Date: Tuesday 10 January, 2023 from 9:00-10:00am
Speaker: Dr. Jeff Larkin, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Overview: There exists a substantial body of scientific evidence that the ecology of eastern forest birds is intimately tied to landscape context, configuration, and within-stand structural complexity, regardless of nesting guild. Thus, it is suggested that the decline of eastern forest birds over the past several decades has been fueled, in part, by a predominance of relatively homogeneous middle-aged forests that resulted from large-scale forest clearing activities of the early-1900s. As such, balancing forest age classes and improving structural diversity has become an important focus of eastern forest-bird conservation. Given the complexity of forest ownership patterns in the eastern U.S., effective and long-term strategies will require synergy among multiple land management agencies and private forest owners. However, this is easier said than done due to considerable economic, logistical, and ecological challenges that inhibit the creation of forest conditions at scales that are biologically meaningful to forest birds. In 2010, a group of partners initiated an effort to implement science-based habitat guidelines for two at-risk birds and associated species across public and private forests in Pennsylvania. To date, this partnership has planned and implemented forest management across thousands of acres, monitored outcomes, and grown in membership and long-term vision. Our success is driven by our ability to collaborate, not complete, to capitalize on private lands opportunities such as NRCS’s Working Lands for Wildlife and Regional Conservation Partnership Programs in conjunction with other opportunities like National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Delaware River and Central Appalachian Habitat Stewardship Programs. This presentation will highlight how a sincerely collaborative, well-funded, and opportunity seeking partnership can overcome the many constraints that often inhibit large-scale conservation implementation.

Date: Tuesday 14 February, 2023 from 9:00-10:00am
Speaker: Dr. Andrew David, University of Minnesota

Overview: Planting seedlings is an essential part of any reforestation plan but where should your seedlings come from?  Concerns about survival, growth and adaptation to local growing conditions are historical considerations; however, climate change and the desire for new species in a warming climate has complicated the search for seedlings.  Join us for a discussion on the considerations and approaches to sourcing and planting seedlings for your next reforestation project.

Date: Thursday 16 March, 2023 from 9-10am
Speaker: MN DNR Forest Health specialists

Overview: Each year, the Minnesota DNR Forest Health team conducts both aerial assessments and on-the-ground monitoring to assess the health of the state’s forests. Join us for this webinar as MN DNR Forest Health Specialists provide an update on the status and trends in forest health from all corners of the state.

Date: Tuesday 11 April, 2023 from 9-10am
Speaker: Dr. Marcella Windmuller-Campione, University of Minnesota

 Overview: Biochar is a biobased soil amendment that can increase carbon storage and be created from many sources including small diameter and lower quality wood. In some ecosystems, biochar has been shown to increase water holding capacity and thus has been hypothesized as a potential treatment to decrease impact of drought stress due to climate change.  We've been exploring the relationship between biochar and tree survival in sandy outwash soils for over seven years and will share results from multiple field and greenhouse studies.

Date: Tuesday 16 May, 2023 from 9-10am
Speaker: Katie Frerker, US Forest Service

Overview: Landtype Associations are one of the ecological units with the National Hierarchical Framework of Ecological Units. With a scale of tens of thousands of acres, LTAs are used for planning and analysis at the landscape scale, incorporating forest and watershed assessments and benefiting planners across all organizational boundaries. This talk will address the efforts to revisit the LTA polygons originally mapped in 2000 and improve the precision and information provided by these units.

Date: Tuesday 13 June, 2023 from 9-10am
Speaker: Sarah Anderson, US Forest Service

Overview: The US Forest Service manages 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands across the United States stretching from Alaska to Florida. It is critical to understand the ecological conditions of these lands in order to restore and manage them appropriately. The Forest Service developed the Terrestrial Condition Assessment (TCA) to model ecological integrity at the landscape-scale. Leveraging a data-driven approach, the TCA scores ecologically defined landscapes with a continuous score ranging from Very Good (score of +1) to Very Poor (score of -1). This webinar will cover the nuts and bolts of the model and the datasets it leverages as well as demonstrate how the model results informs planning, monitoring, and reporting in the Forest Service.

