Leech Lake Resource Management

HOME

LEECH LAKE WEBSITE

BAND HISTORY

BAND GOVERNMENT

LEECH LAKE DIVISION OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
DRM Main Phone Line:
(218) 335-7400 or 1-800-442-3942

WHAT WE DO...
The Division of Resource Management is dedicated to the protection of the water, land, forest, fish, wildlife, plants and other natural and cultural resources present upon the Leech Lake Reservation. Among our many duties, we write fire and wood cutting permits, enforce fish and game laws, regulate logging, wild rice harvesting, and plant resources, and generally protect the Band’s many resources for the use of future generations.

OUR PRIORITIES...
The Division of Resource Management is dedicated to the protection of the
natural resources present upon the Leech Lake Reservation.

OUR HISTORY...
The Leech Lake Reservation was set aside under the Treaty of 1855 with
the U.S. Government. In 1887, the Dawes Act (General Allotment Act)
allotted 80 acres of land to each individual band member. After the allotting
was completed, the remaining land was sold to anyone wishing to homestead.

In 1889, the Nelson Act opened the northern white pine forests to harvest by
private companies. Within a few years, virtually all of the harvestable white
pine had been removed. In 1900 the League of Women Voters petitioned to
protect the remaining forest by creating the Minnesota Forest , which later
became the Chippewa National Forest. Also, in the nineteenth century, dams
were built by the U.S. War Department, now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Leech Lake Conservation Department, now the Division of Resource Management (DRM), began enforcing a Conservation Code in 1976. The Land Leasing Office was made part of the division in 1982. In 1982 a water resources staff person was hired to coordinate water quality work on the reservation. Subsequently in 1984, a fisheries and wildlife management program and a tribal fish hatchery were added to the division. In 1991, the band elected to contract its forestry functions from the BIA and subsequently our forestry Department came into being. An Environmental Protection component was added to the Division in 1990, funded by the RTC and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A Botany/Exotic Species Section was added to the Fish and Wildlife Program in 1994.

RESERVATION LOCATION...

Click map for a larger version!

The Leech Lake Indian Reservation contains 864,158 acres, including parts
of Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard, and Itasca Counties (see location map). It is
located in North-Central Minnesota in the Central Pine-Hardwoods Forest
ecoregion, a zone of transition between boreal (conifer) forest and deciduous (hardwood) forest. The Reservation features some of the best-managed forestland within the Great Lakes Basin .Most of the Reservation lies within the Mississippi headwaters watershed. The Mississippi River in the central part and the Boy River in the southeastern part drain it. The Reservation's northeastern part lies within the Big Fork River watershed, and its extreme southwestern part lies within the Crow Wing River watershed.