Blufflands/Rochester Plateau

Forest management planning for state-owned forest land for southeastern Minnesota is underway. DNR has completed the Preliminary Issues and Assessment document developed as the initial step in the revision process for the DNR Blufflands/Rochester Plateau Subsection Forest Resource Management Plan (BRP SFRMP). Preliminary Issues and Assessment document identified issues to be addressed and background information on the DNR forestry and wildlife lands in southeast Minnesota.

Using the Preliminary Issues and Assessment background information, efforts are now underway to complete an updated BRP SFRMP.  The Plan will establish directions and guide forest management activities for a 10-year period from 2015 through 2024.The plan will address some DNR-administered lands within boundaries of two large landscape units in southeastern Minnesota known as the Blufflands and Rochester Plateau subsections. Subsections are a level of delineation within the DNR's ecological classification system (ECS) and are based on natural features and conditions. These two subsections extend southeastward from the Twin Cities to the Iowa border, and include parts of Dakota, Goodhue, Wabasha, Dodge, Olmsted, Winona, Mower, Fillmore, Rice, and Houston counties. Most DNR lands to be managed through this plan are located in Goodhue, Wabasha, Winona, and Houston counties. The largest blocks of DNR land within these subsections are the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area and Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest. The BRP SFRMP guides vegetation management on nearly 60,000 acres of DNR forest lands. The plan revision process will be coordinated by a planning team composed of DNR staff with wide-ranging expertise and responsibilities in forest, wildlife, and ecological resource management.

Outcomes of the plan revision process will include adjustments to or reaffirmation of long-term desired future forest composition goals for DNR lands within the subsections and identification of DNR forest stands intended to be managed over the ensuing 10-year plan implementation period. The public will have an additional opportunity later in 2013 to review and comment on the proposed draft revised BRP SFRMP.

Direct comments or questions about this plan to:

Robert Pulford
Planner, DNR
1601 Minnesota Drive
Brainerd, MN 56401
Phone: 218-833-8704
Email: robert.pulford@state.mn.us.