Improving communication among agencies, groups and individuals with common interests only makes sense.
That’s why we’re glad to see the Heart of the Continent Partnership, developed in 2007, becoming more familiar to northern Minnesotans.
The mission of the partnership is simple: To sustain and celebrate the health, beauty, diversity and productivity of the natural and cultural resources of the border lakes region through collaboration to meet the needs of present and future generations.
And critical to fulfilling this mission is to remain nonjudgmental, according to Douglas Franchot, partnership chairman. The partnership does not take or advocate for positions. Instead, a key of the group is to develop trust among its members in a fair, open and communicative process.
The partnership focuses its work and discussion on topics about which it can increase members’ understanding and agreement through knowledge and sharing.
Because of our cultural and ecological ties to public lands, many agencies, organizations and individuals share common concerns and goals. It only makes sense to establish the partnership to connect these people so they may share information and knowledge about the issues that are so important to this border lakes region.
The group also deserves credit for organizing an International Community Congress in October that will bring together community teams, land managers and others from both sides of the border to learn how to better work together and best take advantage of the resources of this area. The goal of the workshop is to develop plans that will improve the sustainability of individual economies and the region as a whole.
We urge the partnership and its members to make a better connection with the general public, to which this group has remained a bit of a mystery.
The partnership clearly has the best interests of this region at heart and members of the public may want to get more involved.
