Shared Stewardship

The Arrowhead Pilot Project was formed around 2016 to address increasing challenges such as insect pest outbreaks, wildfire, shifting wildlife habitat, parcelization, and declining forest product markets at the landscape level across ownership boundaries. As a result, multiple land management agencies, non-profit, tribal, and other organizations have partnered together to collaboratively manage an approximately 545,000-acre landscape Pilot Region in northwestern St. Louis County. Members of the Collaborative have delineated the Pilot Region, determined shared goals, selected two approximately10,000-acre focal management blocks, developed detailed landscape management plans for each focal block, discussed and shared GIS data to coordinate cross-boundary management, and applied to and were successfully awarded a Conservation Partners Legacy (CPL) grant by the State of Minnesota to perform wildlife habitat improvement and fuels reduction work near Crane Lake, MN. Collaborative members are also working to coordinate targeted outreach to private landowners with properties adjacent to planned timber harvest, wildlife habitat, and other projects on public lands. 

More information can be found at the public Arrowhead Storymap: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/048cab35ade9479faf11853174e65fae

In 2022, the Superior National Forest (SNF) began a new effort to engage individuals and groups with interests in recreation, conservation, and environmental advocacy, or commercial use in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in exploring current issues, concerns, and possibilities for collaboration with SNF. To support this initiative, SNF engaged the John S. McCain III National Center for Environmental Conflict Resolution (National Center), a program of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation to conduct a confidential assessment with a wide variety of individuals and organizations that have an interest in the BWCAW.

If you are interested in being a future member of the Collaborative group or have other questions about the BWCAW Collaborative process, please contact the facilitation team at bwcawcollaborative@udall.gov.

Learn more: https://fs.usda.gov/r09/superior/wilderness/boundary-waters-canoe-area-wilderness-collaborative

The North Shore Forest Collaborative (NSFC) is a partnership of natural resource agencies, conservation organizations, and private landowners dedicated to restoring and maintaining the health of Minnesota’s North Shore coastal forest ecosystem along Lake Superior. Spanning the shoreline from the Canadian border to just north of Duluth and inland approximately five miles, the collaborative focuses on revitalizing native tree species and enhancing forest communities to improve biodiversity, wildlife habitat, water quality, and climate resilience. Participants include local, state, tribal, and federal land management agencies, as well as nonprofit organizations and private landowners. Through coordinated efforts, the NSFC offers educational programs, technical assistance, and financial incentives to support forest restoration initiatives. For more information, visit northshoreforest.org

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Love forests? So do we! The Minnesota Forest Resources Council (MFRC)’s regional forest resource committees bring people together—Tribal representatives, landowners, agency staff, industry, recreation enthusiasts, and more—to talk about, plan, and care for our forests across all ownerships (state, federal, Tribal, private, and family forests).

The MFRC Northeast Region includes the Superior National Forest and Arrowhead country—7.3 million acres across Carlton, Cook, Lake, and St. Louis counties. Around here, forests aren’t just trees. They’re wildlife habitat, clean water, trails to explore, and the backbone of a strong forest products industry.

Discussions within the Northeast Regional Committee have spurred the creation of several cross-boundary forest management collaboratives among diverse organizations such as County Land Departments, Minnesota Dept of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, Ruffed Grouse Society, and the Superior National Forest. 

Regional committees are a place where everyone has a voice. You don’t need to be an expert, just someone who cares about keeping our forests healthy for people, wildlife, and future generations. We meet quarterly, share ideas, and work together on solutions.

Want to dig in? Check out our Northeast Landscape Plan (last updated in 2014, with an update planned soon) at mn.gov/frc/landscape/ne. Or better yet—get involved! Because when it comes to forests, collaboration is the root of success!

