Auditor says Minnesota DNR erred in planning, documenting logging of wildlife areas

ST. PAUL — An audit found the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources failed to properly plan and document logging in the state’s wildlife management areas, making it unclear as to whether the agency followed the law.

Timber harvests are only allowed on the state’s 1.3 million acres of WMAs if the logging benefits wildlife habitat, but a dispute, first reported in the Duluth News Tribune in 2019, arose when top DNR officials began implementing a timber availability report that called for more trees to be cut on state lands to feed the state’s timber industry, including more timber from WMAs.

“We found that a lack of plans, poor documentation, unclear guidance, and conflicting goals have resulted in uncertainty as to whether DNR has met these statutory requirements,” Legislative Audit