EasyGrantsID: 77414
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation America the Beautiful Challenge 2022, Full Proposal
Title: Collaborative planning to identify and overcome challenges facing large-scale moose habitat
restoration in northeastern Minnesota
Organization: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Grant Information
Title of Project
Collaborative planning to identify and overcome challenges facing large-scale moose habitat restoration in
northeastern Minnesota
Total Amount Requested $ 402,204.69
Matching Contributions Proposed $41,350.00
Proposed Grant Period 06/01/ 2023 - 11/30/ 2024
Project Description
Create a plan to achieve large-scale moose habitat restoration to address long-term moose population decline by
collaboratively exploring and addressing social, political, and economic challenges facing such restoration. Conduct
five deliberative workshops with non-governmental organizations and tribal, federal, state and local governmental
organizations to inclusively: 1) identify, characterize, and prioritize the social, political, and economic challenges
facing large-scale moose habitat restoration, 2) identify, characterize, and prioritize strategies to address these
challenges, 3) identify three different moose habitat priority areas of 10,000 to 50,000 contiguous acres spread
across northeastern MN for habitat restoration actions over the next 5-10 years, and 4) collectively agree upon an
implementation plan to achieve desired large-scale moose habitat restoration.
Project Abstract
Moose are an iconic, but at risk, species in Minnesota, with particular importance to the Tribal Nations in
northeastern Minnesota who retain treaty hunting rights and have long had a subsistence relationship to moose.
Minnesota s moose population has declined about 50% over the past 20 years due to a host of overlapping issues
including disease, predation, habitat decline, and climate change. While small-scale habitat restoration continues,
there is widespread agreement that large-scale habitat restoration (10,000+ acres) would be particularly beneficial to
Minnesota s moose population. However, restoration at that scale faces a variety of social, political, and economic
challenges. Many of these challenges stem from a patchwork of tribal, federal, state, county, and private land
ownership and governance. In this project, five deliberative workshops will be conducted with tribal, federal, state
and county governmental organizations and key non-governmental organizations to: 1) identify, characterize, and
prioritize the social, political, and economic challenges facing large-scale moose habitat restoration, 2) identify,
characterize, and prioritize strategies to address these challenges, 3) identify three different moose habitat priority
areas of 10,000 to 50,000 contiguous acres spread across northeastern MN for habitat restoration actions over the
next 5-10 years, and 4) collectively agree upon an implementation plan to achieve desired large-scale moose habitat
restoration.
Organization and Primary Contact Information
Organization Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Organization Type State or Local Government
City, State, Country St.Paul,Minnesota,North America - United States
Region (if international)
1133 15th Street, NW Version 1.1
Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20005 Page 1 of 18
2022 America the Beautiful Challenge
Full Proposal Project Narrative
Project Type: Please select the ATBC grant category for the proposed project.
- States, Territories, and Tribal Implementation Grants
- Planning, Collaboration and Engagement for States, Territories and Tribes
- Grants to Buffer and Benefit Public Lands
- Private Forests, Rangeland and Farmland Grants
1. Goals and Activities: State the goals of the project and which Program Priorities listed in the RFP will be addressed.
List and elaborate on the primary activities that will be employed through the grant. Explain how these activities are
expected to lead to project outcome(s). Describe how these activities relate to established plans (management,
conservation, recovery, etc.) and priority conservation needs in the specific project location.
Goals
Moose are an iconic, but at-risk, wildlife species in Minnesota and one indicator species for the health of Minnesota’s
boreal forest ecosystems. The state of Minnesota has recognized the value of moose to the state, as articulated in its
moose research and management plan, “Moose have intrinsic value and are recognized for their importance to Minnesota.
To the greatest extent possible, moose shall be managed for ecological sustainability, hunting, and viewing
opportunities”. 1 Moose are particularly important to many Tribal Nations in Minnesota. Moose have been a subsistence
and cultural resource to Ojibwe Native Americans in northeastern Minnesota for as long as the Ojibwe have resided in the
region. Moose meat has been an important source of food with a single moose providing about 500 lbs. of meat, while
moose hides are used for cultural and spiritual purposes.
