MN DNR Releases 2023 Forest Resouce Report

MN DNR

07/23/2025

Executive Summary

Background information

This report is compiled annually by the Forest Biometrician and Utilization and Marketing Program staff of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Forestry Division. The report answers frequently asked questions ranging from current conditions and trends to industrial utilization of Minnesota’s forest resources. Foresters, natural resource managers, planners, forest industry, and forest policy makers will find items of interest in these pages.

This report uses the most recent version of periodic survey data sets including the national Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) and Timber Products Output (TPO) by the U.S. Forest Service. This publication is updated as new data becomes available. However, FIA data-based estimates including tables and figures in this report are the same as in the previous Forest Resources Report 2022 because the FIA data have not been updated since then. The updates are made based on TPO data, forest product industry data and stumpage price. Please use the online version and cite by date accessed.

We thank those who provided and updated information for this report, including many of Minnesota’s wood product companies. We also thank the FIA and TPO unit of the U.S. Forest Service for their data analysis and support. Minnesota DNR Forestry staff Scott Burns deserves appreciation for his roles in data collection and review.

All FIA summary data were obtained from FIA database version 1.9.200. This current version of the FIA database calculates volume, biomass and carbon estimates based on a nationally consistent new modeling system called National Scale Volume and Biomass Estimators (NSVB) released in September 2023 (Westfall et al., 2024). Hence, the volume, biomass/carbon, growth, mortality and harvest removal numbers presented in this report may not align precisely with the numbers reported in the preceding Minnesota’s Forest Resources Reports.

Forest resource highlights

According to 2022 FIA database, Minnesota currently has approximately 17.59 million acres of forest land, from which 15.75 million are classified as “timberland” (Figure 1-2)

• Privately owned forests make up almost half of Minnesota’s timberlands (49%), followed by the state (24%) and county and local government (16%) (Figure 1-4)

• Aspen is the most abundant forest type in Minnesota (30% of timberland). Oak (10%), northern hardwoods (9%), lowland hardwoods (9%), black spruce (9%), and tamarack (7%) also make up a large percentage of Minnesota forests (Figure 1-8).

• Overall, net growth for all species continued to outpace harvest levels. According to 2022 FIA figures, annual net growth of growing stock on timberland was approximately 7.06 million cords, with mortality of approximately 3.42 million cords (Figure 3-1).

Timber harvest highlights

In 2023, Minnesota industry and fuelwood users harvested and used approximately 2.56 million cords of wood which is down from 2.7 million cords in 2022 and one million cords lower than the average annual harvest levels in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The last year the annual harvest level in Minnesota was below 2.56 million cords was 1982.

Forest industry highlights

Since the 2022 Report was produced (linked here), industry highlights have not changed significantly, but key differences and trends are still critical to understand.

• Pulp, paper, and engineered wood products continue to be the dominant sectors for wood utilization; nearly 66% of the total roundwood harvest volume in the state was consumed within these sectors.

• After the decline in the mid-2000’s, mainly due to OSB mill closures, total statewide wood utilization remained relatively steady between 2.8 and 3 million cords. In the past few years a slight downward trend has developed.

• Aspen species utilization has remained relatively stable since 2007.

• Oak, ash and basswood show an increasing utilization trend within the other main hardwoods with maple on the decline. For the first time since 1992, ash harvest volume exceeded maple harvest volume.

• Spruce utilization has seen a sharp decline since 2018. Balsam fir utilization has suffered a steady decline since the late 1990’s. Tamarack utilization has also been in decline since 2010 but has leveled off in recent years. White cedar shows a slight upward trend, though still at relatively low harvest levels.

• Red pine utilization has increased dramatically over the last two decades while jack pine has declined significantly. White pine utilization has remained at relatively steady, but low levels.

• Several species above are underutilized, highlighting opportunity for expanding the sustainable harvest of these species in the state.

Find the full report here: 

https://www.mlep.org/Document.asp?DocID=16311

 

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