800 1- 



600 



a 400 

 o 



3: 



200 



ASPEN 



Allowable cut 

 Actual cut 1953 



PUBLIC 



PRIVATE 



Figure 49. — Public lands have large surpluses nj aspen. 



Xational Forests Have Access Problems 



The Superior Xational Forest in the northeast 

 corner of the State occupies an area poorly provided 

 with highways and navigable streams. The forest is 

 at some distance from large wood-using centers. 

 Lakes, swamps, and rock outcrops make parts of it 

 difficult to log. As a consequence, the managers have 

 been unable to market the full allowable cut. Main 

 surpluses are in aspen, jack pine, spruce, and balsam 

 fir, but include other species too. A solution has been 

 sought in the development of access roads. This has 

 helped but has not insured steady sales. In periods 

 of slack demand for timber, operations here are the 

 first to be curtailed. Attention is now being given to 

 the possibilities for additional industries closer to the 

 forest. 



The Chippewa National Forest is better situated 

 than the Superior with respect to markets, but it has 

 similar problems on a smaller scale. 



Other public agencies have much the same problems 

 for at least parts of the areas they manage. The 

 Bureau of Indian Affairs, the State Department of 

 Conservation, and the counties of Cook, Lake, and 

 St. Louis have lands intermingled with those of the 



Superior National Forest, on which the problem of 

 marketing available stumpage is serious. 



Difficult Management Problems on State and County Lands 



Some State forests are well consolidated and lend 

 themselves to independent management; others are 

 scattered and interspersed with holdings of other 

 agencies and private owners. Over a period of 

 years, the Department of Conservation has made 

 some progress in consolidating State holdings by 

 exchanges, purchases, and acceptance of gifts, but 

 many difficult problems of management remain. 



Where limited State holdings are intermingled 

 with actively operated holdings, usually in areas close 

 to mills, heavy pressures develop to get the State 

 timber on the market regardless of long-range 

 management plans. On the other hand, where State 

 holdings in more remote localities are intermingled 

 with dormant holdings of other owners, the State has 

 difficulty in finding buyers for its mature timber. 



To overcome these diflficulties, the State Division 

 of Forestry has cooperated in some places with other 

 owners in preparing integrated management plans 

 satisfactory to all parties concerned. This develop- 

 ment, still on a pilot-plant scale, seems to off'er 

 promise of solution for some of the ownership compli- 

 cations encountered in this State. 



Fifteen years ago, most counties were mereh' 

 custodians of forest land, large acreages of which 

 had reverted to public ownership for nonpayment 

 of taxes. Commissioners had very little conception 

 of the potential values involved. Some were anxious 

 to get the land back on the tax rolls and were ready 

 to sell any or all land or timber to any interested 

 purchaser. Others did not believe in selling anything 

 at all. 



As a result of the forest survey and related work 

 by the Office of Iron Range Resources, the county 

 commissioners came to realize that they had v-ery 

 valuable property capable both of returning consid- 

 erable current revenue and of growing into something 

 of infinitely greater value in the future. Most of the 

 northern counties now have timber management plans 

 for their holdings with a recognized cutting budget. 

 Formerly, applicants were allowed to choose the 

 timber they wanted to buy; now county officials 

 have detailed maps and records showing what timber 

 should be cut. 



Most counties have a small staff of foresters who seek 

 out buyers for a\ailable stumpage and who supervise 



Minnesota's Forest Resources 



43 