Moose range in Minnesota is currently restricted to northeastern Minnesota, covering nearly all of Lake and Cook
Counties, and a portion of St. Louis County. This area of Minnesota is at the southern edge of the boreal forest ecotone
sometimes referred to as “hemi-boreal forest” or “boreal-hardwood forest” and is home to many species associated with
boreal forests, such as moose, Canada lynx, boreal chickadee, boreal owl, and three-toed woodpeckers. Land ownership in
Minnesota’s moose range is a patchwork of tribal, federal, state, county, and private ownership. A large amount of
primary moose range is within the boundaries of the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area
Wilderness. Minnesota’s moose range is also completely within the 1854 Ceded Territory, the land that was ceded to the
United States Government by local Ojibwe Bands in the Treaty of 1854. The Treaty of 1854 also explicitly retained the
rights of these Bands to hunt, fish, and gather within the 1854 Ceded Territory. Three present-day bands retain these rights
and are therefore co-managers of the natural resources in this area: Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, Fond du Lac Band of
Lake Superior Chippewa, and Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Moose are currently facing a host of challenges, with the moose population in Minnesota declining about 50% over the
past 20 years due to a variety of overlapping and compounding issues including brainworm, winter ticks, liver flukes, wolf
predation, habitat decline, and a changing climate. As researchers continue to study these issues and what can be done to
address them, one key management action that researchers determined is particularly beneficial to moose is habitat
restoration – the enhancement and/or expansion of moose habitat. Moose habitat restoration modifies the existing
landscape to make it more optimal for moose forage and cover using methods such as prescribed burning, timber harvest
and shearing, tree planting, and tree seedling protection. Moose forage includes a primarily deciduous browse component
and a seasonal aquatic component while cover has several potential components for moose: protection from heat,
1
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 2011. Minnesota Moose Research and Management Plan. Saint Paul, MN.
protection from deep snow, moderation of cold temperatures, predator avoidance, and presence of calving locations.
Quality habitat needs to have the right combination of young forest stands, older forest stands with gaps of regenerating
forest, brushlands with abundant deciduous browse within reach of moose, and riparian areas. Habitat restoration is
broadly recognized as beneficial for moose and has been a key strategy used by resource managers and existing
collaborations working to benefit moose.
The impact of existing habitat restoration efforts has, however, been limited because of their relatively small size on the
landscape. Compared to smaller-scale efforts, large-scale (10,000 acres +) habitat restoration is substantively different in
important ways and particularly beneficial to moose. Large-scale restoration facilitates habitat connectivity, favors moose
over deer (who spread brainworm to moose and also benefit from smaller scale restoration), and provides the sheer
acreage to significantly impact moose. There has, however, been a lack of restoration at this scale due largely to a host of
social, political, and economic challenges that exist when pursuing large-scale habitat restoration. These challenges vary
from the patchwork of tribal, federal, state, county, and private land ownership and governance structures (See Map 1 in
Uploads) to timber market challenges and limited economic incentives necessary for forest management. Addressing
these challenges requires collaboration among all key partners including tribal, federal, state, and county agencies as well
as non-governmental organizations.
Utilizing an inclusive and deliberative set of workshops, the goals of this planning, collaboration, and engagement grant
are to: 1) identify, characterize, and prioritize the social, political, and economic challenges facing large-scale moose
habitat restoration, 2) identify, characterize, and prioritize strategies to address these challenges, 3) identify three different
moose habitat priority areas of 10,000 to 50,000 contiguous acres spread across northeastern MN for habitat restoration
actions over the next 5-10 years, and 4) collectively agree upon an implementation plan to achieve desired large-scale
moose restoration.
