Spokane-based PotlatchDeltic Corp. has completed the sale of more than 74,000 acres of forestland in central and northern Minnesota.

The Conservation Fund purchased the land for almost $48 million, according to a PotlatchDeltic press release.

The Conservation Fund will manage forestland, now called Minnesota’s Heritage Forest, for wildlife, water quality, and sustainable timber harvesting, while continuing traditional recreational uses, including hunting and fishing, according to the release.

More than 30,000 acres of Minnesota’s Heritage Forest tracts are in the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which supports more than 350 wildlife species, including many that are endangered and threatened.

“The transaction represents a significant milestone in our long-term strategy to maximize shareholder value through rural real estate sales,” says Mike Covey, PotlatchDeltic’s CEO and chairman.

Covey says the company’s land ownership in Minnesota totaled about 330,000 acres when PotlatchDeltic began its rural land sale program more than 12 years ago. The timberlands sold in this transaction were heavily weighted to “more remote areas,” he says.

A real estate investment trust, PotlatchDeltic owns 1.8-million acres of timberlands in Idaho, Minnesota, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

PotlatchDeltic owns six sawmills, an industrial-grade plywood mill, a commercial and residential real estate development business, and a rural timberland sales program, says the company’s website.

PotlatchDeltic will continue to operate and own its lumber mill in Bemidji, Minnesota, as it has for nearly 30 years, the press release says.