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Potlatch land sold for conservation

Kirsti Marohn

MPR News

A nonprofit organization has purchased more than 70,000 acres of northern and central Minnesota forest formerly owned by the paper and lumber giant Potlatch.

Potlatch once owned 330,000 acres across Minnesota, on which it managed and harvested trees for its paper mills. Now called PotlatchDeltic and based in Spokane, Washington, the company sold off most of that land over the past few decades.

This month, The Conservation Fund finalized a deal to purchase the remaining 72,440 acres, scattered over 14 counties, for almost $48 million.

The counties include Aitkin, Becker,...