Brown: The forest takes care of itself, but we can help

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For most of my life I’ve lived in a managed forest.

I understand why some might bristle at the term “managed forest.” For one thing, the word “managed” reminds us of corporate stooges who can barely manage their smartphones, while the astute reader will recognize the preferred language of the logging industry.

Logging means cutting down trees, and what kind of forest would that leave?

Well, believe it or not, it can be a strong, healthy forest, if we practice effective conservation. Already this year, Minnesota faces historic wildfires and air-quality alerts. New efforts to conserve forested land will help in more ways than one.

Loggers harvested aspen from the northern Minnesota forest across from my driveway in 2006. I remember the way it changed the landscape. Displaced raccoons and a small bear took refuge on our land for a few days.

Between then and now, that land regenerated into a healthy mixed hardwood forest with a few tall pines towering above. In 15-20 years, it could be harvested again. And again, when my sons are old men. And again, and again.

Conservation doesn’t mean covering the forest with bubble wrap; rather, it means allowing the woods to remain useful and thriving in perpetuity. If a forest is logged, or if a wildfire passes through, the forest will restore itself faster than anything we humans could dream of replicating.

In fact, fire is how many tree species reproduce. That’s why even in the state’s famous and beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, fires are allowed to burn unless they threaten human life or property.

Forests take care of themselves, but humans can hurt them when we overdevelop and fragment woodlands so that the regenerative process can’t take place naturally. On neglected lands, fuels will build up on the forest floor, making it easier for people to cause disasters. Far too often, that’s exactly what we do.

That’s why one recent announcement is encouraging. About 4,600 acres of forest land in northern Minnesota will open for economic and recreational use as part of a deal between St. Louis County and the Conservation Fund. The land was previously owned by the paper company PotlatchDeltic.

I spoke with Larry Selzer, CEO of the Conservation Fund, last week. In 40 years, this organization helped protect almost 10 million acres of land in all 50 states by attaching conservation easements to forest lands.

“Minnesota continues to be a really important state for us,” said Selzer. “Not only is it one of the prime forest-management states in the country, but a lot of those lands are at risk as growth consumes rural landscapes.”

In the past two decades, pulp and paper companies have sold or abandoned about 90 million acres of forest lands, said Selzer. This is certainly the pattern in Minnesota, where PotlatchDeltic, UPM-Blandin and others have scaled back their land holdings.

Selzer said the value of land pressures buyers to develop the woodlands for commercial and residential properties. This results in fragmented forests more vulnerable to wildfire and less accessible to people.

This is the story of the West, and we don’t want to repeat it here.

Instead, Selzer said, the use of conservation easements allows private land to be valued less than commercial land. This preserves a more contiguous forest because private buyers can keep the undeveloped land on the tax rolls while making steady profit off strategic logging. Meantime, public users can hunt, hike, forage and recreate upon the land nearly all the time.

The Conservation Fund formed a nonprofit corporation to snatch up the land in the same manner as developers. The difference is that their goal is to preserve the forest as much as possible. About 400,000 acres of “working forest” land in Minnesota has been conserved in this way.

Investors want land with conservation easements, said Selzer. It’s cheaper and produces enough profit over the long run to make the purchase a steady asset.

The Conservation Fund also works with local governments that manage their own forests, such as St. Louis and other northern counties where managed forests are the norm.

Though these efforts support the logging and wood-products industry, they’ve also proven a practical way to achieve ecological goals. Trees store carbon from the atmosphere, while large sections of uninterrupted forests protect migratory birds and other wildlife.

The forest’s enemy is not logging, or even fire, but fragmentation and destruction caused by sprawling development. Selling off the forest for the few makes it harder to log responsibly or allow natural forest fires to burn themselves out. It also removes hunting, foraging and recreational opportunities from all but those wealthy enough to own land.

“We need to imagine working landscapes,” said Selzer. “Not just as some tolerable status, but as something that leads to real conservation outcomes. It’s not only compelling, but it attracts capital and political will. It brings people in alignment with the environmental movement. That’s the way forward.”