Minnesota's lands and waterways support healthy environments, outdoor traditions, and land uses
Click on images below to learn more about state lands.
Owned by you, managed by the DNR
Minnesotans value their state lands and affirmed their support with the passage of the 2008 Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. The DNR manages these lands on behalf of our citizens and continually strives to improve the state's land portfolio through strategic purchases, sales and exchanges. We do this to ensure the state's public land base meets the recreation, conservation and economic needs into the future.
Videos
- Public lands video series:
- Voices for Minnesota's Public Lands
- Hunting value
- State forests
- Clean water
- Recreation
Minnesota land ownership
About 24 percent of Minnesota's lands are public lands — more than 12 million acres of state, federal and county lands managed on behalf of citizens.
The DNR manages 5.6 million acres of state lands — about 11 percent of Minnesota's total land area; roughly 1 acre per person.
Minnesota counties manage 2.8 million acres of tax-forfeited state land — about 6 percent of Minnesota's total land area.
Strategic and collaborative land asset management
In consultation with DNR staff and department data, local governments, and nonprofit partners, the DNR regularly evaluates the state's land holdings and uses land acquisitions, exchanges, and sales to improve nature conservation efforts, increase recreational space, and grow the state's outdoor economy. Active management of our land asset portfolio is one of the ways the DNR meets its responsibility to the public and contributes to Minnesota's exceptional quality of life.
Local government aid: Payment in Lieu of Taxes
Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) is a form of local government aid paid for tax-exempt natural resources land. Each year, the state Department of Revenue distributes about $30 million in PILT payments to counties. Those payments are further distributed to townships and local school districts according to state law.
Backbone of outdoor recreation and tourism
Do you ever wonder what is behind Minnesota's outdoor culture? Look no further than Minnesota's 5.6 million acres of state lands that provide space and access to a wide variety of outdoor experiences. This network includes recreational trails for snowmobiling, hiking, biking, skiing and off-road motorized use. Hunters and anglers have access to millions of acres of state hunting lands and waters. For others, state lands offer solitude and beautiful spaces for camping, wildlife watching and photography.
- Participation
- Most Minnesotans (82 percent) consider outdoor recreation to be important to their lives.
- Public lands provide spaces for 1.7 million anglers, hunters, and trappers.
- Public waterways welcome 826,000 registered boats every summer.
- Public trails grant access for 192,000 registered snowmobiles and 300,000 registered all-terrain vehicles.
- State parks and recreation areas see 10 million visitors.
- 509,000 people per year travel to Minnesota's public lands to watch birds and other wildlife.
- Public lands provide access to more than 1,800 wildlife management areas covering 1.3 million acres.
- Public lands provide access to 65 state parks, nine state recreation areas and nine state waysides, totaling 234,500 acres.
- Public lands provide access to 166 scientific and natural areas covering 192,000 acres.
- Public lands provide access to 700 aquatic management areas covering 46,000 acres.
- Public lands provide access to 1,500 miles of state trails.
- Public lands provide access to 23,800 miles of grants-in-aid trails (1,800 off-highway vehicle, 700 ski, and 21,300 snowmobile).
- Public lands provide access to 4,100 miles of hiking, biking, horse and motorized trails within state parks, state recreation areas and state forests.
- Public lands provide access to approximately 1,700 public water access sites.
- Recreational economic impact
- Hunting generates $725 million dollars per year through direct expenditures in the state.
- In the forested areas of northern Minnesota, 27 percent hunt only public land.
- In southwestern and southeastern Minnesota, more than 6 percent of deer hunters hunt only public land; more than half (54 percent) spend some time on public land.
- Wildlife watching generates $621 million dollars per year through direct expenditures in the state.
- Trail users have spent $3.3 billion dollars and contributed $2.8 million dollars in local taxes which accounted for 43,000 jobs.
- State park visitors spend $231 million dollars annually on trip-related expenses, such as food, lodging, and transportation.
- State park campers spend approximately $40 dollars per person per day on average, nearly $28 dollars of which is on expenses beyond payments in state parks.
- Fishing generates $2.4 billion dollars per year through direct expenditures in the state.
Contributing to Minnesota's economy
Public land access is essential to supporting Minnesota's outdoor industry and billion-dollar economy. Managing Minnesota's forestlands is important for the state's environment, economy, and communities. Minnesota's 59 state forests, school trust acres, and other forestlands make up 4.2 million acres of land managed by the DNR.