Activities
Over the course of 18 months, a series of five deliberative, facilitated workshops will be held to accomplish the goals
articulated above (See Table 1 for Project Activities and Timeline). Participants in these workshops will include
individuals from key groups involved with the management of land in moose range, including tribal, federal, state, and
county agencies as well as key non-governmental organizations (see Section 5 below for partners). In-between
workshops, additional social science methods will be used to garner useful insights from participants to help inform the
following workshop’s activities.
All workshop activities discussed in Table 1 will be actively facilitated by a facilitator with experience in collaborative
planning with a diversity of stakeholders. The inclusive, deliberative, and actively facilitated approach used in this project
will help establish a workshop environment of cooperation, curiosity, and innovative thinking. This will begin by
clarifying the shared commitment to the goal of large-scale moose habitat restoration. From there, a series of
presentations and small and large group discussions will be used across a set of workshops to help identify the social,
political, and economic challenges facing large-scale habitat restoration, strategies for addressing them, potential sites and
actions for such large-scale habitat restoration, and an agreed upon implementation plan to move forward. The approach
will be designed so that individuals from different organizations can explore novel actions and cooperative approaches to
achieve the agreed upon goal of large-scale habitat restoration.
These workshops will vary in size from one full day to two full days in length, depending upon the activities to be
completed and will be held in northeastern Minnesota. The timing of workshops will avoid the times of year where
partners are unavailable due to their field work responsibilities. At least 3 workshops will be held at the conference
facilities on the reservations of the three Tribal Nations in northeastern Minnesota. Participants will have their lodging,
meals, and transportation paid for to help reduce barriers to participation. While the goal is to hold these meetings in-
person, it will be possible to hold some of the workshops remotely if required due to the COVID-19 context. In such an
instance we would use the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’s existing WebEx platform for the workshops,
which contains the capabilities for needed large group and small group discussions.
Project activities will be informed with cutting edge social and natural science and Indigenous Traditional Ecological
Knowledge. Expertise in moose management and habitat restoration will be provided by researchers from the University
of Minnesota, the MN-DNR, the US Forest Service, and Tribal Nations – all who have committed to participating in these
workshops. As part of this project, US Forest Service researchers (PI: Donner) will conduct forest simulation modeling to
better understand the implications of the potential restoration actions and sites identified during Workshop 3 and to help
inform the final decisions made in Workshops 4 and 5. Project discussions and decisions will explicitly consider the
likely future conditions facing moose, including the impacts of climate change, as well as the emergent conditions
impacting moose habitat such as forest fire and insect damage. For example, one potential site that will be considered for
large-scale moose habitat restoration is an extensive area of balsam fir and spruce forest recently killed by the eastern
spruce budworm. Social science expertise will also be explicitly utilized in this work; for example, an expert in
governance challenges will be brought into Workshop 2 to help provide a conceptual framework to address social,
political, and economic challenges.
In addition to being locally led and designed, this work will build upon existing management plans and existing smaller-
scale habitat restoration. First, this project will build upon and seek to inform the variety of existing tribal, federal, state,
and county management plans that impact moose. 2 This project will also learn from the successes of, and challenges
experienced by, existing restoration efforts such as those of the Minnesota Moose Habitat Collaborative. Since 2013, this
collaborative has conducted moose habitat restoration on 17,440 unique acres throughout northeastern Minnesota with
project sites ranging from 1-1,500 acres in size and with treatments including prescribed burning, mechanical cutting, tree
planting, and tree seedling protection.
Table 1: Project activities and timeline.
Project Activities Timeline
Post-award announcement to start of grant period activities: November 2022
Alert partners to project funding status and general timeline. – May 2023
Start hiring process for project manager. Official start date for position is June 1.
Pre-workshop activities: June – August
Complete project scope (e.g., activities, timeline, partners) – Partners finalize at Workshop 1. 2023
Grant officially
Complete logistics and agendas for workshops (and revisit as needed throughout project).
starts June 1.
