Minnesota Oak restoration

Planting Location: Minnesota - Chippewa National Forest

Project Description/Objective: This project covers multiple sites across the Chippewa National Forest. The reasons for sites needing restoration vary, but include wind events that blow standing trees down, insect and disease where trees are salvaged or harvested for sanitation reasons to limit losses and/or curtail the spread of a forest health vector, enhancement plantings to improve forest stand resilience to climate change, water quality, wildlife habitat improvement, or at the request of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwa for cultural reasons.

Ecological Benefits: Restoration of these pine stands is critical to wildlife that depend on them. Large red and white pines on the Chippewa National Forest also make excellent eagle nesting sites. The Chippewa supports one of the highest breeding densities of American bald eagles in the continental United States. People often make a special trip to the Chippewa to observe bald eagles. Restoring pine stands will ensure that bald eagles continue to have nesting habitat on the Chippewa into the future.

Community Benefits: Restoration of these pine stands is critical to wildlife that depend on them, recreationists that enjoy them, and a timber industry that creates hundreds of local jobs. The Ojibwa community living on the Leech Lake Reservation also has a bond to these forests.

Types of Trees: Red pine, jack pine, white pine, white spruce, tamarack, bur oak, red oak, white oak

Number of Trees Donated by Noble Oak: 5,000