Environment :
Pre-settlement forests

Prior to settlement by Europeans in the mid- and late 1800s, forests dominated the northern and eastern parts of what we now know as Minnesota. As is true today, pine, spruce and fir (the most common conifers) were largely restricted to the north, where they grew with birch, aspen and maple. Species including white pine and tamarack were much more comon in pre-settlement forests than they are today. Oak, elm, maple, ash, aspen, hickory and ironwood (deciduous trees) grew in the west and south, often extending into the prairie along rivers and streams where they were protected from fire.

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