For the sake of peat: Peatland Resilience Initiative in Minnesota

peatland landscape

 

What is a peatland?

A peatland is a type of wetland where constantly saturated conditions lead to a build-up of plant materials over time. In the waterlogged environment of a peatland, dead leaves, roots and stems accumulate rather than decompose, resulting in some of the deepest organic soils of any ecosystem on earth. With this carbon-rich foundation, peatlands play an important role in stabilizing our climate. Carbon accumulates slowly in peatlands, but when buried in soils, carbon stores persist underground—and out of the atmosphere—for millennia. With more peatlands than any other state in the US outside Alaska, Minnesota has a role to play in sustaining and restoring peatlands as part of a multifaceted climate mitigation strategy. Learn more about the many different types of peatlands in Minnesota:

 

Sphagnum moss 
Sphagnum moss is the foundation of many of Minnesota's peatlands -- tiny little plants that punch above their weight when it comes to climate.

Where are Minnesota’s peatlands?

Peatlands cover 10% of the state—more than 7 million acres. Most of Minnesota’s peatlands are in the northern part of the state. In 2024, the MNDNR created a map that identifies areas across Minnesota where deep, organic soils (histosols) overlap with wetlands. The resulting map is a tool for understanding the statewide extent of peatlands.

The GIS layer, which combines data from the Gridded National Soil Survey Geographic Database and the National Wetlands Inventory, is available for download on the Geospatial Commons: https://gisdata.mn.gov/dataset/geos-potentially-wet-histosols.

 

Peatland extent across Minnesota

Peatland extent across Minnesota. Map by Katie Rossman, MNIT.

 

 

Why peatlands are important: Climate. Water. Wildlife.

Recognizing the power of peatlands as important carbon reserves, Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework identifies protecting and restoring peatlands as key actions that can avoid the acceleration of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition to their important role in climate mitigation, healthy peatlands provide other co-benefits, such as:

  • Flood reduction
  • Improved water quality (think reductions in sediment and mercury export)
  • Wildlife habitat

 

Big Bog State Recreation Area 
Big Bog State Recreation Area. 

 

How is the DNR working on peatlands?

Demonstration project: The DNR is evaluating and evolving our approach to managing the state’s peatlands to maintain carbon storage and reduce GHG emissions to the atmosphere by identifying and restoring drained peatlands while also continuing to allow for sustainable economic use of peat. Currently we are:

  • Developing criteria for evaluating and prioritizing peatlands for protection or restoration as a means of generating climate mitigation benefits.
  • Collaborating with the Office of School Trust Land (OSTL) on a peatland protection demonstration project that will compensate the trust interest.
  • Completing a peatland restoration demonstration project at Winter Road Lake Peatland Scientific and Natural Area, including monitoring changes to GHG flux and mercury export to quantify climate change and ecosystem benefits.

 

MNDNR scientists

 

MNDNR scientists

 

MNDNR scientists gathering baseline measurements for hydrology and water quality (left) and vegetation (right) at Winter Road Lake Peatland SNA. 

 

Expanding peatland restoration on state lands: In Minnesota, peatland restoration most often involves holding more water back on the land to rewet drained peat.

  • The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) was awarded nearly $200 million from the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program.
  • CPRG provides federal funding to state, Tribal, and local governments to “develop and implement ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution.”
  • This unprecedented grant will catalyze collaboration among five state agencies on a transformative initiative — supporting the health and wellbeing of all Minnesotans by decarbonizing the state’s food systems while advancing economic opportunity and fighting hunger.
  • $20 million of the CPRG funds awarded to Minnesota was allocated to peatland restoration to sustain carbon sinks and culturally significant food sources, such as fish and wild rice. Of this $20 million:
    • $8 million will be used to restore peatlands on private lands, which the Board of Soil and Water Resources will administer,
    • $8 million will be used to restore degraded peatlands on lands managed by the Minnesota DNR, and
    • $4 million will be available to Tribal Nations for peatland-related initiatives (which will be administered by the Minnesota DNR)

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