It took six years, but Minnesota’s DNR commissioner finally filled her park passport

When Sarah Strommen became the head of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in 2019, she picked up a brand new park passport. Serving as commissioner, she wanted to see all the agency’s 64 state park and nine recreation areas with fresh eyes. She’d already seen many of them growing up in Minnesota, but others she had never been to. The Passport Club pamphlet encourages participants to collect a series of stamps found at every single one of the agency’s recreation areas for a total of 73 possible stamps. Back then, Strommen knew it would take a lot of time. She didn’t expect it would take six years. “Initially, I hoped I could do it in four years in that first term, but COVID derailed that a little bit,” she said at her office in the agency’s St. Paul headquarters. “I got to all of them, bit by bit.” Advertisement Strommen celebrated wedding anniversaries with her husband at some of the parks. At others, she went fishing and hunting with her son. Finally, with a September work trip to Garden Island State Recreation Area in the Northwest Angle, she was able to collect the last stamp on her passport, just months before her boss, Gov. Tim Walz, leaves office. Garden Island is billed by the DNR as one of the “ quietest ” parks and is likely one of the harder ones to get to, she said. Getting there required an hourlong boat ride across Lake of the Woods from Zippel Bay State Park, she said. After arriving at the 734-acre recreation area, she went for a hike along the beach and then across the island. Along the way, she saw migrating birds and even black bear tracks. It was an educational experience for Strommen, who learned how DNR staff stationed there maintained the docks on the remote island.