2024 Forest Management for Culturally Significant Species workshop

July 01, 2024
A small group of people in a forest listening to a speaker. The title of the article is above.

The UMN Sustainable Forests Education Cooperative (SFEC), run by Program Manager and Extension Specialist Eli Sagor and Program Coordinator Lane Moser, hosts this field-based workshop annually in partnership with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. About 45 natural resource managers from a variety of public and private organizations and wood products companies joined them on both Tribal and state sites in Walker, Minnesota, earlier this summer to learn different strategies for managing forests that are home to culturally significant species, including trees, berries, and animals. The aim is to help resource managers learn how to meet cultural-use goals for these species. 

The workshop focused on five key topics:

  • Paper birch - retaining it on a site, or adding it.
  • Promoting snowshoe hare habitat.
  • Cedar management.
  • Diversifying aspen - fire-dependent vs mesic hardwood approaches; mixedwood management.
  • Promoting edible forbs and berries.