Workshop 1 – Introductions & Characterize goals and challenges (2-day) September 2023
Key agenda items:
Large Group Discussion: Introductions and discussion of shared goals/values.
Presentation & Large Group Discussion: Review, modify and finalize project scope.
Presentation & Large Group Discussion: Review ecological context and importance of large
landscape level habitat restoration.
Presentations, Breakout groups & Large Group Discussion: Overview of habitat restoration
project work to date, including strengths and challenges; Identify social, political, and
economic challenges facing large landscape level habitat restoration, including what the
challenge is, the factors contributing to it, its implications, and the conditions where it is most
pressing.
Workshop outcomes:
2See, for example: Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan – 1854 Treaty Authority; Superior National Forest
Land and Resource Management Plan; Minnesota Moose Research and Management Plan; Minnesota Forest Resources Council
Northeast Landscape Forest Resources Plan; Lake County Management Plan.
Social, political, and economic challenges identified and characterized.
Project scope reviewed and agreed upon.
Group trust and mutual understandings enhanced.
September –
Post-Workshop 1
October 2023
Conduct online questionnaire for participants to rank the challenges by their
importance/significance; Share results with participants before Workshop 2.
Workshop 2 – Characterize strategies to address challenges (1-day) Late October
Key agenda items: (or Nov./Dec.)
Presentation & Large Group Discussion: Review and discuss outcomes of the ranking 2023
challenges questionnaire.
Presentation & Large Group Discussion: Expert presentation on strategies to address social,
political, and economic challenges in natural resource management.
Breakout Groups & Large Group Discussion: Identify and characterize strategies to navigate
the challenges, including what the strategy is, what challenge it would address, who would
implement it and how, and the feasibility and importance of the strategy.
Workshop outcomes:
Strategies for addressing social, political, and economic challenges identified and
characterized.
Post-Workshop 2 Nov. 2023 – Feb.
2024
Conduct online questionnaire for participants to rank most impactful strategies and most
feasible strategies; Share with participants before Workshop 3.
Workshop 3 – Characterize possible large-scale restoration sites (1-day) March 2024
Key agenda items:
Presentation & Large Group Discussion: Review and discuss outcomes of the ranking
strategies questionnaire.
Presentations & Discussion: Current insights on Minnesota moose habitat restoration,
including presentations from U of MN, MN-DNR, USFS, Tribal Biologists, and NGOs.
Breakout Groups & Large Group Discussion: Identify and prioritize possible 10K-50K acre
sites for large scale habitat restoration, including challenges facing the specific sites,
strategies to address challenges, and potential restoration actions for each site.
Workshop outcomes
Potential sites and restoration actions identified and characterized.
Post-Workshop 3 March – April
2024
USFS models the potential restoration actions and sites to explore their implications.
Conduct online questionnaire for participants to rank sites & restoration actions.
Workshop 4 – Select large-scale restoration sites and plan implementation actions (2-day) May 2024
Key agenda items:
Presentation & Large Group Discussion: Review and discuss USFS modeling and outcome
of ranking sites & restoration actions questionnaire; Collaboratively select final three sites.
Field Trip: Visit nearby examples of moose habitat restoration.
Breakout Groups & Large Group Discussion: Create plan for implementation of site-specific
restoration actions including clarifying actions, responsibilities, funding, communication,
community involvement and needed organizational leadership buy-in.
Large Group Discussion: Discuss and prioritize goals and activities for Workshop 5 which
will involve the leadership from key agencies and organizations.
Workshop outcomes:
Specific restoration sites and restoration actions selected; Implementation plan drafted.
Post-Workshop 4 June – July or
Project manager summarizes project findings and implementation plan in a draft white paper August 2024
to help inform Workshop 5; White paper provided to Workshop 5 attendees before meeting.
Partners create presentations for Workshop 5 that provide their reflections on the project
process, outcomes, and implementation plan.
