Great idea to lease this land !! Perhaps I've missed it (I've been canoeing in the Quetico for a week) but in addition to the information already provided about the location, GPS coordinates might be helpful.
Bernie Friel on 6/2/05 10:24 AM, Jim Barrett at [email protected] wrote: > Good post, Manley. I think this also ties in nicely with Jim Williams' > exhortations to buy duck stamps. As a duck hunter, I buy them anyway, bu= t > anyone buying them is helping to acquire, expand, improve and maintain > habitat important to birds. >=20 > From: Ann and Manley Olson <[email protected]> > Reply-To: [email protected] > To: "Alt, Mark" <[email protected]> > CC: [email protected], MOU Board <[email protected]>,mnbird > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [mou] MOU has leased land in the Sax Zim Bog Area > Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 10:09:04 -0500 >=20 > I applaud the action of the MOU to lease land in the Sax Zim Bog, > thereby increasing the access for MOU members in this unique area of > Minnesota. Given the propensity of land owners to increasingly espouse > a "this land ain't your land, this land is my land" philosophy, we need > to find ways to assure that we will be able to look for those birds that > chose to frequent other than public lands. Working out lease > arrangements not only helps provide this access but may also help to > improve relations with local land owners. However we should also > recognize that we need to be concerned with preserving habitat, even if > it is not a place where we might actually go to seek birds. This I > would hope that the MOU and its members would continue to support public > acquisition of important habitat, even if it is not a place we are > likely to visit. Not only do we need places where we personally expect t= o > see birds,but we need to support the acquisition and > preservation of wilderness for its own sake. It must be both/and not > either/or. This is the vision of Thoreau (" In wildness is the > preservation of the world"), John Muir and Aldo Leopold. In the > concluding paragraphs of "A Sand County Almanac", Leopold passionately > argues for the preservation of wilderness for its own sake, not just for > the use of "trophy-recreationists" as well as trophy hunters. >=20 > If we doubt that most of us birders are not in the trophy collection > business, one needs only to review the data Randy Fredrickson compiled > on the spending in pursuit of owls. For some of us the trophy was a > photo, for others a tick on a list. After 45 years of marriage my wife > is no longer surprised by a trip to Aitkin County to see owls but I > think she was not quite prepared for at least 150 people from 9 states wh= o > came to our back yard seeking the Varied Thrush. >=20 > So while I encourage the providing, either by lease or purchase, of > places where we can bird freely, I also encourage us to put some of our > resources into land acquisition, even if we may never bird there. >=20 > Manley Olson > Falcon Heights >=20 > Alt, Mark wrote: >=20 >> The MOU has taken a first step and become a leaseholder on a parcel of > land in St Louis County, in the Sax Zim Bog area, less than a mile from O= wl > Avenue. We are leasing 79 acres from Potlatch Corporation for a year. It > will be posted for no trespassing except with the permission of the > leaseholder, which is the MOU, so anyone who is a MOU member is a > leaseholder, so come on down! The MOU Board is doing this to take a first > step towards setting aside areas here for recreational birding. The DNR a= nd > MN Audubon are strong supporters of this initiative. We hope it leads to > other land being set aside, such as McDavitt for the woodpeckers, the Blu= e > Spruce loop for Boreal specialties, and others. Perhaps it may lead to a > birding trail. We are not certain of how to best use this plot, but we wa= nt > it used, so I invite each of you to come visit and bird on it! I will ke= ep > a tally of species reported on it and make notes on our usages. >> The legal description of the property is referencing the St Louis Plat > book - it is the SW quarter of section 21 in T.54.N. - R.19W. For regular > directions, drive North from Cloquet to Cotton on Hwy 53, then turn west= on > Hwy 52 (Arkola Rd), past CR 7 (about 6 miles), then continue west another > 5.5 miles to Owl Avenue (Township rd 203). Turn south on TR 203 and head > south. Continue about 2 miles through a gradual "S" turn, (where TR 203 > turns into TR 202), then you come to an intersection with S. Overton Rd. = (TR > 980). Turn West on TR 980 and proceed 1.75 miles, from this point to wher= e > TR 980 makes a 90 degree turn to head north, you are driving along the > southern border of our property. As you turn north the Township Rd number= is > now TR 230, and the name of the road is now Overton Rd. The first =BD mile = as > you head north on TR 230, the MOU property borders you on your right. Th= ere > are boglands on the remote NE corner of the property, so we could get all > types of northern specialties, potentially. >> We are arranging to have a small parking area set up for 6 cars or truck= s > in the area. We will be looking forward to hearing from all visitors to t= his > little spot of woods up north; please let us know what is there! Good > Birding! >>=20 >>=20 >>=20 >> Mark Alt >> President, >> Minnesota Ornithologists Union >> J. F. Bell Museum of Natural History >> University of Minnesota >> 10 Church Street SE >> Minneapolis, MN 55455-0104 >> MOU.mn.org >> [email protected] >> Cell: 612-803-9085 >>=20 >>=20 >>=20 >> _______________________________________________ >> mou-net mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://cbs.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mou-net >>=20 >>=20 >>=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 > _______________________________________________ > mou-net mailing list > [email protected] > http://cbs.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mou-net >=20 >=20 > _______________________________________________ > mou-net mailing list > [email protected] > http://cbs.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mou-net --=20 Bernard P. Friel Web Page - http://www.wampy.com
