Northern Forest Habitat Conservation
The Minnesota Land Trust acquired a total of 4,373 acres of forest from PotlatchDeltic Corporation in February 2021 and conveyed all of these acres immediately to St. Louis County Land and Minerals Department for long-term management. All lands will be open to public hunting and fishing.
St. Louis County lies at the center of Minnesota's iconic northern forest landscape. Northern forests provide high quality wildlife habitat, clean water, sustainable forestry products and recreational opportunities because of the large, contiguous, publicly accessible lands. The restructuring of the global timber industry has put Minnesota's forest lands at risk as industrial owners divest land assets. The Minnesota Forest Resources Council identified parcelization of these lands as the primary threat to the ecological and economic health of Minnesota's forests. To ensure healthy game and non-game wildlife populations and to maintain historic public access points for hunting and fishing for future generations, the integrity of large forest tracks must be preserved.
Goals and Scope of Work:
The goal of this program was to ensure long term sustainability of game species and Species in Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) including moose, spruce grouse, northern long-eared bat, and Canada lynx in St. Louis County by acquiring in fee title 3,900 acres of strategic industrial forestland to fill gaps between existing public forestlands managed by St. Louis County Lands & Minerals Department (SLCMD). Minnesota Land Trust ("MLT") acquired 4,376 acres of forest concentrated in four units from PotlatchDeltic Corporation ("Potlatch") in February 2021 and conveyed all of these acres immediately to SLCMD for long-term management. All lands will be open to public hunting and fishing.
These four different units include:
1. Vermilion Unit - A 702-acre unit lying northwest of Vermilion Lake and consists of red and white pine forests, stands of aspen, black spruce swamps, creeks and wetlands. The unit lies within one of the largest blocks of unfragmented areas of native vegetation in Minnesota, and has not been actively logged.
2. Chicken Creek Unit - This 514-acre unit consists of seven individual parcels located between the Cloquet River and the headwaters of Chicken Creek. This Unit is dominated by mixed hardwood forest and young aspen stands, interspersed with wetlands. Many of these parcels have been logged within the past decade.
3. Carrol Trail Unit - The 206-acre Carrol Trail Unit consists of four contiguous parcels lying west of the Cloquet River. The unit is dominated by young aspen and mixed hardwood forest interspersed with stands of pine and spruce. This unit has been logged within the past decade.
4. Breverton Township Unit - At 2,954 acres, this is the largest unit protected through this transaction. This unit borders approximately 5 miles of the upper St. Louis River near Cloquet, and is dominated by northern hardwood forest interspersed with aspen-birch-fir forest.
All of the lands purchased through this appropriation were at-risk former industrial forest lands. At the time, Potlatch was actively divesting more than 10,200 acres in St. Louis County. Minnesota Land Trust worked with its project partners, St. Louis County Lands & Minerals Department (SLCLMD) and The Conservation Fund (TCF) to complete the transaction. The St. Louis County Board unanimously approved this project and the applicable townships and the Fond du Lac Band were notified and approved the transfer.
$4,205,000 the second year is to the commissioner of natural resources for an agreement with Minnesota Land Trust to acquire forest land in fee to be permanently protected and managed by St. Louis County as county forest lands. A list of proposed land acquisitions must be provided as part of the required accomplishment plan.
The LSOHC Northern Forest Section priorities list the need to protect larger blocks of habitat that directly border existing public forestland. The project concentrated on fee-title acquisition of strategically important land to connect, or add, large blocks of forest managed by SLCLMD. The properties were transferred to and designated as permanent conservation and included in SLCLMD's sustainable forestry portfolio. This project also preserved public access for outdoors-related recreation.
The selection criteria also sought to maintain intact forest landscapes through an analysis of ownership pattern as well as considering conservation priorities included in the State Wildlife Action Plan, MBS Sites of Biodiversity Significance and TNC Climate Change resiliency. This ensures long-term benefit to game species such as white-tailed deer, Ruffed Grouse, and woodcock. The project area also provides habitat for numerous songbirds and species listed as endangered, threatened, or of special concern including northern long-eared bat (federally endangered), moose, gray wolf, Canadian lynx, Bald Eagle, Boreal Owl, Golden-winged Warbler, big brown bat, and others.