A newly planted red pine seedling grows next to a stump in Nemadji State Forest. Trees were salvage harvested after a damaging blizzard to capture value and prepare the site for reforestation.
Minnesota’s forests are constantly changing – growing, adapting, and renewing over time. Sustainable stewardship means guiding that change with care and intention, so forests remain healthy and continue to provide their many benefits for future generations. Timber harvesting is a key tool used to accomplish this.
Carefully planned harvests designed to support multiple benefits
The DNR’s forest managers use timber harvesting to achieve management goals that meet multiple values, such as creating wildlife habitat, diversifying forests to be more climate resilient, enhancing areas for recreation, and providing a sustainable timber supply.
Timber harvest mimics natural disturbances, like wildfires or windstorms, to create opportunities for other trees to grow. Planning for a balance of tree species and ages across the state and using harvests to achieve those goals provides pockets of young and mixed age forest habitat, lowers the risk of catastrophic wildfires, increases resilience to forest health threats like insects and disease, mitigates climate change, and more – all in a way that’s beneficial for our forests and local economies.
Minnesota forests and timber harvesting today
Minnesota’s forests are increasing – the state has added over 1 million acres of forests since 2006, and has about 17.6 million acres of forestland, with approximately half of that privately owned. Of the 4.2 million acres managed by the DNR’s Division of Forestry, harvest occurs on less than 1% or about 30,000 acres a year. Those harvests account for approximately 30% of all wood fiber in Minnesota. The DNR reforests for each acre harvested – sustainability is built into the law.
Most harvesting on state forest land is done in the winter, when frozen conditions limit the impact from logging equipment on roads, plants, and soils which can be sensitive to erosion, compaction, or disruption. Foresters supervise the logging process to ensure that certain agreed upon conditions are met, including erosion control, protecting water quality, leaving certain trees when appropriate, and many other factors.
Many ways to harvest
Many people think of clear cuts when they think of harvesting – but there are types of harvest where you might not notice one has happened at all! Clear cuts are very visible and are often used for species like aspen and red pine, which require lots of sunlight to grow and thus benefit from the approach. Other kinds of harvesting include thinning, or removing smaller or poorly formed trees to improve the growth and health of remaining trees, and selective methods like harvesting individual trees to create canopy gaps and salvage harvesting to remove dead, dying, or damaged trees.
Curious to dive deeper? Check out our frequently asked questions.
Interested in harvesting on privately-owned woodlands? The DNR Forest Stewardship Program provides landowner assistance on timber harvesting and sales.
Want to learn more about the forest products industry in Minnesota? Visit the DNR’s Marketing and Utilization Program page.