Submitted: The Two Sides Team October 29, 2013

Agriculture is eating into central Minnesota's forests so aggressively that state regulators and a prominent legislator are sounding the alarm about threats to wildlife habitat and a large, sensitive aquifer that stretches below parts of four counties.

via Minneapolis Star Tribune – October 26, 2013

Agriculture is eating into central Minnesota's forests so aggressively that state regulators and a prominent legislator are sounding the alarm about threats to wildlife habitat and a large, sensitive aquifer that stretches below parts of four counties.

The latest case is a 1,500-acre project in Cass County, which triggered a contentious legislative hearing last month over the owner's plans to grow potatoes for McDonald's and other customers on land that was covered with trees just 10 years ago.

In recent years, 5,000 to 6,000 acres of pine forests in Cass, Wadena and neighboring counties have been cleared for chemically intensive row-crop agriculture, and state officials say nearly 100 square miles of timber land now owned by Potlatch Corp. is at risk as the company divests itself of commercial forests in Minnesota.

Similar tensions could face the entire state faces as it copes with persistent water contamination and overuse, regulators say. The risk is especially worrisome along the border between traditional farm lands and the forested areas in central Minnesota, where contaminants can percolate straight through sandy soils into groundwater, and from there to trout streams and popular lakes.

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