Protect (Acquire) Key Forest Habitat Lands in Cass County - Phase VII

The central Minnesota region, especially areas in Cass County from Brainerd-Baxter to Walker, has and will continue to see some of the fastest population growth in the state. This growth has led to increased demands from use of this area, its natural resources and related public land base is needed to support this growth. Development of these private industrial parcels has resulted in the loss of Jack Pine Barrens in the landscape of Cass County. Industrial forest tracts held by Potlatch are currently being sold to private developers. These lands often provide access to existing public lands for resource management, are in-holdings in otherwise unfragmented landscapes, create contiguous wildlife corridors, and protect larger blocks of land especially useful for stand level management of habitat. 

These key industrial forest tracts (i.e. in-holdings in large public land tracts, management access issues) are being considered or currently being offered for sale by a large industrial forest owner (Potlatch Corp) in this area. Market conditions and a willingness by this industrial forest owner to sell at this time is an opportunity that should be addressed now since it is narrow and may close at any time. The strategy is to acquire land that completes existing habitat corridors. The land acquired has existing forest access roads that have been used for management access for years. The sale of these lands to private individuals has already resulted in the loss of access for resource management on public lands and conversion from forest to agricultural use. The acquired lands were not being pursued for convenience of management. 

The acquired parcels play a key role in future management plans of the Jack Pine Barrens including the role of fire as a management tool. The loss of these parcels to private ownership would have resulted in lost access and possibly loss of forest land. Management of adjacent public lands would have been limited to frozen ground conditions which eliminates management tools such as site preparation, aerial seeding and prescribed burning for Jack Pine regeneration. This type of management requires year round access to existing public lands in the Jack Pine barrens landscape as well as protecting habitat in and around the surrounding areas.

The Cass County Forest Resource Management Plan directs the County to acquire land of this nature whenever possible to protect the management access. The Cass County Comprehensive plan requires no net loss of acres of public land and local unit of government input on all purchases and land sales. This project met the requirements of both plans and required stakeholder's input as part of the project. All purchases in this project were supported by both the County and Townships.

The Carder 160 parcel adjoins approximately 8,500 acres public land that provides a large contiguous block of wildlife corridor and habitat. This acquisition also permanently protects over 1,200 feet of undeveloped shoreline on the Boy River. This parcels adjoins other county managed lands at the Deep Portage Reserve where a recent bird count study was completed. From Dr. Gerald Niemi’s report, “the results of the counts in 2016 reveal a diverse avifauna at Deep Portage, including five species defined by Audubon Minnesota as stewardship species in Minnesota and four species identified by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as Species of Greatest Conservation Need”. Study results included 47 different bird species and nearly a thousand individuals were observed during a 3 day period on the one square mile plot. Niemi also reports that “Forest management as the site should be reviewed to determine how this management has facilitated or maintained such a high population of Golden-winged Warbler as well as several other species of concern in Minnesota". This acquisition supports the habitat needs of 47 different bird species. 

Likewise, the Powers 40 acquisition adjoins the same 8,500 acres of public land as described above. 

The May Potlatch 40 is a located less than 10 miles away from the rapidly developing area of Brainerd-Baxter. This key acquisition consolidates a 640 acre block of wildlife habitat while guaranteeing a permanent public access for hunting and forest management purposes.

The Bullmoose 40 parcel is surrounded by county managed land on 3 sides and is located in the middle of a 16,000 block of public managed land in Bull Moose Township. This parcel provides wildlife habitat for species like black bear, timberwolf. bobcat and pine martin.

The Cass County Land Department has been in business for over 60 years. The staff of professional foresters over 140 years of natural resource management experience. The County managed forest lands have been certified to the Forest Stewardship Council forest certification standard since 2000. This certification is a rigorous third-party audit of the counties forest management practices and operations and insures to residents, taxpayer and visitors that these forest lands are managed in a sustainable manner.

Cass County continues to show a proven record of success. Since the county was awarded its first grant in 2010, this final report marks the seventh closed Outdoor Heritage Fund grant. This is a program that performs because of our accountability to the local taxpayers.