Potlatch land sold for conservation

Kirsti Marohn

MPR News

A nonprofit organization has purchased more than 70,000 acres of northern and central Minnesota forest formerly owned by the paper and lumber giant Potlatch.

Potlatch once owned 330,000 acres across Minnesota, on which it managed and harvested trees for its paper mills. Now called PotlatchDeltic and based in Spokane, Washington, the company sold off most of that land over the past few decades.

This month, The Conservation Fund finalized a deal to purchase the remaining 72,440 acres, scattered over 14 counties, for almost $48 million.

The counties include Aitkin, Becker, Beltrami, Carlton, Cass, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Kanabec, Koochiching, Morrison, St. Louis and Wadena. About 31,600 acres are located within the reservation boundaries of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

Kim Berns-Melhus, the fund's Minnesota director, said the land parcels are mostly stands of pine and aspen trees and are biologically diverse.

About 31,000 acres are within the headwaters of the Mississippi River, an important flyway and wildlife corridor for many species, she said. Those include endangered, threatened and rare species such as the northern long-eared bat, red-shouldered hawk and Blanding's turtles.

Berns-Melhus said The Conservation Fund will hold the land for about 10 years, while managing it for wildlife, water quality and timber harvesting. Recreational uses such as hunting and fishing also will continue to be allowed.

The land will be transferred to state, local or tribal governments to manage for conservation, she said.

"Our goal is to maintain these lands in conservation as working forests, or other county lands or state lands," Berns-Melhus said.

Potlatch sold its mill in Cloquet to Sappi in 2002. That year it also opened its vast holdings of land to recreational use.