The forest boundary encompasses about 1.6 million acres with about 660,000 acres of National Forest Lands. The remainder are State, County, Reservation and private lands. The Leech Lake Indian Reservation shares common boundaries with the forest.
Water is abundant in the forest.
The forest boasts of having the largest breeding population of bald eagles in the lower 48 states. Several sensitive species of wildlife are present. The gray wolf is present, but rarely seen. The relocation will probably more than double the current 68 miles of trail in the forest, and move the eastern trailhead far to the north and east, but will lop off ten to twenty miles of the current easternmost part of the trail in the forest. Due to this, and outside connection problems, the suggested route given here does not use all of the certified trail in the forest.