extensions were included in the overall finance bill that passed off the Floor.

The House included both the language relating to the Commission as well as the extensions in their proposed Legacy bill. We anticipated this bill would pass easily out of committee, but it also included provisions from the Outdoor Heritage bill. During the committee discussion and vote, the GOP proposed three amendments, all of which were rejected by the DFL. The GOP refused to vote for the overall bill, so it did not advance out of committee.

For the last several weeks leading up to the end of session, GMPT’s lobbyist worked with the Commission’s Executive Director, GMPT members affected by the extensions, and a host of environmental groups concerned about the Outdoor Heritage portion of the bill. Finally, less than 4 days before the close of session, the legislators negotiated an agreement that allowed the bill to move forward. The final version of S.F. 2077 included everything GMPT and the Commission had requested.

There are other bills that we worked on and monitored, so stay tuned for a more in-depth session summary or join us at our Summer Meeting! Click here to register.

For questions on our legislative work, please reach out to GMPT Lobbyist Elizabeth Wefel at eawefel@flaherty-hood.com.