Lutsen Scientific and Natural Area, located right next to the popular travel destination Lutsen Mountains ski resort, is a travel destination unto itself. With its old-growth northern hardwoods and upland white cedar forests, it provides a peek into what the north shore looked like before human development changed the landscape of northern Minnesota. The DNR designation of Old Growth in these particular forests means that there is a complex stand structure containing trees over 120 years old, with plenty of downed and standing dead trees, and the area is relatively free of invasive species. The trees on this site surpass the minimum age requirement for their respective old-growth communities, with documented trees that include a 221-year-old white cedar, a 143-year-old yellow birch, and a 131-year-old white spruce.

Lutsen SNA provides enjoyment for many different types of outdoor recreationists. The snowmobile and cross-country ski trails are used by more than just their intended audiences; hikers and wildlife regularly use them to amble across the site. As the regional naturalist, I have also used the trails for a unique purpose: research monitoring.

From October 2020 to January 2022, a trail camera on the interpretative kiosk captured the intersection of the ski and snowmobile trails. This turned out to be a great spot for capturing wildlife photos. The most common animal seen was unsurprisingly white-tailed deer, but a close second were wolves. The camera also caught coyotes, black bears, bobcats, red foxes, moose, snowshoe hares, and a grouse. One particular black bear was very interested in the camera and the first photo captured was a close-up of its eyeball.

Trail camera images of wildlife at Lutsen SNA: moose (top left), black bear (top right), gray wolf (bottom left), black bear's eye peers into the camera (bottom right).

The trail camera also gave insight into how many and in what ways humans use the SNA. The camera caught roughly 700 people visiting Lutsen SNA. Of those 700, about 280 were riding snowmobiles and trail groomers, 25 were hunters (which is allowed on this site), and the rest were cross country skiers, snowshoers, and hikers. Joining their human companions were about 75 dogs (allowed at this site as well). Based on a rough count, about 157 people took the time to stop and read the interpretive kiosk. Most of those people were cross-country skiers, snowshoers, or hikers, but a few snowmobilers also took the time to stop and read the kiosk.

The trail camera captures a pair of Labrador Retriever dogs chewing on a stick at Lutsen SNA.

In addition to the trail camera, I assisted with a couple different bee surveys at Lutsen SNA. One of them was part of the Minnesota Bee Atlas through the University of Minnesota Extension. Through various volunteer projects they aim to gather basic information about Minnesota’s bee species such as which ones live here, what are their habitat needs, what are their food and nesting material preferences, and more. I helped with the wood-nesting bee section of the project by setting up and monitoring a bee block at Lutsen SNA in the summers of 2022 and 2023. At the end of each summer, the bee boxes went back to the scientists at the UMN Extension. To see if the bees preferred specific species of plants, they identified the bees and the types of plant material used in some of the nests. A sample of the bees were hand reared to be identified once they were adults, and the rest were released back where they were collected. The Lutsen bee blocks were utilized primarily by mason bees such at the blue orchard mason bee (Osmia lignaria) and multiple types of nest parasitizing wasps such as a cuckoo wasp (Chrysura pacifica or kyrae).

A bee using a wooden bee block at Lutsen SNA.


To learn more about the Lutsen SNA, visit the MN DNR website here.