Camp Ripley

Camp Ripley is a 53,000-acre (210 km2) military and civilian training facility operated by the Minnesota National Guard near the city of Little Falls in the central part of the state.

The location of the camp was selected in 1929 by Ellard A. Walsh, Adjutant General of the State of Minnesota.

[1] Also on the grounds is the site of Fort Ripley, a military post established in 1848—the second ever built in Minnesota—to keep the peace among the Dakota, Ojibwe, and Ho-Chunk peoples.

The government started to see that it was not beneficial to use tents year round while training, so they constructed buildings.

It is the National Guard's premier cold weather training site in the United States.

DNR Conservation Officers are trained year-round in Camp Ripley's diverse habitat.

They use geographic information systems (GIS) to determine training sites, figure out what areas have historic value, where eagle nests are and much more.

Wildlife that is specifically studied are: bald eagle, white-tailed deer, black bear, blandings turtle and timber wolf.

The Environmental office has won awards for their work at camp ripley and with the local area.

The list of awards is as follows: 2008 Secretary of the Army, Environmental Security Award "Natural Resources Conservation – Large Installation" 2005 Secretary of the Army, Environmental Security Award "Natural Resources Conservation-team" 1998 Secretary of the Army, Environmental Security Award "Natural Resources Conservation – Large Installation"[4] There are three deer hunts each year at Camp Ripley to help control the deer population: one for disabled veterans and soon-to-be deployed Soldiers, one archery hunt for adults, and a youth archery hunt.