The level of publicly owned land in Crow Wing County reflects its location at the transition zone of three ecological divisions where the amount of forested land is relatively low, where the quality of agricultural land is good, and where the demand for private land ownership has remained consistent over the years.
 
The public land picture in Crow Wing County is radically different than that for counties to the north and east.  In Crow Wing there is no significant federal land ownership and none within a national forest.  State ownership is limited-there is not enough state-owned land within the two designated state forests to warrant individual management plans for the forests.  The following information highlights how this pattern of ownership varies from the rest of the north central region.

• Within the north central region as a whole, the Federal government owns 37% of the land area.  The State of Minnesota owns 13%, county/city governments own 21%, and Indian tribes own 1%.
• Private lands within the north central region are divided with 5% of the total land area being owned by forest product industries and 23% owned by all other private interests.
• Overall in the region, from 1977 to 1990 the amount of forested land in public ownership declined slightly (4.023 million acres to 3.93 million acres) as did the amount of privately owned forested land (2.48 to 2.39 million acres).

As noted in Table 2, in Crow Wing County tax forfeited land is the dominant public ownership category.  The number of acres has been slowly growing.  Several key points need mentioning:

• Over a tenth of Crow Wing's tax forfeited lands involve undivided interests in which the County shares ownership with one or more other private parties.  In nearly every case, this situation renders it impossible for the County (or the private parties) to manage or develop the land.
• The often conflicting demand for multiple uses on public lands that in oher counties is shared across multiple public ownerships is borne predominately by Crow Wing County.  This increases management pressures on these lands.

Crow Wing County Public Land Map