AncienTrails

Forest Watch

Samhain                                              Full Dark Moon

This post from November 2, 2009 explains a new program of the Sierra Club Northstar Chapter.

I’m leaving in a few minutes for Sand Dunes State Forest.  The Sierra Club has begun a forest watch program.  Volunteers will make regular visits to all of the state forests.  If you’re reading this and have an interest in picking a state forest, follow this link to the DNR for a map of all our state forests.  More than one person can pick the same forest.

Those of us in the forest watch program will look for signs of over use, atv or other OHV (other than highway vehicles) use in unpermitted areas, conservation issues,  wildlife and plant sightings, that sort of thing.  Lois Norgard, chair of the Northstar chapters forest committee can be reached at the Northstar website below if you’re interested.  The program is just underway so the guidelines are still in development, but you can get an idea at the forest watch webpage.  This is an opportunity to get in at the ground level (no pun intended) if you have an interest.

Here are some notes and photos from my first visit:

It was a second sunny November day today when I left my exurban home in Andover headed for a large patch of federal and state controlled land in nearby Sherburne County.

As I drove Highway 10 west and north toward Sand Dunes State Forest, an empty unit coal train rumbled by on the Burlington-Northern tracks parallel to the road.  These trains, often 200 coal cars long, take coal from underground Wyoming and ship it to many states, if not all, in the continental United States, distributing the carbon capture of the Cretaceous era far and wide so it can be released into the atmosphere.

I was not as well-prepared as I will be the next time I go.  This was a sort of scouting effort, getting to know the area and making a cursory examination.  When I go next time, I’ll have topographical maps, my compass, lunch and time to hike.  Today I just wanted to get out to the site and feel like I’d gotten underway.  I spent about 4 hours door to door.

Here are a few photos from the trip.

The northern edge of the State Forest has a trail head for horses and hikers.

All the trails were clearly marked with signs and most were in good condition.

This trail was typical of the ones I saw.  I hiked in on one about a half a mile and it seemed clear the whole way with the exception of tracks for one horse (on a non-horse designated trail).

At 180th St. NW I turned left off 230th and came to this trail which was the only one I found with obvious OHV violations.  The photo below is a close up.