Workshop 5 – Leadership workshop: Collaboratively moving forward (1-day) August or
Key agenda items: September 2024
Presentations & Large Group Discussion: Participants provide presentations and reflections
on project process, outcomes, and implementation plan.
Breakout Groups & Large Group Discussion: Participants and organizational leadership
discuss implementation plan for large-scale restoration including clarifying actions,
responsibilities, funding, communications, and community involvement.
Workshop outcomes:
Shared commitment and plan for large-scale moose habitat restoration implementation.
Post-workshop activities: October –
Project manager revises white paper and creates communications as a result of Workshop 5. Nov. 30, 2024
Partners pursue funding to carry out habitat restoration implementation plan.
2. Outcome(s): Elaborate on the outcome(s) summarized previously in the application; discuss what makes the
outcome(s) achievable and important.
There will be three major outcomes from this project. First, this project will bring clarity to the challenges facing large-
scale habitat restoration for moose in northeastern Minnesota and will identify strategies for addressing those challenges.
These insights will be helpful for moose habitat restoration work in this area but also for natural resource management
activities in this region and elsewhere. The white paper summarizing project findings would be a first step towards
disseminating the insights from this project.
A second outcome is an implementation plan agreed to by collaborating partners to conduct restoration actions on three
10,000 to 50,000 acre habitat priority areas. This type of large-scale habitat restoration would benefit the moose
population in Minnesota as well as other species of concern such as Canada lynx, boreal chickadee, and spruce grouse,
with implications for tribal communities and non-tribal communities. This large-scale restoration would strengthen
ecosystem resilience by creating forest structures and functions that promote diverse and healthy forests. This project
represents an example of supporting tribal priorities and respecting tribal sovereignty, both from explicitly addressing a
species of significant importance to tribal communities and from doing so in a way that acknowledges the importance of
tribal co-management in ceded territories. In addition to the potential impact specifically for tribal communities, large-
scale moose habitat restoration would benefit all who appreciate or depend upon moose for their intrinsic value,
ecological value, wildlife viewing and associated tourism, and/or as a game species in Minnesota.
A third outcome will be improved relationships among old and new partners involved with this project. While partners
hold different worldviews and perspectives on moose and often navigate different resource management objectives and
constraints, there is a common goal to help moose populations. By working together on this issue, partners can create
better relationships that will yield benefits for other challenging natural resource issues in northern Minnesota, such as the
management of wildlife species including deer, wolf, and bear and long-term forest management in the face of changing
conditions. Furthermore, these beneficial relationships will help partners work together more effectively when engaging
with local communities during subsequent implementation of moose habitat restoration actions.
3. Tracking Metrics: Indicate how the project will monitor/measure progress on the metrics selected previously in the
application. Please note any challenges or limitations anticipated with tracking the metrics.
There are four key tracking metrics that we will use to judge our project progress:
1. Number of organizations contributing to the initiative’s conservation goal (Start value: 0; Target value: 10)
2. Number of social, political, and economic challenges identified and characterized (Start value: 0; Target value:
10)
3. Number of strategies identified and characterized to address social, political, and economic challenges
(Start value: 0; Target value: 15)
4. Number of acres collaboratively identified and agreed upon to advance with large-scale moose habitat restoration
actions (Start value: 0; Target value: 30,000 to 150,000)
As directed by NFWF staff, we created tracking metrics #2-4 above since the metrics available for our type of project
were limited in number. These four metrics represent goals concerning the breadth of our scope. First, we need a broad
set of at least 10 organizations to contribute to our project, including tribal, federal, state, county, and non-governmental
organizations. We will seek to clearly articulate the aims of this project, its collaborative nature, and its alignment with
widely shared goals of moose habitat restoration to achieve the participation of at least 10 organizations. Second, we will
design and conduct workshops to ensure that we are identifying and characterizing a substantive and impactful set of
challenges (10) and strategies to address the challenges (15). We will ensure that our process aligns with these metrics.
