Forest Serv/land exchange

[Lee Borgersen]

    Forest Service to begin EIS on land exchange

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Proposal would trade approximately 30,000 acres of school trust land in BWCAW for lands outside wilderness.

 
 
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REGIONAL—The state of Minnesota’s plan for exchanging a portion of its school trust lands in the Boundary Waters for federal lands outside the wilderness is taking a major step forward. The U.S. Forest Service announced this week that it will conduct an environmental impact statement, or EIS, on the proposed land exchange. The agency will be publishing its notice of intent in the Federal Register on Friday, Aug. 28.

The Forest Service took public input on the plan earlier this year as part of the scoping for the broader analysis. Over the next six-to-eight months, the Forest Service will analyze the scoping comments and take a detailed look at the proposed exchange and its potential environmental effects. A Forest Service statement projects the draft EIS will be published and available for public comment in early 2016. They expect to issue a final document next fall.

The land exchange has received considerable public attention, in part due to the potential forest management changes the transfer of ownership could entail. While Forest Service lands are typically managed for multiple uses, state school trust lands are required by law to be managed for maximum financial return to the trust.

The public submitted more than 1,600 comments during the scoping period, which included five open houses held around the national forest and in St. Paul.

Additional scoping comments may be submitted until Sept. 30, 2015. It is not necessary to re-submit scoping comments that were already provided last spring. Directions for submitting scoping comments are included in the notice of intent.

The proposed exchange would transfer 30,000 acres of state school trust lands inside the BWCAW to the Forest Service in exchange for an equal value of national forest system lands outside the wilderness.  The exchange is one part of a long-term strategy to transfer all 83,000 acres of school trust lands inside the BWCAW to the Forest Service through exchange and purchase.  It would allow the state to acquire lands outside the BWCAW that can be managed to generate revenue for the Permanent School Fund.

The Superior National Forest would achieve priorities identified in the Superior National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan including acquiring land within the BWCAW and consolidating federal ownership to increase management efficiency. Concurrent with the land exchange analysis, the Forest Service is pursuing funds to purchase remaining school trust lands inside the BWCAW.