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February 3, 2002 Governor Jesse Ventura 130 State Capitol St. Paul MN 55155
Dear Governor Ventura, I need your help with one of the state agencies. I have gone through all the proper channels from the Director of Fisheries, the Regional Fisheries Manager, the Commercial Fisheries Program Consultant, to the DNR Commissioner. The Commissioner has yet to reply to my December 12, 2001 letter. I am attaching a copy of that letter. In a December 20, 2001 meeting the Fisheries finally agreed to acknowledge my license but they are still refusing to give me a correct 2001 license. I believe they are trying to re-write history in order to validate the 2001 arbitrary permit denial that cost my small farm in excess of $10,000. Last spring the Fisheries Division of the MN DNR denied a permit to stock orangespotted sunfish into a man-made pond that has been licensed for that species since 1996. The MN DNR Fisheries has licensed all of my ponds for orangespotted sunfish. The Region Manager who approved my most recent ponds for orangespotted sunfish is the same one who denied the permit to stock orangespotted sunfish. His predecessor had already approved my first ponds for orangespotted sunfish. I have reported purchasing orangespotted sunfish broodfish and reported selling this species to the MN DNR Fisheries. It has never been a problem until I filed an ethics complaint against the Fisheries Research Manager for giving false testimony to the House Environment and Natural Resource Policy Committee. Suddenly it became a problem that resulted in the loss of over $10,000 in sales. I believe this is retaliation by the MN DNR Fisheries. I have copies of the signed DNR documents that show all of my ponds are licensed for all species including orangespotted sunfish. The Fisheries has never contacted me with any concerns about my license nor have they ever said anything about conditionally approving my ponds until the December 20, 2001 meeting. At that meeting I voluntarily offered to put in a fish barrier before the start of the 2002 season and to make the 2002 license renewal conditional on the barrier. I did NOT offer to make the existing 2001 license conditional. It should have been issued correctly last spring but wasn’t because of faulty paperwork on the part of the MN DNR Fisheries. I have never been so disgusted with state government as I am now. The Fisheries is acting like a bunch of state sponsored thugs and no one is willing or able to stop them. I would appreciate it if you could do something to get the MN DNR Fisheries to follow the law? Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
John Reynolds Midwest Fish and Crayfish 26385 County Road 3 Merrifield MN 56465 (218) 829-7974 8-4pm (218) 765-3030 evenings and weekends |