This article is part of the Forest Scene newsletter, Issue 31.
Field Silviculture students in the Advanced Field Session got to observe a prescribed understory burn in the Otter Creek unit, a 50-year-old red pine stand at the Cloquet Forestry Center (CFC). The burn, conducted in May, is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to return fire-maintained conditions to portions of the CFC. The effort helps to fire-harden the site's overstory pines and, importantly, "promote more suitable conditions for fire-dependent woodland plants like blueberry, wintergreen, sweetfern, bearberry, and trailing arbutus,” the CFC shares in a May 17 Instagram post about the burn.
Alongside Professor Marcella Windmuller-Campione, students stayed a safe distance away as the professionals did their work. It was an exceptional opportunity to observe the vital role fire plays in pine silviculture and learn from resource managers with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Tribal firefighters from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe were also present.
“This is what 21st-century pine silviculture looks like – blending old and new ways of forest stewardship," the CFC shares. "Chi miigwech to all [the] fire practitioners for sharing their time, labor, and expertise."
The Forest Scene newsletter is published biannually in the spring and fall, featuring stories and updates from the Department of Forest Resources. Read Issue 31 (2024):
- Department Message from Kristen C. Nelson
- Recommended Reading
- UMN-Twin Cities Designated as Tree Campus in Higher Education
- Faculty Retirement: Andy David
- Prions in MN Waterways: Discovery Helps Water Managers Plan
- Supporting Sustainable Agroforestry in Guatemala
- Graduate Research Highlight: Luiza Lucena
- News Bites:
- From Our Archives
- In Remembrance