ANNE QUEENAN
Sucker River
Habitat Management Plan
by Anne Queenan
with Ecological Strategies, LLC. for Minnesota Land Trust
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Cultural and Ecological Settings of a New
Conservation Easement in Northeast Minnesota
CULTURAL SETTING
The Protected Property is located in St. Louis County in North Eastern Minnesota, northeast of Duluth. It sits on the ancestral homelands of the White Earth Nation, a band of the Anishinaabe community (Chippewa/Ojibwe). In 1854, the Arrowhead Region of northeastern Minnesota territory was purchased by the U.S. Government from the Chippewa of Lake Superior (Anishinaabe). More than 2 million acres of land were ceded through that treaty. Permanent reservations for the Fond du Lac, Grand Portage and Bois Forte Bands were established with hunting, fishing and gathering rights promised to be retained.
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The 1854 Treaty opened the area for townsite development, like Duluth, and mining for precious metals like copper along the North Shore of Lake Superior. At this point, Minnesota was primarily wooded, and the European settlers took advantage of that resource. They transported the pines and deciduous trees from the region known as The Pineries or The North Woods via waterways and rail. Soon after, iron ore was discovered and mined and moved through these same areas (Figure 1). One section of these woods is the Northern Superior Uplands (NSU) where the protected property sits.
Railroad Commissioners Map of Minnesota
Following logging, extensive white pine-red pine and spruce forests were replaced by forests of trembling aspen-paper birch and balsam fir. Today, much of the property is a wet forest with dryer, fire-dependent highland elements in it. In the lower forested wetlands, black ash dominates. With the looming spread of emerald ash borer, loss of the black ash could have major hydrological repercussions.
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The Big Sucker River flows through the property, emptying into Lake Superior. Local outfitters, like Namebin, relay that each spring, a large run of long nose sucker fish swim upstream from Lake Superior to spawn. Sucker eggs are high in food value for trout. Brook and brown trout follow to feast upon the sucker eggs. As a result, fly fishing opportunities on the river are abundant in early spring along the Sucker River.
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The owner, who purchased the land in the late 1900's, reports discovering a hilly land formation with a ridge of trees while hiking through the woods. It’s what’s left of an old railroad train trestle running across the southern forty acres – a remnant of a former railroad landowner, Northern Pacific Railway Company, from the late 1880’s – 90’s. This rail line ran to the edge of the Sucker River. During this time, a vast network of railways were built to carry the harvested wood from the forests.
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Along with the use of logging railroads, loggers used the Big Sucker River and other tributaries to float their logs downstream to a historically busy port on the shore of Lake Superior.
In childhood years, the owner learned the importance of conserving wilderness land and protecting it after watching natural acreage get divided up quickly and developed into residential plots near Shakopee, MN. When the owner bought the land, a handshake deal was made with the former resident and owner to keep the wilderness intact. He was an entomologist (i.e. he studied insects). He planted thousands of trees on the property throughout his XY- year tenure on the land, including white spruce, two large Eastern hemlocks, white pine, red pine and scotch pine. In January, 20XY, the owners travelled to his home to let him know that his wish had been honored and the land would be formally protected. At 102 years of age, needless to say, he was pleased.
One of the pleasures the current owners have enjoyed on the land is the variety of birds that reside and migrate through the woods. They hope to implement ways to maintain and support this bird habitat. Another prized attribute of the land is the wetland area close to the homestead. The calls of the peepers, waterfowl and bird life there have brought great enjoyment for both of them. They want to prioritize plantings that will preserve the wetlands, throughout the evolving dynamics of climate change. ​​
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ECOLOGICAL SETTING
Conservation Context
Adjoining lands are both privately owned and state-owned lands. Two nearby and adjoining properties were recently protected with conservation easements. On the northwest corner of the property, private neighbors recently enlisted 240 acres. To the east, near the homestead and bridge, 110 acres were just protected. In the wider surrounding area, conservation efforts include the DNR’s easement on parts of the Sucker River and its tributary, Sucker Creek, in the form of an Aquatic Management Area (AMA). Angling is allowed only by way of landowner permission.
