To the editor,

November and December are the start of winter dormancy in the woods. Deciduous trees have pulled energy back into their roots and cores while animals make last minute preparation before the onslaught of winter, preparation that can mean surviving or not.

This is also the time when hunters and trappers are pursuing everything from furbearers to upland game to deer; man’s form of pre-winter preparation. This human activity generates revenue for rural businesses and economies to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. It produces stores of meat for the months to come and revenue from the sale of animal hides. Life and death in the woods play out their ongoing duet to the tune of impending snowflakes.

One year ago, passage of the Clean Water, Land & Legacy sales tax amendment opened up extensive funding for management, conservation and preservation for woodland species and habitats. One of the first major funding approvals resulted in the guarantee of nearly 189,000 acres of UPM/Blandin forest lands open to public use in perpetuity and also ensured these lands will remain as working forests. A phenomenal achievement and a cherry for the northland, these 189,000 acres were only a whisker away from potential parcelization, development and being inaccessible to the general public. But that is only part of the story because the vulnerability of Minnesota’s northern forests is increasing, and with it grows the potential for hundreds of thousands of other industrial acres being cut up, sold and developed, unless we act legislatively.

This winter, legislators will have the opportunity to review and hopefully vote to uphold the continuation of the Sustainable Forestry Incentives Act. This act serves as a tax credit to landowners (individuals and corporations) who commit to keeping their forest lands as working forest and in large part open to public access. However, a current proposal will drastically reduce this tax credit for one year starting July 2010, effectively forcing corporate forest landowners toward gating, leasing and/or parcelizing their lands. These changes will not only remove public access from these lands, but very likely also accidentally remove public access from hundreds of thousands of acres of county and state lands that are now only accessible through corporately owned timber access roads. While the corporate land owners don’t want this, their options are limited unless legislative actions make the necessary corrections.

Minnesota’s forested lands will always be a part of our landscape, but the level of their intimacy in the lives of future generations depends upon what we each do today, as does the economic benefit that will be realized by our rural communities as public access for hunting, berry picking and trail riding changes. If you are concerned about this, contact your state legislators with your concerns. One thing is for certain; we are now closer than ever to losing our precious north woods.

Mark W. Johnson
executive director
Minnesota Deer Hunters Association