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Phil Picardi
St. Paul, Minn.

New leader vows to modernize Minnesota state parks

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Lake Vermilion
Lake Vermilion, in northeastern Minnesota. Lawmakers in 2008 approved legislation to create a state park at Lake Vermilion, on land owned by U.S. Steel. The park is still in development.
MPR photo/Tom Weber

Minnesota's state parks system will have a new leader this spring. Cortland Nelson is retiring as head of Parks and Trails for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in April after ten years at the department.

Taking over the job of overseeing 76 state parks and thousands of miles of state trails will be Erika Rivers. Rivers comes from inside the DNR, where she's currently an assistant commissioner. One of her roles in the department was to oversee development of Lake Vermillion State Park, which was proposed in 2008 on land formerly owned by U.S. Steel.

She discussed her new job, tight budgets, the progress at Lake Vermillion and the future of state parks with MPR's Phil Picardi. Click the audio player above to hear their conversation.