Audubon supported Important Bird Areas (IBAs) within reach are the Sax Zim Bog IBA, focusing on bogs, forests, boreal birds and owls, 52 miles northwest of the Protected Property. Also, in Duluth, the Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve IBA records 60,000 migrating raptors each fall. Minnesota’s IBA’s provide essential habitat for one or more breeding, wintering, and/or migrating bird species. Also, in Duluth, the Moose Mountain Scientific Natural Area (SNA) protects 177 acres of an excellent example of northern hardwoods, in particular a 55-acre stand of old-growth sugar maple-basswood forest. This stand has been the focus of research into dynamics of northern hardwood communities along Minnesota's north shore, exploring ways that human-caused climate change might affect the distribution of sugar maple trees. It's located in St. Louis County and the North Shore Highlands.
A useful tool for understanding how the Protected Property fits into the surrounding region and broader landscape is the Ecological Classification System (ECS) (MN DNR 2005). The ECS looks at climate, geology, topography, soils, hydrology, and vegetation to create a hierarchical classification. The highest level based on the broadest environmental characteristics is called a “Province”. Minnesota has four Provinces defined by major climate zones, native vegetation, and biomes. The Protected Property is located in the Laurentian Mixed Forest Province (Figure 2). Provinces are then made up of multiple “Sections,” which are defined by glacial deposition processes, surface bedrock, elevation, distribution of plants, and local climate.
Ecologically, “the Northern Superior Uplands vegetation is remarkably uniform relative to that of other sections in the Laurentian Mixed Forest Province, consisting mostly of fire-dependent forests and woodlands. Forests with red and white pine were widespread in the past, mixed with aspen, paper birch, spruce, and balsam fir. Much of the pine was cut in the late 1800s and early 1900s leaving forests dominated mostly by aspen and paper birch.
Ecological Region
Geology & Topography
The North Shore Highlands area characterized by glacially scoured bedrock terrain with thin and discontinuous deposits of coarse loamy till. The rugged topography of the underlying bedrock results in a surface with dramatic hills and cliffs. The bedrock is a southern extension of the Canadian Shield which is an ancient mountain range composed of crystalline rock. Overlying soils tend to be thin. (Information from Brittanica). Throughout the area, there are Precambrian granitic bedrock outcroppings can be seen between moraine deposits left by the last glacial retreat, which occurred about 12,000 years ago (Omernik, 1988).
Soils
Soils within this ecoregion are generally thicker than those to the north and lack the arability of soils in the adjacent ecoregions to the south. On the Protected Property, nearly half of the soils are on the flat or marginally concave portions of moraines, or hills, which are somewhat poorly drained. The soil is loamy to a gravelly sandy loam. It’s relatively acidic, with six inches depth to the water table. Very little to no flooding occurs on these higher areas due to its elevation of 1.100 to 1,800 feet. Twenty percent of the property is very poorly drained swamp, rifle soils with mucky peat and no access to the water table, yet receives plenty of surface water. This organic material is found in ponded peatlands and wetlands, offering great ecological value. ​
Hydrology
The Protected Property falls within the Lake Superior – South watershed, which is part of the Great Lakes Basin. (See Figure 3.) This watershed covers about 624 square miles and borders the northeastern edge of Minnesota and Lake Superior, from the south side of Duluth to just north east of Silver Bay. It is made up of a series of small watersheds, six lakes, and many streams that drain directly to Lake Superior. The Sucker River watershed, where the Protected Property sits, is one of those smaller, minor watersheds. Forested swamps, a type of wetland, are common in the Lake Superior-South watershed. ​
Streams within this watershed are generally small to moderate in channel size, short, and vary in gradient depending on location of their drainage towards Lake Superior. Most streams hold their natural meandering pattern which follows land carved out by glaciers. “Waterways within this major watershed are protected by the 1930 Shipstead-Nolan Act of Congress that prohibits dams or other water-fluctuation structures in St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties (Waters, 1977).” This was strengthened by a Minnesota law in 1933 protecting the waterfalls, rapids, and beaches of Lake Superior streams.
​Through extensive sampling and testing by the MPCA at the mouth of the Sucker River, overall good water quality conditions were found. This can be attributed to the forest and wetlands that dominate land cover in the surrounding landscape of the Protected Property within the Lake Superior - South Watershed.
Climate
The Northern Superior Uplands receives more of its precipitation as snow than any section in the state, has the longest period of snow cover, and the shortest growing season. The highlands have a local climate moderated by Lake Superior. Here, Lake Superior acts as a regulator and extender to the region. Its impact is to cool in the summer, and warm in the winter; those effects are greatest within six to ten miles of the lake. This moderation extends the growing season, as compared to inland areas, which impacts cultivated crops. This micro climate also allows different species of trees to flourish in the band of land adjoining the lake that aren’t found further inland.
Sucker River Creek