Minnesota State Forests

DIVISION OF FORESTRY EDUCATIONAL PAMPHLET NO.8 MINNESOTA STATE FORESTS ENJOY DON'T THE D ESTROY FORESTS THEM STATE OF MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION CHESTER S. WILSON, Commissioner DIVISION OF FORESTRY H. G. WEBER, Director FOREWORD The state forests of Minnesota belong to the people of the state. As custodial agent for the people, the Division of Forestry presents this booklet to the people so that they may be advised of where their forests are, how they were establis h ed and what is being done with them. Cover Picture - Stand of Norway Pine MINNESOTA STATE FORESTS CONTENTS Page FORESTED AREA OF MINNESOTA 5 5 EARL Y SETTLERS FORESTED AREA OF MINNESOTA LAND 6 Earl y Land Ownership ., 6 When the fir t explorers arrived in the territory wh ich is now Kind of Land and Ownersh ip . 7 Minnesota, they found a vast expanse of prairie a nd forest. The F ORESTRY LEGISLATION 10 southwestern portion of this territory was primarily prairie, with a Tree Bounty Law, 187 1 10 few scattered areas of forest or timber a round the lakes and along First Forest Fire Prevention Law, 1895 10 the streams. To the east the forested areas increased. In this region Forestry Board Created, 1899 10 the trees were hardwoods, or as they are sometimes called , d eciduo us Pillsbury Forest Reserve Establi shed , 1899 10 trees, since they shed their leaves in the fall. Burntsi d e State Forest Accepted by State, 1905 . 11 State Forester Appointed , 19 11 . 11 Beginning in what is now southeastern Minnesota, the explorers Itasca State Park Made State Forest Reserve, 1907 1 1 found an almost solid h ard wood forest, the outhwestern boundary Fo rest Reserves C hanged to State Forests, 1913 . 12 of which coincided closely with a line drawn through the present Constitution Amended to Permit Establishment of State towns of Spring Valley, Zumbrota, Mankato, Glencoe, Fergus Falls, Forests, 1914 . 12 Mahnomen, Red Lake Falls and Thief River Falls. This hardwood Minnesota State Forest stablished, 1917 12 forest belt varied in width from about fifteen miles nea r Red Lake Agricultura l Land E lim.inated from State Forests, 1919 13 Falls to seventy miles or more between Litchfield and Cambridge, the Department of Conservation Created, 1925 ... ... ... 13 la tter point being some di tance northeast of the Mississippi River. State Land Within C hippewa National Forest Made State Forest, 1927 .... .. .. 13 From the ha rdwood belt north, the state was covered by a rela Additiona l State Forests Established, 1931 13 tively dense coniferous forest, consisting pril~arily of cone bearing Conservation Commission Created, 1931 13 trees such as pine, spruce,fir, cedar and tamarack. These trees are Twenty-s ix Sta te Forests Established, 1935 14 also called evergreens or softwoods to distinguish them f rom the Conservation Commissioner Replaces Commission, 19 37 15 deciduous or hardwood trees. In most of the coniferous forests the Continuing D epartment of Conservation, 1943 . 15 pines were by far the most important commercially. In the extreme Reestablishing 29 State Forests, 1943 15 north-central part of the state the pine forests gave way to more pro nounced swamp forests of spr uce, cedar and tamarack. T he largest 15 USES OF STAT FORESTS of these are found in Koochiching, Beltrami and Lake of the W oods 15 Timber M anagel11.ent Counties. Records of early explorations indicate that the pine forests 18 Recreati on were interspersed with aspen sta nds, just as they are today. Campgrounds 19 Summer Homesites 19 Wild L ife 19 E rosion Control 20 EARLY SETTLERS Navigation 20 Power D evelopment 2 1 After the early explorers came the trappers and voyageurs who CCC Work ..... 2 1 traveled by canoe and made use of the lakes and streams as their main routes of travel. This led to settlement a long such streams and MINNESOTA'S STATE FORESTS NAMES AND on t he shores of the lakes. M any of these early settlements are now LOCATIONS . 23 la rge cities or thriving villages. Other settlers came by wagon and settled on the pra iries and in the edges of the ad jacent forests. The CAMPGROUNDS, NAMES AND LOCATIONS . 