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| Up north, 'Everything's getting built up and bought up' - ATV | OHV News - Rides | ATV News and Events - Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum | ||||||||||||||||
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outlandish AWF Admin 
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Up north, 'Everything's getting built up and bought up' Tom Meersman, Star Tribune October 20, 2005 Every autumn, Chris Bickford and his friends head into Minnesota's Northwoods to hunt for deer, bear or ruffed grouse. For years, they had free access to forests owned by a giant wood-products company. Now, they often see "No Trespassing" signs on those lands. The opportunity for people to use private corporate lands freely for hunting, hiking, bird-watching and other outdoor pursuits is disappearing in parts of northern Minnesota. "Things have really changed up here," said Bickford, of Crosby. "You could go anyplace and hunt, but now everything's getting built up and bought up." Minnesota's private, undeveloped forestlands are on the verge of historic change, and the trend has alarmed many outdoor enthusiasts. Nearly 40 percent of the land held by the state's largest private forest owner, Potlatch Corp., is now under lease to hunters -- and off limits to most others. Forest Capital Partners, a Boston-based land investment firm that is the state's second-largest forest owner, plans to sell valuable property to individuals. Both companies are deeply into the land business. They still manage the forests and sell timber and plan to continue logging. Yet Potlatch, based in Spokane, Wash., has sold most of its mills for making paper and wood products, and Forest Capital Partners doesn't own any mills. Their forests cover an area roughly 1½ times the size of Hennepin County. Increasingly the land is seen as an asset to be sold or leased - no longer just a source of raw material for mills. For now, most corporate forests, which account for 8 percent of the state's woodlands, remain open to recreation, including lands of UPM Blandin, the state's third-largest private forest owner, and Forest Capital Partners. And there are other forests to roam. One-third of Minnesota is forest, an area roughly the size of West Virginia, and most of it is owned by county, state and federal agencies. Yet the incentives to lease or sell private forestland and shut off public access are increasing. Forest tracts of 20 acres or more now sell for an average of $1,000 an acre, a fivefold increase since 1993, according to a University of Minnesota analysis. Changed company, changed lands The new limits on forest access reflect a change in corporate policy. For decades, Potlatch owned mills and woodlands. In the past few years, it has sold plants, including a modern paper mill in Cloquet, and is mainly in the business of managing forestland. It now makes money by leasing forestland for hunting, fishing, camping and off-road vehicle use. The leases cost about $300 a year for 40 acres. When Bickford and his friends started seeing "No Trespassing" signs in the Crosby-Brainerd area three years ago, they didn't want to be shut out. So he organized the Cuyuna Hunting Club and became its president. Each of the club's 56 member families pays $250 annually. That club leases 1,800 acres from Potlatch. The land is posted against trespassing. Hal Mason, a club member who lives near Brainerd, said he's not happy about paying to hunt, but he believes public lands are getting overcrowded and unsafe. "It's what I work for is to bow hunt," he said. For Potlatch, the posting helps keep out people who damage trees with built deer stands, dump trash and tear up the land with all-terrain-vehicles, said Tom Murn, the company's regional resource manager. "We think the days of allowing everybody to do everything everywhere are over," he said. Those sentiments worry ATV clubs. The leasing program has shut off access to some Potlatch land near Brainerd and near Nemadji State Forest south of Duluth, said Len Hardy, an avid rider who lives north of Nashwauk. Forest Capital Partners no longer wants part of the 30-mile Thistledew ATV trail north of Chisholm, to cross company land, said Hardy, first vice president for the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota. Minnesota's 20,000 miles of snowmobile trails also cross numerous parcels owned by corporations. As forestland is bought and sold, snowmobile clubs must persuade new owners to allow the trails, said Greg McDonald, regional director for the Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association in Duluth. "We haven't had to close trails, but we have had to purchase some easements," he said. Forest change affects wildlife, too As forests are subdivided and developed, wildlife habitat is diminished. One large, unbroken UPM Blandin forest is just south of Grand Rapids, covering 74 square miles or nearly 1½ times the area of Minneapolis. Maples, pines, spruce and other trees cover the land. Dragon's head orchids and other wildflowers grow on the forest floor or in wetlands. The woods are home to grouse and wood  , barred owls and red-shouldered hawks, along with dozens of different songbirds.Smaller, fragmented forests offer less room for warblers and other songbirds that breed in Minnesota, and wildlife such as lynx, which need large interior forests to thrive, forest ecologists say. Road construction also can interrupt wetlands and introduce invasive weeds and trees, they say. Each June for the past quarter century, birding enthusiast Jan Green has driven the same 24-mile route in Cook County, stopping every half-mile to listen for three minutes and record every species of bird. Her work is part of a multi-state bird-counting effort conducted mainly by volunteers. Where forests have been subdivided, she has recorded declines in migrating songbirds. After homes were built on a lake in the highlands above Lutsen, she began to see crows for the first time. "They're a predator on small young birds in nesting season," she said. Green worries about warblers, owls, goshawks and other species disappearing if large corporate forestlands are sold and developed. Investment firms buying the land The new corporate owners of America's forests often don't make anything out of wood. Large