Minnesota Zoo seeks $3.8M in governor’s supplemental request; DNR and MPCA outline enforcement and monitoring needs

ST. PAUL — Directors from the Minnesota Zoo, Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency appeared before the Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee on April 9 to explain parts of the governor’s supplemental budget.

Minnesota Zoo: zoo Director John Frawley told the committee the governor recommended $3.8 million in one-time funding to help the zoo through the biennium, highlighting staffing shortages, rising vacancy rates and aging campus infrastructure. "We are grateful for the governor's recommendation for supplemental support of 3.8 million," Frawley said, noting the zoo receives about 36% of its funding from the state and raises most other revenue through operations.

Frawley said the facility has eliminated guest programs and faces safety risks tied to understaffing and equipment failures; about a third of zoo structures carry "poor" facility-condition ratings. He described the zoo’s tropics building as a "life support system" for species that require controlled conditions.

DNR: Col. Rodman Smith, director of enforcement at the Department of Natural Resources, described a supplemental request to cover costs when conservation officers provide mutual aid to other law-enforcement agencies for major events, including overtime, meals, lodging and training. He said the agency assisted the state patrol and local partners after high-profile incidents and large public gatherings and that costs represent a mix of overtime and work that otherwise would be covered by the agency’s general fund.

Smith also explained a dual-track budget option tied to anticipated land-sale revenues totaling about $474,000 this year (roughly $225,000 from one Becker County parcel and $251,000 from another 19.2-acre sale), but noted those receipts are deposited in the Natural Resources Land Acquisition Account and cannot be reallocated without a statutory change.

MPCA: Tom Johnson, MPCA director of government relations, outlined three items in the governor’s recommendations: support for battery‑stewardship policy work (covered in a separate bill hearing), $50,000 per year from the Environmental Fund to cover ongoing calibration and software costs for added air-monitoring sites, and a package of emergency‑response statutory technical fixes that the agency estimates could yield about $200,000 per year in remediation‑fund savings.

Committee members asked about FTE counts, cross-account flexibility and how the agencies would absorb costs if a supplemental appropriation were not approved. MPCA said the agency has roughly 1,000 FTEs but program appropriations are siloed; DNR described instances in which mutual-aid activities were reimbursed via joint powers agreements and instances when general-fund supplementation was necessary.

Next steps: The committee thanked the agencies for testimony and said budget bills and policy language will return for further hearings and finance consideration.

(Reporting is drawn from the Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee hearing on April 9, 2026.)