The Forest for the Bees

Bees are incredibly diverse and provide important ecological services such as pollination. However, baseline information such as faunistic surveys and habitat associations are lacking for most bee species in Minnesota. The Minnesota Biological Survey initiated a statewide native bee survey in 2015 that has increased the statewide list to well over 450 bee species and improved our understanding of the distribution and conservation status of many species.

Adaptive Silvicultural Experiments in Midwestern Hardwood Forests: Examples from Floodplains and Oak-dominated Uplands

Join Drs. Miranda Curzon and Marcella Windmuller-Campione as they discuss their work on two Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) project sites. The ASCC project represents a collaboration between managers and scientists to establish experimental trials that assess forest ecosystem response to climate adaptation approaches (resistance, resilience, transition, and passive no action). Miranda will introduce a new multi-state ASCC study to be implemented on state-owned lands in the Driftless Area.

A Forest Optimization Tool for Modeling, Mapping, and Managing in Minnesota

A changing climate, changes in Minnesota’s forest products industry and increasing pressure for ecosystem service have and will continue to create challenges to managing Minnesota’s forests. University of Minnesota – Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute is developing a spatially-explicit decision tool that integrates forest productivity, ecosystem services, and economic information to help land managers assess the potential costs, benefits and tradeoffs between forest management options at a landscape scale over an 80 year planning period.

Work on Golden-Winged Warblers and Other Early Successional Birds

Minnesota’s forests provide critical breeding habitat for hundreds of resident and migrating bird species. Forest management provides an important opportunity to conserve and cultivate critical habitat for species of conservation concern including Golden-winged Warbler, Veery, and American Woodcock. These species have had significant population declines throughout their breeding ranges and all have a large portion of their breeding populations in Minnesota’s young forests.