Email MFRC program coordinator Jaimé Thibodeaux at jamie.thibodeaux@state.mn.us

Call 218-553-1522

The 100,000+ acre Manitou Landscape in northeastern Minnesota comprises a unique mix of working forest, rugged scenery, pristine watersheds, abundant wildlife and outstanding biodiversity. The landscape encompasses the Manitou, Baptism, and Two Islands watersheds on the North Shore of Lake Superior and includes prominent features such as the hills of the Sawtooth Range; 200 miles of high-quality streams (85% designated trout streams and protected tributaries); 66 lakes; and large tracts of contiguous forests. Since 2000, the Manitou Collaborative — a group of public land managers, private landowners and non-profit organizations — has been striving to conserve and manage the unique ecological, recreational and economic values in this landscape. Partners in the collaborative include the Minnesota Department of Natural, The Nature Conservancy, US Forest Service, Lake County, 1854 Treaty Authority, Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, the Minnesota Forest Resources Council and Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center. The mission of this group is to “… work together to integrate, sustain, and enhance the unique and multiple values in the Manitou Landscape including timber and non-traditional forest products, biodiversity, wildlife, recreation, and scenic beauty.”

Manitou Forest Landscape Collaborative

At roughly 100,000 acres in size, the Sand Lake/Seven Beaver landscape straddles the continental divide, with the Rainy River-Headwaters watershed flowing north to Hudson Bay in the Arctic Ocean and the St. Louis River watershed flowing into Lake Superior enroute to the Atlantic Ocean. This landscape is recognized as an area of outstanding conservation value in the state due to the exceptional quality of this headwaters region, the size and complexity of the vast peatlands and the large lakes and river systems it encompasses.  The Sand Lake/Seven Beaver area also includes public land areas recognized as ecologically significant, including the Sand Lake Peatland Scientific Natural Area and surrounding watershed protection area (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources-MN DNR), the Big Lake/Seven Beaver Research Natural Area https://research.fs.usda.gov/nrs/rnas/locations/big-lake-seven-beaver (USDA Forest Service, Superior National Forest), and designated old growth forests. 

Sand Lake/Seven Beaver is a ‘working forest’ – one that allows for traditional forest uses that are both ecologically sustainable and economically viable. Partners in the collaborative - including the MN DNR, The Nature Conservancy, Forest Service, Lake County, St. Louis County, 1854 Treaty Authority, Ruffed Grouse Society and the Minnesota Forest Resources Council – work together to “… sustain and enhance the unique and multiple values in the Sand Lake/Seven Beaver landscape” including “water quality and hydrologic function, ecological integrity of terrestrial, wetland and aquatic systems, native wildlife diversity, remote hunting, fishing and other recreational experiences, traditional and non-traditional forest products and scenic beauty.”   

The Moose Habitat Collaborative is an extensive group of stakeholders engaged in improving moose habitat across all land ownerships, centered within and around the Superior National Forest in the north-eastern Minnesota core moose range (see map).  Originally formed in 2012 in response to rapid decline of MN moose populations, the group (which includes a wide range of public natural resource managers and agencies, research and monitoring, private land representatives, tribal and non-profit conservation organization representatives) organized to collaboratively enhance habitat for moose.  Research on the decline of this moose population, and monitoring of moose numbers and habitat by Collaborative partners, identified enhancement of habitat as the most feasible method of positively affecting the moose population. Continuously since the inception of this group, funding by the sponsors (originally Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, currently The Ruffed Grouse Society), in-kind match and partnerships among the collaborators have been leveraged to gain and utilize significant funding from the Minnesota Outdoor Heritage Fund- including five proposals approved by the Lessard Sams Outdoor Heritage Council for moose habitat enhancement. To date, over 26,000 acres have been enhanced, and additional efforts are ongoing through this Collaborative. Moose habitat enhancement efforts are primarily focused on establishing ecologically appropriate large “landscape scale” patches of diverse forests which provide high quality browse and cover for moose (as well as habitat value for several additional wildlife species). The desired forest habitat is a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees in large patches of mostly young forest vegetation interspersed with old forest patches- created through prescribed fire, timber harvesting, mechanical site preparation, tree planting, brush sawing and bud capping.  The extensive effort, technical knowledge and costs of conducting these habitat treatments at large scales requires and has benefitted greatly by the collaboration of these many stakeholder groups.