Caledonia Argus

The origin of Richard J. Dorer Memorial Forest

Posted: 1/20/04

Richard Dorer was the supervisor of state wildlife development for what was then called the Minnesota Department of Conservation in the 1940s and 1950s.

Dorer saw eroded land, silted streams, and grazed woodland in southeastern Minnesota, and thought the state could play a role in improving the management of the woods and sub-marginal farmland.

Dorer approached county commissioners from seven counties to see if they would be willing to support the idea. By March of 1960, all seven county boards had done that.

Commissioners from each counties, Dakota, Fillmore, ,Goodhue, Houston, Olmstead, Wabasha, and Winona, donated tax-forfeited land to the state. These served as seed properties, and the state then bought property around them.

Department of Conservation Commissioner Dr. George A. Selke issued a proclamation about Memorial Hardwood State Forest on March 17, 1960, and the Minnesota legislature established Memorial Hardwood Forest on April 20, 1961, then appropriated $25,000 in 1965 to come up with a long range plan to develop what was called Memorial Hardwood Forest.

Itís a testimony to Dorerís role that his name was later added to the forest.

The 52-page ìStudy Report and Plan for Developmentî was published in September 1966. DNR forester Randy Mell has a tattered copy that spells out the goals.

The forest was located in seven counties: Dakota, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Olmsted, Wabasha, and Winona. The goal was to purchase 70,000 acres over 10 years in the entire seven-county area. (The state already owned 12,000 acres of land in the seven counties.) This broke down to acquiring 6,000 to 7,000 acres per year at an annual cost of about $250,000 per year. The average cost per acre was expected to be $36 to $42.

The 10-year plan in Houston county was to purchase 21,400 acres between 1967 and 1976, the most of any of the seven counties. This was about 18.3 percent of the available forest in the county. It turned out to be an over-zealous goal. Up to the present, the state has purchase 13,628 acres in Houston County. The total size of Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood Forest is 48,131 acres.

The land was to be used for recreation and for forestry products.

They identified ìforest compartmentsî in each county in which to buy land. Houston County had eight compartments.

Hereís how the committee described the type of land they were looking for: ìThe nature of the land and price considerations require that the bulk of the acquired land will be rough, stony land with immature timber. To this will be added some overflow land, some narrow sandy and gravelly terraces and talus slopes, some degraded pastures and fields on shallow Dubuque soils around the edge of gullies or on narrow ridges.î

The report stated that the forest area was in poor condition. ìThe large trees which remain are often deformed and defective,î it stated. ìIn many cases, large spreading ëwolf treesí interfere with natural reproduction and establishment of thrifty young stands.î This was a result of burning, pasturing, and improper cutting.

The report also discussed economic effects of the land purchases. It predicted that loss of taxes would be minor, and reduction of pasture and crop acreage would be minor. ìBoth will be more than offset in the long run by increases revenue from the forest property,î the report stated.

Currently, the state pays counties $3 per acre in lieu of taxes to defray the loss of tax base, Randy Mell said. It isnít a bad deal, he feels, because the state-owned lands return over $30,000 of in-lieu tax payments.

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