John Herman, Scandia, is the Senate citizen appointee.  He has been an active advocate for environmental issues for many years.  He was honored as the Sierra Club Environmentalist of the Decade in 1980 for his work on legislation and open space funding in the 1970s, including the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act, the Metropolitan Open Space Act, over $300 Million of open space bonding and the Metropolitan Land Use Planning Act.  He was also a principal lobbyist in creation of the Root River Trail, Tettagouche State Park, the Cedar Lake Trail, and the legislation creating the Pollution Control Agency Voluntary Investigation and Clean-up Program to encouraged redevelopment of contaminated sites.  In his private practice he has undertaken many cases to protect environmental resources, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refugee and the St. Croix River.  He also served as the Chair of the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes Water Quality Task Force that recommended major wetland improvements that materially improved water quality in the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes. 

Herman is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, and is a partner at the Faegre & Benson law firm, where he practices in the areas of real estate development and finance, land use, environmental law and government relations.  He is on the Minnesota Board of the Trust for Public Land and serves on the Open Space Commission of Scandia Township.  Herman will serve a term which ends January 4, 2010. Appointed by the Senate.