State guide

Minnesota Nature Guide

Minnesota sits at a great ecological crossroads, where the eastern hardwood forest, the northern boreal North Woods, and the western tallgrass prairie all meet. That convergence (plus more than 10,000 lakes and the cold continental climate of USDA zones 3a through 5b) gives the state a sharp, dramatic nature calendar: a long hard winter, a late and explosive spring after April ice-out, a brief intense summer, and a spectacular fall color season that sweeps south from the Canadian border in late September.