Introduction

The Cloquet Forestry Center was established in 1909 to provide the University of Minnesota a focal point for research on managing Minnesota's forests. Since then the Center has grown in size and scope, and now conducts a broad range of activities in education, research, and outreach related to northern forests. The combination of a large forest with a well-documented history, excellent facilities, and on-site professional and support staff make the Cloquet Forestry Center one of the premier experimental forests in the country.

The overall forest management goal for the Cloquet Forestry Center is to provide a well managed forest serving the diverse research, teaching, and outreach programs of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and other natural resource related organizations. Those programs are served by:

  • sustaining a forest with a variety of vegetation types, stand age classes, and stand vigor conditions,
  • providing suitable forest road access and maintenance,
  • supporting a centralized research and management information system,
  • utilizing Minnesota's Site-level Forest Management Guidelines (Minnesota Forest Resources Council 1999),
  • improving and maintaining a variety of wildlife habitats,
  • protecting research and demonstration installations.

To this end, the Center's forests include some areas that are intensively managed, some that remain in a more natural condition, and others that are reserved for teaching, research, or demonstration purposes. Policies are also in place to limit recreational use of the forest. All these actions help maximize research, teaching, and outreach opportunities at the Center.

Management activities within the Center's forest are determined at ten-year intervals. This permits sufficient time to plan and conduct the activities, and also gives researchers ample time to develop research projects tied to forest management activities. This ten year forest management plan outlines management goals to be met during the period July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2011, for the 3,340 contiguous acres (University of Minnesota, 2001) of the Cloquet Forestry Center. This plan compliments and supports the Center's mission as a unit of the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. It serves as a guide that can be adjusted as special conditions warrant during the ten-year period.

 

Index > History