Forest Facts

Established:

• 1902: Minnesota Forest Reserve by the Morris Act (Only National Forest formed to benefit Native Americans.)
• 1908: Chippewa National Forest

Location: North Central Minnesota

• Forest Supervisor’s office: Cass Lake, Minnesota
• District offices: Blackduck, Deer River and Walker​

Boundary and Land:

• Acres have been updated to reflect the LLBO Land Transfer
• Source of data: Surface Ownership at Enterprise Data Warehouse
  • Chippewa National Forest:
    • 1,598,139 total boundary acres
      • 659,251 acres Forest Service ownership
        • 278,478 acres Forest Service ownership within the reservation - (overlap)

Lakes and Wetlands:  

• 1300 Lakes and ponds, 925 Miles of Rivers; 440,000 acres wetlands, 25 watersheds.
• 13% of all surface water in National Forest System
• Three of the ten largest lakes in Minnesota: Leech Lake, Lake Winnibigoshish and Cass Lake.
• Part of the Mississippi Headwaters region.

Recreation:

• ​556 campsites in 15 developed campgrounds and over 60 designated dispersed campsites. For trails: 19 miles of paved bike trails, 240 miles of motorized trails, 278 miles of non-motorized trails, 312 miles of snowmobile trails, 21 miles of OHV trails, and 24 miles of designated horse trails plus 200+ low standard roads to ride.  Most of the non-motorized trails on the Chippewa are multi-use, so there are many more miles allowed for many activities. For water recreationists, the Chippewa also has 85 boat accesses.​

Three Experimental Forests:  Pike Bay, Marcell, Cut Foot

Special Uses: 285 Recreation Residences; 10 Resorts - operating under a Forest special use permit.

Engineering: 2223 miles of road system with 35 road bridges and 47 trail bridges.

Wildlife and Plants: Rare and sensitive species, including goshawk, northern long-eared bat, rusty patched bumble bee, goblin ferns, Connecticut warbler, red-shouldered hawk and orchids. Over 250 wildlife species, and 180 nesting pairs of bald eagles. Large fisheries program, walleye, muskie, lake trout, panfish, bass. Seventy species of fish, nine species of freshwater mussels.

Soils: over 45 timber units were monitored for soil impacts, 252 soil samples were collected from 11 of these timber units. 19 Releve plots were surveyed for and 3 were relocated.