To plan, or not to plan ...

© harrington

Hi. Thanks for visiting. Instead of going back and correcting yesterday's post, we're posting a (partial) correction and retraction today (we didn't get all of yesterday's posting wrong, just part of it), with apologies for not having fact checked our sources in the first place. We now want to shed at least bright moonlight on the fact that Minnesota does have a Prairie Conservation Plan. The Executive Summary is dated June 22, 2011. It was developed by the Minnesota Prairie Plan Working Group which includes representatives from The Nature Conservancy, MNDNR, USFWS, MN Prairie Chicken Society, MNBOWSR, Pheasants Forever, The Conservation Fund and the Lessards-Sams Council. The plan, rare for something of its ilk, includes evaluation measures. It also includes estimates of implementation costs. I suspect, as with most good ideas these day, the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan could use more awareness of its existence as well as substantially more financial support. I may have missed something in all the years that I was a regional environmental planner, but I always thought that having a plan, no matter how much it might need improvement or enhancement or funding or support, was not the same as not having a plan. But then, I was surprised to learn (according to the Internet) that Paul Ehrlich seems to have said something about keeping track of all the pieces when we tinker even before Aldo Leopold said something very similar. At least I assume Ehrlich said it first, since he was older than Leopold. (Ehrlich: 1854 - 1915; Leopold: 1887 - 1948). This quotation isn't quite as troublesome, however, as the one about the best way to invent/create/predict the future, which is variously attributed to Alan Kay, Abraham Lincoln and Peter Drucker. I suspect that what we can be sure of is that insightful, creative, useful ideas will often have more than one source. Now, please go and download a copy of Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan, read it, and figure out what you can do to help implement it. To crib another quote, this one from Will Rogers (I think): Go buy land prairie, son. They ain't makin' any more of it. Thanks for listening. Come again when you can. Rants, raves and reflections (sometimes accompanied by [mis?]quotes) served here daily.