Lutsen Scientific & Natural Area

This site's ridges, slopes, cliffs and valleys support one of the largest blocks of essentially undisturbed old-growth northern hardwood forest in Minnesota.

At the heart of the SNA is the 240-acre Scherer Conservation Unit, donated to the state for this purpose by local landowner Lloyd Scherer and his family. Scherer had purchased the land in three parcels in the late 1960s and 70s, understanding the value and rarity of its undisturbed forest. In the following years he spent countless hours walking the site in all seasons, becoming intimately familiar with the forest and the wildlife that inhabited it: wolves, pine marten, deer, red fox. He was determined that it would not be lost to logging or development.

The Scherer family gift spurred protection of additional land at the site. Soon after its designation, the SNA tripled in size when acreage to the east and south was acquired with the help of the Trust for Public Land.

This is a rugged landscape, with parts of two ridges of the Sawtooth Mountain Range. Eagle Mountain and Raven Ridge rise over a thousand feet above Lake Superior, about two miles to the southeast. The Minnesota Biological Survey has documented ten native plant communities on the 720-acre SNA, including 276 acres of old-growth northern hardwood forest and upland white cedar forest. Individual trees as of 2025 include a 221-year-old white cedar, 143-year-old yellow birch and 131-year-old white spruce (based on cores taken in 1998).

As one can see on the detail map, upland areas of the SNA are dominated by sugar maple forest, aspen-birch forest (balsam fir subtype) and white cedar – yellow birch forest. North and northwest-facing slopes of both ridges host upland white cedar forest, while the steeper, rocky slopes of Eagle Mountain support scrub talus (rocky slope at base of a cliff) and mafic (igneous rock rich in iron and magnesium) cliff communities. Lower elevations are occupied by lowland white cedar forest, black spruce swamp and part of a large beaver complex that extends onto adjacent land.

For a real sense of this SNA (and of Lloyd Scherer), see the essay, Tales From Lutsen Woods from Paul Gruchow's book Worlds within a World: Reflections on Visits to Minnesota Scientific and Natural Area Preserves, © 1999, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.