Minnesota Forest Recovery Project: Phase II

In northern Minnesota, vast expanses of forest are now in poor condition with diminished value for wildlife. Large tracts of private lands remain vulnerable to development. Long-lived conifers and diverse young forest habitats have declined. Threats such as invasive species, a warming climate, fragmentation, and habitat loss pose great challenges for forest and wildlife managers. Over time, forest health issues tend to become more difficult and expensive to reverse. Significant investments in Minnesota's forests are urgently needed now to improve forest health for wildlife, clean water, cultural values, and local economies.

Goals of this project are to:
-Protect large tracts of contiguous forest through conservation easements
-Enhance forest productivity in degraded stands to benefit wildlife
-Enhance riparian forests to improve water quality and fish habitat
-Enhance tree species, age-class, and patch size diversity to improve habitat and increase forest resilience

Phase I of the project built on a long history of enhancement and protection partnerships in northern Minnesota. Prior to Phase I, TNC led over 12,000 acres of enhancements and worked with partners to conserve over 300,000 acres of forests with conservation easements.

Since Phase I of this project began in 2019, we completed 2100 enhancement acres and will exceed enhancement goals by the closing date in 2022.

Phase II seeks to enhance 11,555 acres and will add an easement component that will protect 3,445 acres.

Enhancements will include:
-Site preparation including shearing, brush cutting, and removal of trees damaged by spruce budworm
-Tree planting and tending
-Coordinating across multiple landowners to maintain or increase young and mature forest patch size
-Prescribed burning
-Black Ash stand diversification

We used a collaborative approach to identify enhancement sites across DNR, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, US Forest Service, and Beltrami, Lake, and St. Louis County lands, and we will seek additional landowner partners. Advisory partners include the American Bird Conservancy, the 1854 Treaty Authority, The Minnesota Land Trust, and the Ruffed Grouse Society. We also partner with groups including the Arrowhead, North Shore, and Manitou collaboratives and Minnesota Forest Resource Council Landscape Committees.

Conservation easements will be acquired from willing sellers. In collaboration with the MN DNR Forests for the Future Program and Minnesota Land Trust, we are purposefully keeping options open to match the top landowners and properties to the conservation easement option that works best for them. We will work closely with MN DNR and MLT to prioritize properties for outreach, rank opportunities, and find the best conservation easement solution on a property-by-property basis (DNR, MLT, or TNC).

Properties will be prioritized based on factors including tract size, Minnesota Biological Survey data, aquatic features, contribution to larger complexes of protected forest land, forest condition, and relevance to the Resilient and Connected Network data (developed by TNC scientists and partners). We seek to conserve the largest and most important gaps in the Resilient and Connected Network.

During implementation, TNC will strengthen local partnerships, seek and coordinate easement acquisitions, coordinate habitat enhancements with landowners, and supervise contractors.