- Timber production
Each year, the DNR offers 870,000 cords of wood plus an additional 30,000 cords of ash and tamarack for sale from DNR-administered forest lands. This provides 30 percent of Minnesota's wood fiber for the forest industry. The gross revenue of timber harvested from School Trust Lands was $11.8 million dollars in fiscal year 2020. Total gross timber revenue from all DNR-administered lands was $20.5 million dollars in fiscal year 2020.
The forest products industry is Minnesota's fifth largest manufacturing sector by employment. It generates $17.6 billion dollars in economic impact, 64,000 jobs and $458 million dollars in state and local taxes. DNR-managed forest lands produced $1.6 billion dollars in primary forest products and related sales in 2016. This is $62 dollars in product sales value for every $1 dollar spent on state land forest management. About 5 million acres of state administered forest lands are certified “well managed” by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, including 2.5 million acres of school trust lands.
- Funding Minnesota schools and universities
DNR-administered school trust lands generate income and funding for every K through 12 public school districts in the state. In 2023, mineral leases administered by the DNR brought in $44 million, benefiting Minnesota's K-12 public schools, the students at the University of Minnesota, and local communities. The Permanent School Fund's revenue comes from activities on school trust lands, including forestry, iron mining, aggregate mining, peat mining, and leasing for mineral exploration. The Permanent School Fund is valued at over $1.9 billion dollars and distributed $36 million dollars to Minnesota's K-12 school districts on a per-pupil basis. Each year, mining on state-managed university trust lands supports about 3,000 Iron Range Scholarships, awarded to Minnesota resident undergraduates at the four campuses of the University of Minnesota system. These scholarships were worth $4.6 million dollars in the 2019-20 school year.
Providing environmental benefits
As the state's population grows, state lands increasingly play an important environmental role. State lands in the form of forests, prairies and peatlands play important roles in providing clean water and air, carbon sequestration, habitat for pollinators and wildlife, and protection of space for rare plants, animals and geologic features.
- Biological protection
- Many remaining large natural landscapes are publicly owned and protected.
- Many of the state's best examples of rare and significant natural features (i.e. biodiversity hot spots) occur on public lands.
- 30 percent (or 75,000 acres) of the state's native prairie are protected on state-managed public land.
- 69 percent (or 2.1 million acres) of the state's mapped native plant communities are on public land.
- Wildlife habitat, including rare species
- Minnesota's public forests provide habitat for approximately 289 wildlife species and more than 20 game species.
- Minnesota's public prairies and grasslands provide habitat for approximately 128 wildlife species.
- Public lands provide important habitat for species that are facing serious threats that may cause them to become rare or to decline.
- 49 rare species (of 577 rare species statewide) are known to occur only on state and federal lands.
- Minnesota has the highest nesting population of bald eagles and loons in the continental United States.
- Pollinators
- Public lands provide critical habitat for pollinators, including 33 species of butterflies, 400 species of native bees, moths and bumblebees with greatest conservation need.
- Public lands provide Minnesota researchers access to bee habitats throughout the state. Researchers are now working to complete the first update since 1919 of a state native bee species list.
- Resilient habitats
- Intact natural lands help buffer extreme weather impacts associated with changing climate, such as slowing water flow during floods.
- Protected natural lands ensures that habitats aren't cleared and biodiversity is not displaced, keeping critical ecosystems intact.
- Climate change mitigation (biological carbon storage)
- Minnesota peatlands, forestlands, grasslands, and wetlands are all important reservoirs of carbon. Minnesota peatlands – which are of global conservation significance – store approximately 745 metric tons of carbon per acre.
- Protecting and managing habitats stores carbon in these systems. Restoring these habitats will increase the amount of carbon the landscape can absorb.
- Research on public lands
- Public lands, including wildlife management areas, scientific and natural areas and state forests, provide areas for research that advance our understanding of natural systems.
- Research conducted on public lands includes plant and animal surveys, rare species habitat requirements, and investigations into the effects of natural land management. For example, DNR researchers have used public lands to survey native bees. Since 2014, 82 percent of bee surveys have occurred on public lands.
- Water quality, flood, and groundwater protection
- 49 percent of the state's wetlands, lakes and rivers are on public land.
- Watersheds with abundant public land provide quality water for drinking, swimming, and fishing.
- Public lands buffer the impacts of floods and help replenish groundwater supplies.
- Sound management of forested public lands surrounding the Mississippi River ensures clean drinking water for more than one million Minnesotans.
- Grassland and wetland restoration reduces nitrates in water, decreasing harmful algal blooms in lakes, and increasing safe drinking water.
- Grassland, wetland, and forest restoration helps protect groundwater located in wellhead protection areas and drinking water supply management areas.