investment firms, working for pension funds, insurance companies and other investors, have bought $15 billion in U.S. timberlands in recent years, especially in the Northeast, said Clark Binkley, managing director of International Forestry Investment Advisors of Cambridge, Mass. Many forest-products industries that have long owned forestland now can buy raw materials cheaply on the world market, Binkley said. The companies often need to upgrade plants to compete. Selling their woodlands raises capital to invest in mills, he said. Boise Cascade, which has done business in Minnesota since 1965, last year sold all 2.2 million acres of its property to timberland investors, including 309,000 acres in northern Minnesota. Much of that land had been owned by paper companies for a century. The new owner of those Minnesota lands, Forest Capital Partners, still plans to sell wood to the former Boise Cascade paper mill in International Falls, which also is owned by new investors. Critics of land investment trusts fear they will make quick profits by logging excessively and selling or leasing valuable forestland. Forest Capital Partners says it will manage the forest in a sustainable way and allow hunting and other recreation on much of its property. "If we have real estate that has higher value than what we generate from managing timber, we're going to pursue small-tract land sales, and that's only good business," said Craig Halla, regional manager for Forest Capital Partners. Mill owner Blandin keeps its land Not every forest-products company is selling its mills or woodlands. One of Minnesota's oldest forest landowners, UPM Blandin Paper Mill, began as the Itasca Paper Co. in 1902. It has had several owners over the past century and is now part of an international forest-products company UPM, which is based in Finland. Blandin is planning a major expansion of its paper mill, which produces coated paper used in glossy catalogs and magazines. The mill gets some raw material from its large forests near Grand Rapids, and the company says it intends to keep nearly all of the land. Conservationists are trying to keep forests intact by purchasing development rights from companies, using state, federal and private funds. Under these arrangements, called working forest conservation easements, companies continue to manage forests for timber production, keep the land on the tax rolls and retain public access for most kinds of recreation. But the property deed is restricted so that current and future owners may not subdivide and develop it. One ally in this effort is the Blandin Foundation, a charitable organization established by early owners of the company. Last year, the foundation donated $6 million to help build a fund to buy forest easements in the Itasca area of north-central Minnesota. The foundation, which no longer has any connection to the UPM Blandin, could end up helping to preserve some of its lands. "People have taken these large forests for granted, but they'll be subdivided and gone unless we do something," said Bernadine Joselyn, director of public policy for the Blandin Foundation. Tom Meersman • 612 673-7388
____________________ coming soon....the new Aurora Decal site |
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drees Member 
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Forest Capital Partners no longer wants part of the 30-mile Thistledew ATV trail north of Chisholm, to cross company land, said Hardy, first vice president for the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota. Do they say why? Are the ATVs causing problems or do they simply see a way to make more money. I don't want to pay to ride my favorite trails, but if that's what it takes I'll do it. $300/year for 40 acres? 300 people paying $10/year could carve out a nice trail system on 400 acres.
____________________ 2005 Sportsman 800 EFI 2004 Sportsman 600 <- For Sale 2004.5 Sportsman 500 HO http://wejustrock.com |
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packnrat Member
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well it is happing here on the left coast also. free and open hunting lands are being gated off due to private intersts,
____________________ just get out there, remember were ever you are, there you are. getting lost...never just taking in the view from another hill. |
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Survey Guy Member 
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Kinda makes ya wonder how the indians felt after the white man arrived.
____________________ Fourwheeling is not a crime! Neither is backhanding a Liberal! |
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packnrat Member
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yes! my ansesters should have scalped columbus when he landed. but then....scalping did not start till the british wanted proof that a white man had been killed, the natives would not cut the head off as per what the crown wanted, so scalping started.
____________________ just get out there, remember were ever you are, there you are. getting lost...never just taking in the view from another hill. |
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roosterado9 Member
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Quote "One large, unbroken UPM Blandin forest is just south of Grand Rapids, covering 74 square miles or nearly 1½ times the area of Minneapolis. Maples, pines, spruce and other trees cover the land. Dragon's head orchids and other wildflowers grow on the forest floor or in wetlands. The woods are home to grouse and wood , barred owls and red-shouldered hawks, along with dozens of different songbirds."I found this forest snowmobiling last winter out of Remer its very cool unplowed forest roads and narrow back trails i snowmobiled in way deeper then i should have alone lol Outty this was the area i asked You about this Spring with the no licensed vehicle signs at the gates -closed gates- Last edited on Fri Oct 21st, 2005 11:58 pm by roosterado9 |
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outlandish AWF Admin
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Yeah I remember Roost. Ever figure those signs out?
____________________ coming soon....the new Aurora Decal site |
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