The Nature Conservancy purchased more than 12,000 acres of forest, rivers and wetlands between Two Harbors and Ely in northeast Minnesota that the conservation organization plans to restore and make accessible to the public.
The land features more than eight miles of shoreline, including part of the headwaters of the Rainy River watershed, which flows northwest into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park, and the St. Louis River, which drains into Lake Superior.
It also includes several thousand acres that were burned in the Greenwood Fire near Isabella, Minn., in 2021. The nonprofit has already planted hundreds of thousands of trees in the burn area, and plans to plant many more, including trees that are expected to fare well in a warmer climate.
