 Nothing substitutes for seeing the North Country first hand, so Senator Mary Olsen was adamant about getting other senators from St. Paul to the area. Two of the three senators are chairs of the environmental committees in the Senate, so they have a lot of impact statewide as far as policy and budgeting decisions are concerned. They deal with state park systems, protection of natural resources and a vision of trail systems. By bringing them to the Mississippi headwaters, local representatives are hoping it will leave a lasting impression. We do like to bring other legislators up to the park area, up to the headwaters of Mississippi because many times we bring people from our area down to testify on various things, but it's not the same as having the legislators actually be able to experience it. Senators Pappas, Anderson and Chandra were eager to explore I-Tasca State Park and the river, but Senator Olsen also wanted them to experience some of the resorts in the area first hand. Tourism affects the economy of this area and listening to small resort owners and retailers that are reliant on the resort business first hand really helps them to understand how much promotion of tourism and protection of small resorts is really fundamental to our economy in this area. The group camped out last night and canoeed down the Mississippi today. They'll be taking several issues discussed over the past few days back to session after this trip. For Lakeland News at 10, I'm Ashley Hall.