GRAND RAPIDS, MINN. - Minnesota's North Woods is more than just a big stand of trees. It's our heart and soul.

Minnesota is the last state east of the Mississippi to have such a large block of relatively undisturbed forest -- and this remarkable natural gem has never been more endangered than it is right now due to forest fragmentation.

Forest fragmentation and parcelization occurs when the ownership of a large, continuous block of forest changes to something resembling Swiss cheese, with pockets of different types of ownership and land uses scattered throughout the forest. Although not as visually dramatic as clear-cutting or forest fires, it has a long-term effect that can be devastating to wildlife and to public access.

Fragmented land is often too small to maintain sustainable breeding populations of some animals. Forest animals that live near developed areas or roads also are more likely to be affected by collisions with cars, by noise and lights, and by run-ins with animals other than their natural predators.

When forests get fragmented, forestland that is adjacent to nonforestland is often warmer and drier, which changes what lives and grows there. Such land is more likely to be damaged by wind and nonnative species. And reaching a consensus on pressing forest issues is a much more difficult and expensive task than when ownership is more concentrated.

For most of the last century, forest-product companies, mining companies and utilities have held large sections of the great North Woods. These large blocks of private lands sitting adjacent to large blocks of public lands helped create continuous megablocks of forestland that have for decades been freely enjoyed by wildlife and people.

But times have changed. Because some of this privately held land has become more valuable as recreational real estate than as timber or mining land, companies are selling off millions of acres. Consequently, Minnesota's North Woods is being subdivided into small parcels and is being sold, creating the state's most dramatic land ownership shift in a century. This development raises the very real threat of less-accessible land for hunting and public recreation; greater degradation of lakes, streams and forests; more loss of timber jobs, and a dramatic decline in wildlife habitat and wildlife.

What can we do about it? First, we can manage our nonindustrial private woodlands more intensively for timber and wildlife habitat. Second, we can make better use of a tool called working forest-conservation easements. Conservation easements are legally binding agreements with landowners that keep the forestland in private hands, but prevent the land from being developed.

Under conservation easements, the landowner is allowed to live on and use the land in environmentally sustainable ways. Landowners also may receive tax benefits. At the same time, the working forest-conservation easements we support allow the public to have access to the land forever for a variety of recreational uses. Beyond the environmental and recreational benefits, the land also continues to provide economic benefits for the area, such as jobs and property taxes.

With the help of private, public and nonprofit funding and of organizations such as the Blandin Foundation, the Trust for Public Land, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Nature Conservancy, individual landowners and many others, working forest-conservation easements are being used to protect special, though relatively small, portions of the North Woods, such as the 1,660-acre Sugar Hills area near Grand Rapids and the 51,000-acre Koochiching and George Washington State Forest blocks in Itasca and Koochiching counties announced Oct. 3.

As exciting as those victories are, we're not doing nearly enough to save our great North Woods. The Legislature will be considering funding in the upcoming bonding session to purchase working forest-conservation easements in the North Woods. Congress soon will be making funding decisions for forest-protection projects there through the United States Forest Service's Forest Legacy Program. Much more forestland could be protected if citizens persuaded their representatives in Congress and the Legislature to support these funding requests.

Regardless of the tools we use to save our precious forestland, we will need to act as quickly as possible to keep the North Woods from looking more and more like Swiss cheese. Filling in the holes after the fact will be difficult, if not impossible.

Mark Johnson is executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. Bud Stone is president of the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. Both are residents of Grand Rapids.