The Nature Conservancy adds over 12,000 acres to its conservation efforts in northern Minnesota

With its largest land acquisition in 25 years, The Nature Conservancy is conserving another 12,000 acres of Minnesota's Northwoods.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has permanently protected 12,271 acres of forests, wetlands, and connected wildlife habitat in northern Minnesota. This is its largest forest acquisition to date and its largest land acquisition since the purchase of more than 24,000 acres to begin Glacial Ridge in 2000.

“This is a really exciting project for us, really a milestone for the Nature Conservancy. And we think a win for nature and a win for people in Minnesota,” said TNC Director of Forest Strategy and Stewardship Jim Manolis. “We were excited about it because of its value – especially its value for wildlife, for biodiversity, and for water.”

This acquisition is part of the Sand Lake/Seven Beavers Preserve, tripling its size. Although the land is now privately owned, it will be open to the public for wildlife viewing, hiking, berry picking, birding, hunting, and fishing. There will be no developed trails or restrooms on the property, and TNC is paying property taxes on the land. The management plan has not been figured out yet, but a priority will be reducing wildfire risk.

“12,000 acres is a lot to manage all at once, so we know for sure that the starting areas we’re going to look where there’s been heavier, where the greenwood fire came through, and it burned heavier, where there’s not as much natural regeneration of trees will be our starting point,” said TNC Resilience Forester Laura Slavsky. “Finding those areas, planting trees that can help restore the forest, and then beyond that we’ll think longer term about what we want this landscape to look like.”

The expanded Sand Lake/Seven Beavers preserve is located about an hour north of Two Harbors, Minnesota (TNC).

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Partnering with other agencies, TNC has already planted over 300,000 trees in the surrounding area. Conservation of this habitat will help a variety of wildlife, from moose to birds, now and for years to come.

“It’s just really important, especially for climate change and making sure that wildlife and plants and animals can move as the climate warms, and it’s just a big connected landscape that’s important for climate,” said Manolis.

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The land is part of the Great Lakes Northwoods, a 60 million-acre region spanning Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. TNC recognizes the Great Lakes Northwoods as a global priority for biodiversity and climate resilience. Another benefit to protecting this land is the watershed value.

“It’s the headwaters of the Rainy River. So the water flows north into the boundary waters, into that rainy river system that actually eventually flows to Hudson’s Bay,” explained Manolis. “The landscape and the property have a lot of peatlands. Just acts like a giant sponge that helps hold the water and then also filters it and cleans it for the water flowing north.”

Approximately 5,000 acres of this property are comprised of peatlands. In addition to improving water quality, peatlands are important from a climate perspective due to their role as a carbon sink. Peatlands make up around 3% of the Earth but store a third of its carbon.

Peatlands play a vital role in the global carbon cycle as a carbon sink (WDIO).

RELATED: Protecting peatlands for climate mitigation

“We’re taking all of that into consideration and then with all of the tree planting that we will eventually do on the land that will also sequester carbon and as the climate changes, we’ll be able to take an active hand in managing the forest to withstand that and not just be sitting and watching things happen; we’ll be able to do stuff about it,” said Slavsky.