DNR to restore natural plant community along Paul Bunyan State Trail

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DNR to restore natural plant community along Paul Bunyan State Trail
(Released May 12, 2011)


A project that will restore native plant communities and help ensure safety along the Paul Bunyan State Trail between Pine River and Backus begins Monday, May 16, and will continue through the first week in June, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The trail will remain open while this work is being done, but trail users should exercise caution around the crews and their equipment.

The goal of the project is to restore a dry oak-aspen-pine woodland plant community by reducing the density of existing jack pine thickets in some areas.

“This central Minnesota plant community is dependent on disturbance, so tools like cutting - and possibly prescribed burning in the future - are used to restore and maintain the diversity and integrity of the plant community,” said Angela Anderson, resource specialist for the DNR’s Division of Parks and Trails.

The project also will help ensure safe conditions along the trail. Areas will be thinned to create better visibility for operators of cars and recreation vehicles.

Funding provided by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment made it possible to start needed natural resources management on the Paul Bunyan State Trail, which is paved for more than 100 miles between Brainerd and Bemidji and still has good quality native plant communities within its right-of-way, Anderson said.

Conservation Corps Minnesota is doing the work under the supervision of the Natural Resources Management Program of the Division of Parks and Trails. Crews will work their way south along a nine-mile segment of the Paul Bunyan State Trail, starting in Backus.

For more information is available on DNR website or by calling the DNR Information Center at 651-296-6157 or toll-free 888-646-6367 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.