Timber Sales

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St. Louis County offices will be closed Monday, September 7, in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

Timber Sales

Contractor Requirements

STEP 1: Application Form

Step 1: Application Form

An operator may be removed from the ROL due to poor performance or contract violation. The ROL needs to be updated annually by the contractor. Existing contractors established on the ROL fill out the ROL Application Update Form. New contractors fill out the ROL New Contractor Application Form.

ROL Application - Annual Update Form

ROL Application - New Contractor Form

STEP 2: Liability Insurance and Worker's Comp Form

Step 2: Liability Insurance and Worker's Comp Form

All contractors or sub-contractors must carry liability insurance and meet Minnesota Workers' Compensation Law requirements. A Certificate of Liability Insurance must be submitted and updated yearly to remain in good standing on the Responsible Operators List.

Contractors will need (at a minimum):

$1M for General and $1M Automobile
$300,000 for all other occurrences
$2M for Aggregate
Workers Compensation

Certificate of Liability Insurance Requirements

MN Worker's Comp Form

STEP 3: Pre-work Session

Step 3: Pre-Work Session

A pre-work session is required before harvesting can start. There are three options:

Contact the Sale Administrator and go through out on site or at an alternate location
Complete the pre-work session at a Land and Minerals Department Office
Read through Contractor Pre-work Session Online Module (below). Please print off the questions at the end and send us your answers via postal mail, email, fax, or drop off at the Contract Administrator's office.

Contractor Pre-Work Session Online Module

Contract Update and Weight Conversions

July 23, 2026

RE: Timber Harvesting Contract Revision and Weight to Cord Conversions

St. Louis County Contractors,

This letter will serve as additional follow-up to previous notification of revisions to our timber contract. On June 9, 2026, a revision to the standard terms and conditions of the St. Louis County timber harvesting contract was approved by the county board. The revised contract will go into effect for all sales sold on or after August 13, 2026. A summary of substantive changes is listed below. A full copy of our revised contract can be supplied upon request from our Pike Lake or Virginia offices.

Cord Definition – Adoption of the “100 inch” cord as used by the MN DNR.
Contract Extension terms updated.
Damages - 15% contract default penalty has been removed.
Spill kit requirements have been simplified to align with requirements of neighboring agencies.
Terms added to prevent transportation of invasive species.

In addition to the contract revisions, we also wanted to announce that we will be adopting the MN DNR’s standard weight to cord conversions. The most notable change to be aspen changing from 4600 lbs/cord to 4500 lbs/cord. These changes will also go into effect for all sales sold on or after August 13, 2026. This change will not affect any sale sold prior to that date.

For more information or questions, please contact me.

Nate Anderson

Deputy Director

Spill Kit Requirements

February 3, 2026

RE: Updated Contractor Spill Kit Requirements

St. Louis County Contractors,

To avoid water pollution, MS 115.061 requires “every person to notify the agency immediately of the discharge, accidental or otherwise, of any substance or material under its control which, if not recovered, may cause pollution of waters of the state, and the responsible person shall recover as rapidly and as thoroughly as possible such substance or material and take immediately such other action as may be reasonably possible to minimize or abate pollution of waters of the state caused thereby.”

To help ensure contractors are in compliance with state law, the Land and Minerals Department requires contractors to have spill kits to help contain and capture chemical and petroleum spills. We recently updated our spill kit requirements. Our current requirements for working on county managed lands are:

A spill kit must be on site at all times during operations. Operations include any work involving heavy, non-vehicular equipment.
Contractors must notify the Minnesota duty officer of a spill over five gallons of petroleum products
Operations may be suspended if there is no spill kit on site.

The recommended contents of a spill kit are available on page 73 of the 2014 the Minnesota Forest Management Guideline Quick Reference Field Guide. Contractors are no longer required to have spill clean-up materials in equipment. These changes go into effect today and will apply to all existing and future contracts.

For more information, please contact our Pike Lake or Virginia office.

Nathaniel Anderson, Deputy Director signature

Nate Anderson, Deputy Director

2026 Timber Auction Schedule

Date	Time	Location
Thursday, February 26 Sealed Bid Auction	9:30 a.m.	Pike Lake Land & Minerals 5713 Old Miller Trunk Hwy, Duluth
Thursday, May 14 Oral Auction	9:30 a.m.	Cotton Town Hall 9087 Highway 53, Cotton
Thursday, July 30 Decorative Products Sealed Bid	9:30 a.m.	Pike Lake Land & Minerals 5713 Old Miller Trunk Hwy, Duluth
Thursday, August 13 Oral Intermediate Auction	11:00 a.m	Cotton Town Hall 9087 Highway 53, Cotton
Thursday, November 5 Oral Auction	11:00 a.m	Cotton Town Hall 9087 Highway 53, Cotton