Deal protects Brainerd forest

11/30/2005

Development pressure would be relieved

BY DENNIS LIEN
Pioneer Press

About 3,100 acres of forest in the popular Brainerd lakes area of north-central Minnesota will be protected from development under a conservation easement finalized Tuesday between the Trust for Public Land and the Potlatch Corp.

Using state and federal money, the nonprofit organization bought the easement near the Crow Wing State Forest from Potlatch, an arrangement that bans development on the property, ensures continued access for hunters and hikers, and still allows the company to log it.

The arrangement is the first of a two-part effort aimed at protecting large, vulnerable stretches of forest in the rapidly growing Brainerd area. The second phase of the $3.5 million effort — called the Brainerd Lakes Forest Legacy project — should be completed next year and will protect an additional 1,600 acres of forest near the Pillsbury State Forest.

The project is part of an even larger effort aimed at protecting the region’s private forests, which are under increasingly heavy pressure from real-estate interests buying land from large paper and timber companies, subdividing it and selling it. Without land protection measures, some government and conservation organizations contend the area’s habitat and recreational opportunities will be lost or fragmented.

Once the Brainerd project is completed, 22,000 acres of public and private land will be connected that otherwise would be vulnerable to development pressures, according to Susan Schmidt, Minnesota state director of the Trust for Public Land, which brokered the deal.

“The Brainerd and Baxter area is under tremendous development pressure,’’ Schmidt said. “Their population is projected to grow by 65 percent in the next 25 years.’’

The easement completed Tuesday pays Potlatch $3.5 million for agreeing to restrict future development permanently and to harvest the property’s timber in a sustainable way. The federal government contributed $2.8 million and the state $730,000.

Tom Murn, Potlatch’s regional resource manager, said increasingly high land values reduce the incentive for companies like Potlatch to own and manage those forests.

“Without a project like this, we would be under tremendous pressure to sell out,’’ Murn said. “This allows us to get compensated for that value.’’

The project is a joint effort of Potlatch, Cass and Crow Wing counties, local community supporters, the Trust for Public Land, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which will hold the easement and make sure it is followed. Under DNR oversight, the company will allow hikers and hunters to use the property, covered by jack pine, Norway pine and aspen stands.

“It’s a really good project for Minnesota,’’ Murn said. “These are the kind of things that Minnesota figures out and does that other states don’t.’’

The Potlatch arrangement is one of several being contemplated to preserve private timberlands in northern Minnesota. The Blandin Foundation, for example, has promised $6.25 million to leverage $11 million more in combined private, state and federal money to buy conservation easements on up to 75,000 acres of privately owned forest in and around Itasca County.

“We certainly hope this is a harbinger of things to come,’’ Assistant DNR Commissioner Brad Moore said.