26 prairie land was easy to cu ltivate and on the whole produced excel SUGGESTIONS TO THE USER OF STATE FORESTS 28 lent crops, while the nearby forest provided the neces ary building material and fuel. LOCATIONS O F FOR EST OFFI ERS 29 5 LAND Land was a lso granted to the University and to various institu tions. In addition to this a grant was nl.ade to the state of a large It was only natural that the most accessible and most easily area of swamp land, 50 per cent or more of which had to be so-ca lled cultivated land was first put uno use. The open land was soon oc swamp. In many cases this was n ot true swamp, but flat lands with ClIpied and since most of the hardwood forest grew on rich soil, the poor drainage which produced the swamp conifers mentioned before. next development was on this forest land_ Timber was cut primarily All in a ll, the state was granted 8,455,7021 acres of land. Of for the purpose of clearing the land so that it could be cultivated. this, 2,895,142 acres were again deeded to various companies to help Some of the timber was used as logs or sawed into lumber for build finance the construction of railroads, roads and similar improve ing purposes, but a great deal of the wood was burned just to get rid ments which were badly needed in opening up and developing the of it. state. The balance, or about 6,550,560 acres, remained temporarily The development of these praltle lands and these hardwood in state ownership. State Laws provide that these lands can be sold areas required the building of small towns and the need for addi for not less than five dollars per acre. Timber on the lands could be tional lumber for this construction soon led to the expansion of log sold independently, but there was no provision made for holding in ging operations from the hardwoods into the softwood areas because state ownership such of the land s as were unsuited for agricultural the lumber produced from the softwoods was far more desirable for use. The Congress of the United States also conveyed to the state building purposes. 8,313,880 acres specifi cally for railroad s. This la nd the state recol1 - veyed as directed. The cutover land left by logging operations 111 the softwood areas appealed to the settlers in a rapidly growing state as an addi tional source of plow land. The people familiar with the cutover Kind of Land and Ownership land in the south ern part of the state knew that most of it was suit The sale of la nd was carried on, but in 193 1 the state still owned able for agriculture and assumed that the cutover land of the more two million acres, and because of tax-delinqyency it was apparen t northern regions was equally good. This resulted in rapid set t1em e~t that many more thousands of acres would come into state owner following logging. As time went on it was found that north of the ship. 'It was recognized that certain of the state owned lands and hardwood forest the quality of much of the land was too poor to be certain of the tax-forfeiting lands were agricultural and fitted into farmed successfully. It was also found that some of the land which a planned land use program. Certain lands were suitable for and was being used for farming in the central and south ern part of the were being set aside as game r efuges and public hunting grounds; state was not as good as the homesteaders had hoped it would be. other lands were valuable for minerals. Examin ation showed that large areas of the remaining lands owned by the state and land s which Early Land Ownership would come into state ownership throug h tax-d elinquency were of a ch a racter unsuited for any of these specialized purposes but were suit During the first years of Minnesota's statehood, most of the land in the state still belonged to the United States government a lthough able for the production of timber or for the maintenance of a nec consid erable portions had been homesteaded or had come into pri essary ground cover, and on that prem.ise the state forest program vate ownership in some other manner. About this time large tracts was establish ed_ of this government-own ed land were granted to the state for various The boundaries of the state forests wh ich were subsequently purposes. All of Sections 16 and 36 were granted to the state for establish ed were determined by one or both of two factors, the first schools. When it was found t h at some of these sections had a lread y being the concentration of state land ownership in the area, and the gone into private ownership, the state was given wh at was known second being the presence in large quantities of lands within the area as " lieu selection." This meant that the state could select other which were unsuited for agricultura l use and which were tax-delinquent government lands that were not within Sections 16 or 36 in place of the so-called school sections which were no longer available_ 1 Figure from State Audito r's report, 19 31-1932.

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