Chippewa National Forest - Forest Facts

• Established:
  • 1902: Minnesota Forest Reserve by the Morris Act (Only National Forest formed to benefit Native Americans.)
  • 1908: Chippewa National Forest
• Location: North Central Minnesota
  • Forest Supervisor’s office: Cass Lake, Minnesota
  • District offices: Blackduck, Deer River and Walker​
• Forest Managed: 672,167.2 acres
  •  44% lies within the Leech Lake Reservation​
• Lakes and Wetlands:  
  • 1300 Lakes and ponds, 925 Miles of Rivers; 440,000 acres wetlands, 25 watersheds.
  • 13% of all surface water in National Forest System
  • Three of the ten largest lakes in Minnesota: Leech Lake, Lake Winnibigoshish and Cass Lake.
  • Part of the Mississippi Headwaters region.
• Recreation:
  • ​556 campsites in 15 developed campgrounds and 76 designated dispersed campsites. For trails: 19 miles of paved bike trails, 240 miles of motorized trails, 278 miles of non-motorized trails, 312 miles of snowmobile trails, 21 miles of OHV trails, and 24 miles of designated horse trails plus 200+ low standard roads to ride.  Most of the non-motorized trails on the Chippewa are multi-use, so there are many more miles allowed for many activities. For water recreationists, the Chippewa also has 85 boat accesses.​
• Volunteers: Recreation Volunteers worked a total of 26,442 hours during FY 2022. The breakdown is as follows:
  • Archaeology: There were 855 heritage volunteer hours worked on the Forest. Over 3000 archeological and historic sites documenting over 10,000 years of history in the region. Notable sites include: the Forest Supervisor’s Office, a three-story log building built by the CCC in 1936; Camp Rabideau, a nearly complete CCC camp and National Historic Landmark; and the Old Cutfoot Sioux Ranger Station building which was built in 1908 and is the oldest ranger station east of the Mississippi River.​
• Fires and Fuels FY22:
  • Total integrated fuels treatments accomplished over 7,000 acres.
  • Wildfire Occurrence on Forest: 35 fires for 39 acres. Largest wildfire was 18.5 acres.
  • The Forest supports over 80 red carded employees for local and national fire response.
  • In 2022, over 45 different employees spent over 2,200 days supporting off-Forest wildland fire assignments to 16 different states (MN, OH, ID, CA, MT, MI, WY, NM, TX, CO, UT, AK, AZ, WI, MO, MS).​
• Three Experimental Forests:  Pike Bay, Marcell, Cut Foot
• Reforestation FY22: Site Prep - 353 acres at 15 sites. Planting - 2245 acres at 97 sites. Stocking surveys - 4222 acres at 281 sites. Animal damage control - 1536 acres at 110 sites. Release – 1469 acres, 80 sites. Common Stand Exam surveyed acres (completed by contractor, inspected by FS) – 4700 acres, 470 plots.
• Additional accomplishments include:  140, 5-foot-tall Prairie Expedition Elms planted; 30 lbs of white pine seed and 5 lbs of balsam fir and 247 lbs of acorns collected (240 lbs. shipped to Toumey Nursery); and coordination with LLBO on a CPL Grant.
• Special Uses: 285 Recreation Residences; 10 Resorts - operating under a Forest special use permit.
• Engineering: 2223 miles of road system with 35 road bridges and 47 trail bridges.
• Wildlife and Plants: Rare and sensitive species, including goshawk, northern long-eared bat, rusty patched bumble bee, goblin ferns, Connecticut warbler, red-shouldered hawk and orchids. Over 250 wildlife species, and 180 nesting pairs of bald eagles. Large fisheries program, walleye, muskie, lake trout, panfish, bass. Seventy species of fish, nine species of freshwater mussels.
• Soils: over 45 timber units were monitored for soil impacts, 252 soil samples were collected from 11 of these timber units. 19 Releve plots were surveyed for and 3 were relocated.