Purpose

Sustainable Forest Resources Act of 1995 provides a legislative mandate to the Commissioner of Natural Resources to coordinate the establishment of an Interagency Information Cooperative (Cooperative). The purposes of the Cooperative, as described in legislation, are to:

coordinate the development and use of forest resources data in the state;
promote the development of statewide guidelines and common language to enhance the ability of public and private organizations and institutions to share forest resources data in the state;
promote the development of information systems that support access to important forest resources data;
promote improvement in the accuracy, reliability, and statistical soundness of fundamental forest resources data;
promote linkages and integration of forest resources data to other natural resource information; promote access and use of forest resources data and information systems in decision-making by a variety of public and private organizations;
promote expanding the capacity and reliability of forest growth, succession, and other types of ecological models;
and conduct a needs assessment for improving the quality and quantity of information systems.

Initial members of the Cooperative include:

Minnesota Association of County Land Commissioners;
United States Forest Service;
Minnesota Land Management Information Center;

and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The Memorandum of Understanding goes into greater depth about the purposes and membership of the IIC.