Minnesota Agencies

Develops recommendations to the governor and to federal, state, county, and local governments with respect to forest resources policies and practices.

The council reports to the governor and to the legislative committees and divisions with jurisdiction over environment and natural resource policy and finance by February 1 of each year. The report describes the progress and accomplishments made by the council during the preceding year.

The Minnesota Forest Resources Council was established through the Sustainable Forest Resources Act to advise the governor and federal, state, and local governments with respect to sustainable forest resource policies and practices, and to implement the programs and activities called for in the Act. The council began meeting monthly in November 1995, and now meets on a bi-monthly basis, to carry out its responsibilities called for in the Act. Major activities of the council include the development, review, and implementation of comprehensive timber harvesting and forest management guidelines; establishing a landscape-based forest resources planning and coordination process; and establishing a Research Advisory Committee to carry out its assigned responsibilities regarding forest resources research.

The Minnesota Forest Resources Council was reviewed by the Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy (LCPFP) in 2013 as part of their biennial duty required by Minn. Stat. 3.885 Subd. 11. The LCPFP's 2013 Recommendations called for keeping the council.

The seventeen member council shall include a chair, two representatives of organizations representing environmental interests, one representative of an organization representing the interest of management of game species, one representative of a conservation organization, one representative of an association representing forest products industry within the state, one commercial logging contractor active in a forest product association, one representative of a statewide association representing the resort and tourism industry, one faculty member or researcher of a Minnesota research or higher education institution, one owner of nonindustrial, private forest land of 40 acres or more, one owner of nonindustrial private forest land, one representative of DNR, one county land commissioner who is a member of the Minnesota Association of County Land Commissioners, one representative of US Forest Service unit with land management responsibility in Minnesota, one representative of a labor organization with membership having an interest in forest resource issues, one individual representing a secondary wood products manufacturing organization, and one representative of the MN Indian Affairs Council. The MN Indian Affairs Council appoints its own member.

Pete Aube, Chair