Crow Wing County’s Committee of the Whole heard a presentation on Jan. 21, 2025, about a rewritten Forest Resource Plan that will guide management on the county’s roughly 105,000 acres of tax‑forfeited forest land. County staff said the plan was completely updated for 2025, replacing the prior 10‑year working document last revised in 2015.

Tom (Land Services staff) told commissioners the county re‑ran forest modeling using updated inventory and cover‑type data to estimate sustainable annual harvest levels over a 100‑year outlook while producing a 10‑year work plan. “We did a complete wipe of the old plan just because we had so many updates,” Tom said, describing the modeling effort and efforts to maintain even age‑class balance to provide steady wood flows to markets.

The presentation included budget and operational details relevant to implementation. Tom said the county budgets about $30,000 per year for forest road maintenance. He also described the county’s rules for apportioning receipts from timber sales: revenues cannot simply be held year to year and instead are apportioned to the general fund and to townships, cities and schools unless the board approves a specific budget amendment to retain funds.

Commissioners asked about wildfire risk, salvage after storm damage, reforestation choices and emerald ash borer (EAB) impacts. Tom said much reforestation is natural regeneration and that where the county does plant, species selection is based on soils and native plant community — red pine, white pine, jack pine, spruce or a mix as appropriate. He described some operational limits in ash‑dominated wetlands where equipment can cause site damage, and said some ash stands may transition to open marsh or cattail habitat over time.

Tom said the county presented the plan to the Natural Resources Advisory Committee on Jan. 8 and received no comments at that meeting. He told the Committee of the Whole that staff will bring the plan back to the board for final approval next week and recommended placing it on the consent calendar.

No formal vote on the plan was taken at the Jan. 21 Committee of the Whole meeting; staff scheduled the final approval vote for the next board meeting.