Beyond merely identifying, we aim to fully characterize both the challenges and strategies. For challenges this means
exploring the factors contributing to it, its implications, and the conditions where it is most pressing. For strategies this
means determining who would implement it, how it would be implemented, and the implications/importance of this
strategy. Finally, we will collaboratively identify three contiguous areas of between 10,000 and 50,000 acres for
restoration actions. We will, once again, design our process with this metric in mind and monitor the progress of our
workshop activities to ensure that the metric is achieved. Any challenges meeting this acreage metric will be proactively
identified and collaboratively addressed with project partners during Workshop 3. All of these metrics will be used as
supportive external expectations to help partners continue to work through the project process in a productive and timely
manner.
4. Community Impact: Describe the community(ies) where the project will take place, who will benefit from the
project, and how they were or will be engaged in project development and implementation. Provide demographic
information on the community(ies), including but not limited to age, race and ethnicity, poverty rates.
The community impact of this project has three components. The first involves the three counties where large-scale
habitat restoration work being planned in this grant would eventually take place: Cook County, Lake County, and St.
Louis County. While these counties are largely white, rural, and older, there is a significant Native American population
present, especially in Cook County (see Table 2 below). This project will benefit the people who live in these counties by
addressing the challenges facing, and creating a plan for, the type of large-scale habitat restoration that could significantly
benefit moose populations. Moose habitat restoration would lead to an improved boreal forest ecosystem for a variety of
species and is expected to support moose population recovery, leading to increased viewing opportunities and associated
tourism and potentially greater hunting opportunity. Tourism is an essential part of the local economy in northeastern
Minnesota, with wildlife viewing an important component of Minnesota’s tourism and recreation economy. The
communities of these three counties will be involved in this planning process predominantly via their government
officials, local resource managers, and local NGOs. In addition, in Workshops 4 and 5, partners will explicitly discuss
how they can collaboratively engage local communities in the implementation of restoration actions. A related second
component of community impact involves the broader population of Minnesota and surrounding areas. Northeastern
Minnesota is visited by residents from communities throughout and beyond Minnesota for recreation opportunities
including, but not limited to, camping, hiking, fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing. Beyond direct benefits through
visiting moose range, many Minnesotans simply value maintenance of natural systems and the knowledge that moose
continue to be a component of a healthy boreal system in the state. Moose habitat restoration and its positive impacts on
the boreal forest ecosystem would benefit these recreation opportunities and contribute to the quality of life in Minnesota.
A third component of community impact involves the importance of moose to tribal communities. As mentioned
previously, three Ojibwe Bands in Minnesota currently retain rights to hunt moose in the 1854 Ceded Territory, and that
hunt provides an opportunity to participate in traditional cultural practices while also providing a healthy source of food
for tribal communities. These Bands have clearly articulated what it at stake in moose habitat restoration: “A declining
moose population has serious economic, social, and cultural ramifications within the 1854 Ceded Territory and across
reservations. The loss of a moose hunt means not only the loss of a traditional food source, but also the loss of an
important traditional practice that often brings generations together to hunt, harvest, and celebrate.” 3 As the boundaries of
tribal reservations and ceded territories are fixed geographically, conserving the resources in those areas is even more
essential to maintaining traditional harvest. Large-scale habitat improvement for moose would benefit tribal communities
by potentially increasing hunting opportunities for tribal members and extending the viability of Minnesota’s moose
population in the face of challenges. Having tribal staff involved in these discussions to address moose habitat concerns
will benefit tribal communities by recognizing their positions as co-managers of the resources within the 1854 Ceded
Territory and by providing an opportunity to work with partners to address an issue of high priority to the Ojibwe Bands.
