Agreement Narrative: Arrowhead Collaborative Coordinator Challenge Cost Share
Primary Funder: Superior National Forest – Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
Location: Superior National Forest, Minnesota
Innovation: Leveraging Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding with Forest Service Match and RGS & AWS match, this agreement will add an RGS & AWS staff position in the northeast arrowhead region of MN. This staff position will step in to take the reins of the existing Arrowhead Forest Habitat Collaborative as the acting Coordinator of Federal, State, County, Private Lands, and NGO partners. Through cooperative planning, this position will also focus partner efforts to advance impacts.
Impact: Within a 500,000 acre multi-agency collaborative integrated forest health and forest wildlife initiative in northern Saint Louis County, the Arrowhead Collaborative position will focus on areas of intended impact, develop Dynamic Forest Restoration Blocks (DFRB) plans and criteria for northern boreal forests (including appropriate mixes of forest age classes), and work to complete from at least two, 10,000-acre DFRB plans (~20k acres total), and submit one Conservation Partnership Legacy (CPL) grant applications per year to fund initial conservation work written called for in the plans. The DFRB Plans will increase the scale of habitat management. For example, NRCS has already approached RGS & AWS for additional staff to deliver the forest management to private landowners called for in plans.
1 Facilitate and lead Arrowhead Collaborative meetings and other partner engagement and communication
2 Coordinate implementation planning with Arrowhead Collaborative members and other land managers- initiation beginning following DFRB development in 2026.
3 Co-create with partners implementation plans (two DFRB’s)
4 Identify, seek and secure funding through grants and programs to support position and continue planning and engagement and implementation.
5 Engage expertise and partners to invigorate the Arrowhead GIS portal.
6 Identify and support implementation for small projects which are demonstrative of Arrowhead Collaborative efforts.
Completed to date (2/16/23):
RGS has begun to facilitate regular Arrowhead Collaborative meetings and informal communications with partners.
Stefan Nelson has transferred from a private lands role for RGS in WI to lead the Arrowhead collaborative and began in May 2024.
Partners: U.S. Forest Service (primary), Saint Louis County Land and Minerals, Minnesota DNR Forestry, NRCS.
