A paper company in northern Minnesota is suing the federal government over what it said was a bungled beaver dam removal that flooded two roads and a campground and left a lake clogged with debris.
Blandin Paper Co., which owns 180,000 acres of forest in seven counties, contracted with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2019 to manage beaver dams on its land in Itasca County, near Pokegama Lake.
But two USDA employees blew up a dam on the company's property without first dismantling another beaver dam downstream on the same creek, an action that caused a cascade of water that ultimately put the paper company under the scrutiny of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, according to the complaint.
