Zero Aspen Zero. This trash can lid is proped up for target practice in a stand of aspen trees where native forest once stood.This zerocircle highlites the Sierra Club's proposed plan to eliminate these trees and restore the natural forest conditions.

Natural Zero. An older hardwood tree makes "the sign" in a stand of young aspen. To help the North Star Sierra Club achive its vision of a restored Superior National Forest contact:

North Star Sierra Club
1313 5th St. SE #324-B
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Ray Fenner at fenner@PioneerPlanet.infi.net
Clyde Hanson at hanso169@tc.umn.edu

Chippewa National Forest

Chippewa Chip Zero. A circle of chips from a paper mill in Grand Rapids lays in front of the boundary sign along the southern entrance of the Chippewa National Forest. The Chippewa was the first National Forest established east of the Mississippi River. It encompasses 1.6 million acres of which 660,000 are managed by the Chippewa National forest. It includes 1,300 lakes, 920 miles of streams, 150,000 acres of wetlands and is home to 6 packs of wolves and the largest breeding population of bald eagles outside of Alaska. But the Chippewa is in trouble. Fire suppression and short-term financial considerations have resulted in the conversion of the much of the forest cover to short-rotation aspen (in background of above photo). This exploitation has left a landscape that is neither scenic nor natural. According to a 199f4 state studyt, current logging rates on Minnesota's forests are causing significant declines in numerous species.

The USFS is developing a new ten-year management plan for the Chippewa. The current management plan emphasizes logging, mainly by clear-cutting, which has had devastating impacts on the diversity and abundance of forest-dependent plant and animal species. The North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club has developed a management plan alternative which places primary management emphasis on restoring native biodiversity, creating more natural distribution of forest age classes (particularly larger blocks of native, old growth forests), and public use of the national forest primarily for recreational purposes and non-commercial, individual harvesting of forest products.
 

Still Lake Zero. Along the quiet shores of one of the Chippewa's 1,300 lakes I cast this circle of chips from a Grand Rapids Mill--half in and half out of the still lake waters. Two loons sang in the distance while the water-borne chips floated a message of wholeness and restoration of the native Northwoods.
 

Lost Forty Zero. Believe it or not, all that is left of Minnesota's native old growth forest in the Chippewa can be found in a 144 acre segment known as the "Lost Forty." It was not spared the saw out of any special remorse or consideration but merely by a mapping error which described the land as part of Coddington Lake. Birch bark gathered from a downed tree forms this zero between two stately red pines. The beauty of the Sierra Club's management proposal for the Chippewa is that it's long term goal is to create old growth forests like this one, forests that once covered the Chippewa. To help them achieve this goal contact: