Thirteen Moons workshop brings people, natural resources closer together

Thirteen Moons workshop brings people, natural resources closer together

Northern Minnesota phenology report: October 2009

By John Latimer, KAXE Radio, Grand Rapids

Fall color from Oberg Mtn. Allison Eklund photo.

The arrival of fall is best announced by the leaves of the trees turning color. For many years it was assumed that these colors were in the leaves from the beginning and that as the tree prepared for winter it stopped producing chlorophyll and the intrinsic colors were revealed. Recent studies have shown that the colors are not in the leaves and must be produced by the tree.

From an evolutionary perspective simply turning color would be a waste of energy because the pigments produced are lost when the leaves fall. There must be a reason why the trees would invest in the color change. Two theories have emerged as possible explanations.

One theory is that the color is a signal to insects to stay away. Many insects approach trees in the fall to lay their eggs and in the spring these eggs will hatch and begin an attack on the tree. There is some evidence that insects avoid the most colorful trees. The trees with the brightest colors will self select because they will experience the least insult from pests. Ultimately these trees should come to dominate the forest. That they don’t is the source of much conjecture.

The problem is that some trees do not turn color in the fall. Rather they just drop their leaves while still green. Scientists that support this protectionist theory contend that there is always going to be some natural variation within the plant community. Research indicates that those trees under the greatest pressure were the ones that evolved to have the brightest colors.

Jack pine needles about to drop in fall. Esagor photo.

Other scientists have noted, especially here in the far north, that by the time trees begin to turn color the majority of their insect pests have perished.  Where then is the pressure to turn color for defense? They contend that the trees turn color to mitigate the effects of sunlight on the leaf as it shuts down.

The entire photosynthetic process must be shut down in the fall. The tree needs to carefully dismantle the chemicals used in the process, nitrogen, and phosphorus among others will be maintained in the tree to be used again in the spring. All this housekeeping requires energy that comes from photosynthesis, yet this is the process that is shutting down.

Leaves cannot use all the energy striking their surfaces in the fall and the excess can cause damage. Anthocyanins, those molecules that cause leaves to turn red, act as a sunscreen allowing the leaf to get its work done without destroying the chemicals the tree is trying to extract.

Scientists produced trees in the laboratory that were unable to produce the colors associated with fall. While these trees prospered in the greenhouse they were unable to ship nutrients to the tree for storage in the fall. This supports the sunscreen theory, but the sunscreen is only present in those trees that produce anthocyanins. The trees that turn yellow manufacture a chemical called carotenoid and this has no effect on sunlight. Currently they are arguing that there is another, as yet undiscovered, chemical doing the screening.

So it goes, the two sides concede that the other may be partly correct. Possibly the leaves turning color may accomplish more than one task. I am just glad that they do turn color in the fall. Whatever the reason it is a time of stunning beauty.

John Latimer is well known throughout northern Minnesota for his phenology work. He appears weekly on KAXE radio in Grand Rapids, and audio and twitter archives are available here. His work is a frequent feature on MyMinnesotaWoods.  This article also appeared in the Duluth Senior Reporter.  It is printed with the author’s permission.

New Itasca County Private Woodland Committee website

By Julie Miedtke, University of Minnesota Extension, Itasca County

Looking for local northern Minnesota woodlands information?  The Itasca County Private Woodland Committee has a brand new website that features:

• a calendar of upcoming classes & events in and around Itasca County.
• landowner resources with information to order trees etc.
• a local ‘forum’ section for questions and answers about Itasca County woodlands.
• photos of landowners, woods, wildlife and more.

Perhaps the nicest feature on this site is the opportunity for you to share information about your land.  If you want to, you’ll be able to upload photos, tell us about your hike in the woods, pruning your trees or deer milling around the food plot.

The site will also be your hub for new Minnesota woodlands info:  Towards the bottom you’ll notice headlines and links to new content from MyMinnesotaWoods.

Take a quick surf, join the site as a member (it’s optional and free) get involved!  If you have questions, send them to miedt001@umn.edu.

Check out the new site now.

MLEP offers online Landview mapping training

The Minnesota Logger Education Program announced a new online mapping training this month.  The new training is based on the Minnesota DNR’s Landview application.  A basic version of Landview is already online, but this training introduces a newer, far more powerful version that can be downloaded to any PC running Windows.

The training has two components: Introduction and Advanced.  The training is best suited to those comfortable with computing and working through a relatively high-speed internet connection.  It may be of greatest interest to loggers, natural resource professionals, and advanced woodland owners.  Beginners may be more comfortable with the more basic mapping options, as well as links and tutorials, on our Maps & Airphotos page.

Why is MLEP’s new training worth the time? The version of Landview covered in the training offers excellent quality airphoto imagery as well as numerous data layers not available through other sources.  It also has other important features, notably the ability to transfer GPS data to or from your GPS receiver.  This version is far more powerful than most online mapping applications.

Best of all, there’s no charge and the presentation is excellent.  Check out MLEP’s new Landview training now.

Woody biomass: Sept. 2009 bio-baler demonstrations

I received the following announcement from Dean Current, University of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources, today.  It may be of interest to loggers, natural resource professionals, and some woodland owners considering woody biomass harvest options.  -ed.

Update: these demonstrations have passed. A nice KEYC TV news story with video of the harvester is here.  We’re working on a video from the demos and will post that link shortly.

FLD image

Attached is a schedule of September 2009 Minnesota demonstrations of a bio-baler that has been developed for small diameter woody vegetation (Short rotation crops – willow, poplar, brushlands and young aspen thinnings.  The bio-baler will be in Minnesota from Sept. 17th to Sept. 24th starting in Waseca at the Southern Research and Outreach Center harvesting short rotation willows and finishing up near Hibbing doing a thinning in young aspen.  This could be an option for recovering biomass from some of the DNR’s wildlife habitat projects,short rotation woody crop plantings and other brushlands on a one-time or continuing basis.  It might even be used for controlling hazel underbrush.

As woody and herbaceous biomass becomes more and more viable for renewable energy, equipment companies have started engineering machines capable of harvesting the biomass quickly and efficiently. One such company is FLD Biomass Technologies of Canada who specialize in the design and manufacturing of machinery for agricultural and forestry production.  A number of organizations are proud to be funding a demonstration tour of FLD Biomass Technologies’ FLD Biobaler WB55 in various locations around the state of Minnesota from September 17 to September 25, 2009. Click here for detailed schedule and contact info for the Minnesota demonstrations.

The FLD Biobaler WB55 is an all-in-one tractor-pulled machine capable of cutting, compacting, and baling biomass up to four inches in diameter and 25 feet in height.  This maneuverable machine has a rotating blade or hammer cutting system that has a low power requirement and produces naturally drying bales that can be transported using standard equipment.  The Biobaler is suitable for many woody crops including: willow, poplar, aspen, alder, under story vegetation, invasive woody vegetation.

Dates and locations:  (CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS)
September 17: Waseca – U of M SROC
September 18: Madelia – Rural Advantage
September 19: Faribault – The Nature Conservancy and MN DNR  
September 20: Afton – Belwin Conservancy
September 21: Ogilvie – Ann Lake WMA – MN DNR 
September 22: Hinckley – St. Croix State Park. – MN DNR
September 23: Aurora – Koste and MN DNR
September 24: Hibbing – MN DNR

A video of the FDL biobaler in action:

Click here for detailed schedule and contact info for the Minnesota demonstrations.

Sponsors of the FLD Biobaler WB55 Demonstration Tour include: Belwin Conservancy, The Blandin Foundation, CINRAM – University of Minnesota, Iron Range Resources, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota Power, The Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society, The Minnesota Sharptailed Grouse Society, The Nature Conservancy, Rural Advantage, Southern MN Initiative Foundation, University of Laval – Canada, University of Minnesota Extension, University of Minnesota Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment, University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center – Waseca, The Wildlife Management Institute, and Woodcock Minnesota.

Light on the Land Small-scale Logging field day: Sept. 19, Brainerd

Small-scale Logging Field Day: September 19, 2009, Brainerd. Download complete event details (PDF)

Small-scale logging is a system and a range of equipment that increases logging flexibility and extends production seasons.  Small-scale logging is designed for harvesting operations where maneuverability is a primary concern.  It is not logging small trees and/or small volumes.

Why attend?
Whether you are a logger, forester, woodland owner, or other land manager, this field day will show you how to maximize profitability through the use of small-scale logging and harvesting equipment, using efficient and safe techniques.

From tree  to finished product is the main theme of this event, with a focus on the private landowner.

Equipment displays:

• Peterson swing blade sawmill
• Mulch-R’Down brush clearing
• ATV arches
• Farmi Winch
• Portable Winch(TM)
• Log-rite Tools

Informational Displays and Forest Products:

• Lumber drying
• Lathe turnings
• Custom log work
• Growing mushrooms
• Maple syrup
• Silent Auction
• Wood carving, crafts, furniture,
• misc. lumber, etc.

For more details, including schedule and registration information, check out the event brochure (PDF) or contact Gary Bradford at (218) 927-4599 or Patrick Lanin at (218) 764-3315.

This event is hosted by Northwoods Forestry Cooperative and the Brainerd Chapter of the Minnesota Forestry Association.

Sign up for Conservation Stewardship Program by Sept. 30

ST. PAUL, Minn. (9/9/2009) —Registration for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is taking place now until Sept. 30, 2009. The CSP is a voluntary program through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service that encourages producers to address resource concerns in a comprehensive manner by undertaking additional conservation activities; and improving, maintaining and managing existing conservation activities.

CSP is available on Tribal and private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest land in all 50 States. This program has a continuous sign up, however the first-round deadline is Sept. 30.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) will provide financial and technical assistance to eligible producers to conserve and enhance soil, water, air and related natural resources on their land. Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, prairie land, improved pastureland, rangeland, non-industrial private forest lands, agricultural land under the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe, and other private agricultural land (including cropped woodland, marshes, and agricultural land used for the production of livestock) on which resource concerns related to agricultural production could be addressed.

CSP encourages land stewards to improve their conservation performance by installing and adopting additional activities, and improving, maintaining, and managing existing activities on agricultural land and non-industrial private forest land. CSP is available nationwide on a continuous application basis.

The entire operation must be enrolled and must include all eligible land that will be under the applicant’s control for the term of the proposed contract (CSP is a five-year contract program) that is operated substantially separate from other operations.

CSP offers participants two possible types of payments:

1. Annual payment for installing and adopting additional activities, and improving, maintaining and managing existing activities
2. Supplemental payment for the adoption of resource-conserving crop rotations

Estimated Range for Annual Payments
Cropland: $12 to $22 per acre
Non-industrial private forestland: $6 to $12 per acre
Pastureland: $7 to $14 per acre
Rangeland: $5 to $10 per acre

Estimated Range for Supplemental Payments
Resource-Conservation Crop Rotation: $12 to $16 per acre

Landowners should contact their County USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office for more information and pick up a copy of the “Producer Self-Screening Checklist.” More information is also found at the NRCS website.

September 2009 email is out

The September 2009 MyMinnesotaWoods email update went out this morning.  This issue’s full of good content, including the following stories:

• New book available: Woodland Stewardship, 2nd Edition
• New video: Thinning Minnesota conifer stands
• Collecting Minnesota ash seed: 2009 update
• Northern Minnesota phenology report: September 2009
• Traditional approaches and the future of Minnesota’s forests: The Thirteen Moons project

And, as always, the poem of the month, recent news headlines, and upcoming events.

Read the September 2009 MyMinnesotaWoods email update here.

Poem of the month: On the Grasshopper and the Cricket, and To Autumn

On the Grasshopper and the Cricket

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper’s – he takes the lead
In summer luxury, – he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a long winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

-John Keats

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with a patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river swallows, borne aloft.
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

-John Keats

Comments sought on state invasive species management plan

(Released by Minnesota DNR on September 3, 2009)

A draft Minnesota Statewide Invasive Species Management Plan (PDF) is now available for public review and comment until Sept. 22.

The plan was developed by the Minnesota Invasive Species Advisory Council, co-chaired by the Minnesota’s departments of Natural Resources (DNR) and Agriculture.

It is designed to provide a framework for addressing both aquatic and terrestrial invasive species issues in Minnesota.

The plan includes strategies and actions to address the main issues related to invasive species: prevention of new introductions into the state; early detection and rapid response to new introductions; containment of populations; and management of established populations to reduce their harm.

This draft plan reflects several years of work by many organizations from the local, state and federal government levels and a number of nongovernmental organizations.

“It will be a good framework for addressing the invasive species issue,” said Jay Rendall, DNR invasive species prevention coordinator. “However, we want to have more input on strategies and actions that could be taken in the future.”

Comments from individuals and organizations will be used to refine and expand the actions identified in the draft plan. When completed, the plan will also provide opportunities for improved coordination and partnerships between federal, state and local governments, tribes, conservation organizations and others working to minimize the impacts caused by invasive species in the state.

The draft plan and information about submitting comments is available on the DNR Web site. Printed copies can be requested by calling 651-259-5100. Written comments can be submitted in writing to Invasive Species Program, Minnesota DNR, 500 Lafayette Road, St. Paul, MN 55155, or by e-mail.