Outdoors

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has announced that it has begun the process to secure certification of its forest lands by the end of 2005. <BR><BR>Forest certification, little known five years ago, has become the "gold standard" for private and public organizations that manage forest lands. <BR><BR>While there are several different certifications systems in effect, each require forest managers to plan, implement and document its management goals, strategies and activities to meet an extensive and demanding array of ecological and social criteria. <BR><BR>"To achieve certification, a forest land management organization must be a leader in the best science, the most transparent management system and processes and consistently deliver the specified results," said Gene Merriam, DNR Commissioner.

For 37 years now snowmobile race fans have gathered on the north side of the Twin Cities to watch machines tear up the grass in the beginning of the fall season. <BR><BR>The Sno Barons Hay Days Grass Drags, “The Official Start of Winter,” is now the largest snowmobile event held in North America. It is held in a wide-open field in Columbus Township south of Forest Lake. <BR><BR>We attended again this year on the first weekend of September and found that racing snowmobiles on grass may have been the original draw of the event, but that times are changing.<BR><BR>Four years ago we participated in the “swap meet” at Hay Days. Here you bring down whatever it is you would like to sell, from snowmobiles to ATVs to motorcycles to chainsaws to sunglasses to parts to just-about-anything-you-can-imagine. <BR><BR>We set up on the north side of the race track and unloaded the snowmobiles.