Superior National Forest
Superior National Forest | |
---|---|
Location | Saint Louis, Lake, and Cook counties, Minnesota, U.S. |
Coordinates | 48°N 92°W / 48°N 92°W |
Area | 3,900,000 acres (16,000 km2) |
Established | February 13, 1909[2] |
Governing body | U.S. Forest Service |
Website | Superior National Forest |
Superior National Forest, part of the
Under the administration of the
Location
The forest is located in Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis counties in northeastern Minnesota. Forest headquarters are located in Duluth, outside the boundaries of the forest. There are local ranger district offices in Aurora, Cook, Ely, Grand Marais, and Tofte.[3]
Landforms
The forest covers 3.9 million acres (6,100 mi2 or 16,000 km2), and has over 445,000 acres (1,800 km2) of water.[4] Its waters include some 2,000 lakes and rivers,[5] more than 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of cold water streams, and 950 miles (1,530 km) of warm water streams.[6] Many of the lakes are located in depressions formed by the differential erosion of tilted layers of bedded rock; these depressions were given their final form by glacial scouring during recent ice ages.[1]
The forest is located on part of the
The principal surficial result of recent glaciation is not the deposition of glacial drift (unlike most of the rest of Minnesota), but the remodeling of the landscape by the scraping away of softer surfaces down to bare hard rock. The land therefore is raw, with many outcroppings of ancient bedrock, overlain in places by thin layers of gravelly soil and, in the west, silts deposited by
Life forms
Flora
The forest contains a small slice of true boreal forest (
Fauna
Fish species such as
Recreation
The Superior National Forest features a long segment of the 4,800-mile North Country National Scenic Trail [1] from just south of Burntside Lake by Ely to just south of Temperance River State Park near Schroeder. This segment includes (from West to East) the Kekekabic Trail, Border Route Trail, and Superior Hiking Trail.
The Superior National Forest maintains developed fee campgrounds with amenities like drinking water and garbage disposal, rustic campgrounds without drinking water or fees, and backcountry campsites with only a pit latrine and a fire grate, and no permits or fees.[10] Additionally, dispersed camping is permitted anywhere on undeveloped public land without permit or fee.[10] An exception is made for the designated wilderness of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which requires special permits for entrance.
Fee campgrounds
Tofte Ranger District
- Crescent Lake
- Divide Lake
- Little Isabella River
- McDougal Lake
- Ninemile Lake
- Sawbill Lake
- Temperance River
Mining
In January 2023, the Biden administration set a 20-year moratorium on mining in 225,000 acres of the forest that are upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The moratorium protects the waters of the Rainy River watershed from pollution and blocks the proposed Twin Metals mine.[11]
See also
- List of U.S. national forests
- Chippewa National Forest
- List of U.S. Wilderness Areas
- International Boundary Waters Treaty
References
Cited references
- ^ ISBN 0-8166-0953-5.
- ^ "The National Forests of the United States" (PDF). ForestHistory.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 October 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
- ^ USFS Ranger Districts by State
- ^ "America's 10 Most Endangered National Forests" (PDF). Report. National Forest Protection Alliance. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-06-25. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
- ^ a b "Superior National Forest recreation". USDA Forest Service. 2007-01-16. Retrieved 2007-03-07.
- ^ "Superior National Forest: About Us". USDA Forest Service. 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2007-03-07.
- ^ Gibbon, Guy E.; Johnson, Craig M.; Hobbes, Elizabeth (2000). "Chapter 3: Minnesota's Environment and Native American Culture History". A Predictive Model of Precontact Archaeological Site Location for The State of Minnesota. Minnesota Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on April 27, 2006. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) (archive of original) - ISBN 0-8166-2804-1..
- ^ "Wildlife of the Superior National Forest". USDA Forest Service. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
- ^ a b Camping, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
External links
Media related to Superior National Forest at Wikimedia Commons
- - USFS History (Forest History Society)
- Website of the Superior National Forest
- History of the Superior National Forest
- Map of the forest
Parts of this article were taken from the