Date: Tuesday 11 July, 2023 from 9-10am
Speaker: Carissa Wonkka, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Northern Plains Agricultural Lab

Description: Prescribed burning is largely regulated at the state level with many different approaches historically in place. Recognizing the importance of prescribed fire for wildfire hazard reduction and ecosystem management and the constraints current statutory schemes impose on its use, many states across the United States have undertaken prescribed burn statutory reform. These new laws, called “Right to Burn Acts” or “Prescribed Fire Acts” have a common goal, promoting the use of safe prescribed fire, but there is much variability in the components of these statutes. In this talk Carissa will present a roadmap for understanding the components of Right to Burn Acts and show the variable ways states have approached them and discuss some of the research assessing the effectiveness of the various approaches for achieving intended goals.

Date: Tuesday 8 August, 2023 from 9-10am
Speakers: Lane Moser, Education Specialist, and Eli Sagor, Program Manager, SFEC

Description: Lane Moser will go over the survey results and analysis from our recent Needs Assessment, talking about where SFEC is going and why. We’ll then open up the floor and discuss learning needs and implications from our needs assessment with webinar attendees.

Date: Tuesday 12 September, 2023 from 9-10am
Speakers: Randy Kolka, USDA Forest Service Project Lead; Andrew Richardson, Northern Arizona University Center for Ecosystem Science and Society; Jeff Warren, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Description: The Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment, based at the USDA Forest Service Marcell Experimental Forest, is an ambitious series of experiments to assess the response of high-carbon northern peatland ecosystems to increases in temperature and exposures to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Using large open-topped enclosures, the experiment evaluates the response of soil, water, plants and other biological communities to a range of warming levels from ambient to +9°C, at ambient and elevated CO2 levels. We'll hear from researchers active in different components of the project. Randy Kolka will provide an overview and discuss belowground processes and nutrient cycling. Andrew Richardson will discuss changes in tree phenology induced by higher temperatures. Jeff Warren will discuss treatment impacts on shrub and tree photosynthesis and water stress. Discussion will focus on implications of their results to land managers. 

Date: Tuesday 10 October, 2023 from 9-10am
Speaker: Dr. Jon Knott, Research Forester, US Forest Service

Description: The Forest Inventory and Analysis Carbon Science Group has been developing new insights into relationships between forest conditions and carbon stocks. Dr. Jon Knott will discuss three recent studies drawing on this data and exploring forest composition and carbon stocks in the Lake States; case studies to assess forest composition in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and insights from a case study of nature-based solutions in Wisconsin. 

Date: Tuesday 14 November, 2023 from 9-10am
Speakers: Hannah Panci & Rob Croll, Climate Change Program Coordinator, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission

Description: The Ojibwe member tribes of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) depend on animal and plant relatives to meet spiritual, cultural, medicinal, subsistence, and economic needs. Climate change may affect the ability of tribal members to continue exercising their off-reservation treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather these beings. We used the NatureServe Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) to assess the vulnerability of 66 beings of tribal interest to climate change. We also conducted Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) interviews and reviewed previously gathered TEK to identify beings of concern and record changes experienced within the cultural memory. We used information from interviews as well as input from regional scientists familiar with each being to assess vulnerability. We found that manoomin/northern wild rice (Zizania palustris), which is integral to Ojibwe culture and already declining in population in the Ceded Territories, was the most vulnerable being. Swimmers were the most vulnerable category of beings, with odoonibiins/tullibee (Coregonus artedii) as the most vulnerable. Climate change impacts on culturally important beings were reported by TEK interviewees across the Ceded Territories, and Ojibwe people are so intertwined with some of these beings that they fear a loss of identity as these beings disappear from the landscape. We also found that the combination of SEK (Scientific Ecological Knowledge) and TEK broadened our understanding of climate change impacts on these beings. Knowledge gained in this assessment will be useful for Tribal and non-Tribal resource managers, educators, climate change adaptation practitioners, and all who believe we are responsible for caring for those beings who take care of us. 

Date: Tuesday 12 December, 2023 from 9-10am
Speakers: Sawyer Scherer, Forest Ecologist, UPM Blandin; Chris Dunham, The Nature Conservancy; Kaysee Miller, Silviculturist, US Forest Service