Table 2: Demographic information for communities where the project will take place. 4
Cook County Lake County St. Louis County Minnesota
Total population 5,617 10,986 199,182 5,707,390
Race
White 84.5% 94.9% 90.6% 78.1.0%
Black or African American 1.6% .5% 1.6% 7.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native 7.8% .8% 2.4% 1.4%
Asian or Other Pac. Islanders 1.2% .6% 1.2% 5.4%
Two or More Races 2.9% 1.7% 2.7% 2.8%
Hispanic or Latino origin 2.8% 1.6% 1.9% 5.8%
Poverty
Persons in poverty, percent 8.7% 8.0% 10.1% 8.3%
Per capita income $36,941 $35,671 $32,890 $38,881
(in 2020 dollars) 2016-2020
Median household income $59,537 $65,201 $57,480 $73,382
(in 2020 dollars), 2016-2020
Age and Sex
Persons under 5 3.4% 4.8% 4.7% 5.9%
Persons under 18 14.8% 19.3% 18.9% 23.1%
Persons 65 years and over 29.9% 27.0% 20.6% 16.7%
Female persons 49.7% 48.3% 49.7% 49.9%
Population density
Population per square mile 3.9 5.2 32.0 71.7
5. Project Team and Partners: List key individuals and describe their qualifications relevant for project
implementation. Describe any partnerships critical to project success.
A key starting recognition of this project is that all partners hold essential insights and responsibilities, whether that is
direct governance control over a portion of land or direct experience with, and knowledge of, the challenges facing large-
3 Stults. M., Petersen, S., Bell, J., et al. 2016. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan: 1854 Ceded Territory
Including the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, and Grand Portage Reservations. Duluth, MN: 1854 Ceded Territory.
4
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/MN
scale moose habitat restoration. The following list of key partner organizations and governments will be invited to
participate in the workshops. Starred partners (*) have already agreed to support and participate in this project.
Bois Forte Band of Chippewa*
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa*
Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa*
1854 Treaty Authority*
US Forest Service*
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources* – Division of Fish and Wildlife, Division of Forestry
Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands
Minnesota counties: Cook County,* Lake County,* and St. Louis County*
Non-governmental organizations: Izaak Walton League,* The Nature Conservancy,* and Ruffed Grouse Society*
Project activities will be planned and coordinated by a core project team consisting of: 1) a project manager (temporary
position, funded by grant), 2) a meeting facilitator (Adam Kokotovich, MN-DNR), 3) other agency personnel (MN-DNR
personnel and partnering, as needed, with tribal, federal, state, and local agency personnel). Team members will include:
Adam Kokotovich, PhD; MN-DNR; Policy & Planning Consultant; Expertise in engagement and policy.
Barb Keller, PhD; MN-DNR; Big Game Program Supervisor; Expertise in moose management.
Nancy Hansen; MN-DNR; Wildlife Area Supervisor in NE MN; Expertise in moose management.
Erik Stoddard; MN-DNR; Region Timber Program Specialist; Expertise in forestry management.
Morgan Swingen; 1854 Treaty Authority; Wildlife Biologist; Expertise in tribal natural resource management.
Project Manager – To be hired; Expertise in collaborative planning and project management
6. Sustainability: Describe efforts to ensure long term project sustainability and any plans for ongoing monitoring,
maintenance, and stewardship.
While collaborative moose management and restoration efforts at smaller scales are ongoing, this project addresses key
challenges hampering large-scale restoration efforts, with the goal of achieving the scale of change on the landscape that
could significantly benefit moose. Execution of the collaboratively arrived at implementation plan is a desired subsequent
outcome of this project and partners will explore ways of funding and accomplishing this work in Workshop 4 and with
organizational leadership in Workshop 5. As such, it is expected that at the conclusion of this project partners will pursue
additional funding to carry out the implementation plan. The relationships and understandings enhanced through this
project will help facilitate the pursuit of this additional funding. In addition, the insights gained during these workshops
on challenges and how to address them will have ample opportunity to inform moose management as the MN-DNR as
well as other tribal and federal agencies have established commitments to long-term moose management.
