With timber sales few and far between in Cook County, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) formed a strategy it hoped would attract a logging company to work for several years in the county.
Jason Bushmaker, a DNR program forester in the timber program located in Two Harbors, said the agency put together what it informally called a “super permit” selling one huge tract of wood with almost 25,000 cords of wood products on it.
Sealed bids were opened on January 15 in Two Harbors with Cook County logger Stan Nelson Jr. winning the bid, said Bushmaker.
Located near the Jackson Lake Road, off of the Arrowhead Trail, in the east end of the county, the sale covers 1,260 acres and holds 24,775 cords. The eight-block sale contains 47 percent aspen, 26 percent paper birch, 15 percent mixed spruce, 10 percent balsam fir, and 2 percent other. Five of those blocks can be cut in the summer with three blocks winter cutting only.
According to the DNR one reason it put this large sale together was to try to catch up on a large amount of planned backlogged acres targeted for cutting that weren’t being sold in smaller tracts. It was also hoped that by offering one large sale a logger could better manage trucking fees to market.
Because a portion of the Superior Hiking Trail runs through this sale a five-foot buffer on either side of the trail will be left. Another location that will be left unlogged is the area where a fatal plane crash occurred in the 1970s [which is marked by a commemorative plaque]. This spot will be flagged and left alone as directed by the Transportation Safety Administration.
Bushmaker said Nelson has 18 months to start working the sale. “That will give him the time if he needs it to complete his other sales.”
Logging sales in Cook and Lake County were at an all time low in 2007-2008, said Bushmaker. “We were lucky to sell 25 percent of our timber sales. Two years ago we sold 50 percent of our timber sales and in November 2014 we sold 75 percent of our sales. This January it was 100 percent. I have a pretty firm belief we are at a turning point. I’m absolutely happy with the turnaround and can’t wait to see how it goes from here,” said Bushmaker.
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