Chippewa National Forest
| Chippewa National Forest | |||
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| Location: | Minnesota , United States | ||
| Specialty: | Reclaimed wood, bald eagles | ||
| Next city: | Cass Lake, Minnesota | ||
| Surface: | 2,697.73 km² | ||
| Founding: | 1908 | ||
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The Chippewa National Forest is a wooded area in the north of the US state of Minnesota in the counties of Itasca , Cass and Beltrami . The forest is administered by the United States Forest Service . In addition to the main forestry office in Cass Lake, there are three county offices in Blackduck , Deer River and Walker.
Geography and history
The National Forest covers an area of approximately 2,700 km², more than half of which is covered by water. Over 1300 lakes and ponds and rivers with a total length of 1485 km are within the Chippewa National Forest. There are also wetlands on an area of 1600 km².
Various groups of North American Indians once lived in the area of the Chippewa National Forest . Towards the end of the 19th century, however, the traditional way of life of the Indians was profoundly changed by settlement and industrial logging. In the treaty between the United States and the Chippewa Indians in 1855, the latter gave up a large part of their land - including what is now the national forest. With the passage of the Morris Act on June 27, 1902, the Minnesota Forest Reserve was created in Cass Lake. It was not classified as a national forest until the National Forest Act of 1908. Twenty years later, the forest got its current name, which is supposed to remind of the native inhabitants.
With the acquisition of new land, the Chippewa National Forest reached its present size. Approximately 75 percent of this area is within the Leech Lake Reservation .
Flora and fauna
The most common tree species in the Chippewa National Forest are: American red , Bank and Weymouth pines , white and black spruces , balsam firs , paper birches , aspens , East American larches and sugar maples . Oak , black ash , American linden and other conifers such as the occidental tree of life are less common . Reclaimed wood that z. They can be found, for example, in "The Lost Forty", an area of the national forest, and provide an important habitat for various species of birds of prey such as the bald eagle , but also for woodpeckers, squirrels, weasels and numerous other species.
There were only twelve breeding pairs of bald eagles in the 1960s. Thanks to various measures, such as the establishment of protection zones around the eagle nests, the populations have recovered and have increased to 150 breeding pairs - one of the highest population densities on the mainland of the United States.
The Lost Forty: The Lost 40 Acres
In the national forest there is an area called "The Lost Forty", the actual total area of which is not 40 but 144 acres (58 hectares). When the government carried out a land survey in 1882, the land was accidentally classified as part of Coddington Lake and was spared the loggers.
This area contains some of the oldest forests in Minnesota. Here the American red and white pines are between 300 and 400 years old and their trunks are 50 to 120 cm in diameter. The fact that less than two percent of Minnesota's forest area is classified as primary forest today underscores the uniqueness of this landscape.
Web links
- The homepage of the Chippewa National Forest (en)
- Map of Chippewa National Forest on the Library of Congress site (s)
- The Chippewa National Forest on Google Maps
Individual evidence
- ↑ Forest Facts. Retrieved June 7, 2015
- ↑ Frequently Asked Questions - H's Accessed June 10, 2015
- ↑ Frequently Asked Questions - T's Accessed June 10, 2015
- ↑ Lost Forty.Retrieved June 23, 2015
- ↑ Bald Eagles.Retrieved June 10, 2015
- ↑ Frequently Asked Questions - L's Accessed June 10, 2015
- ↑ Lost Forty.Retrieved June 23, 2015