Connecting Soils and Landforms to Silviculture

March 12 2026, 9:00am-3pm

Cloquet Forestry Center

Evidence of erosion on a forest road.

This workshop covers relationships between soils, landforms, and plant community development as well as goes over some common tools and sources of information. Includes classroom presentations and hands-on activities in the lab.

Over the course of the day, registrants will

  • Understand the basic relationships between glacial history, landforms, soils, and native plant communities (to the extent we can!)
  • Understand soil characteristics and how forest operations can impact them, changing future system development trajectory
  • Be able to access and interpret (understand limitations of) major sources of soil and landform data, such as Web Soil Survey, shaded relief maps, etc.
  • Review the latest climate change guidance on forest operations. 
     

Cost: This event is open to all interested learners. $75 for members, $140 for non members, $40 for students. Current Ecosilv enrollees who purchased the whole block can use their discount code. 

Accessibility: We will be indoors for the duration of this workshop. A nursing mother room is available; for this and other accommodations reach out to Lane Moser at [email protected].

CEs: This event is rated for 4.5 MN FSP CEs and 4.5 SAF CFEs

Agenda

9:00am: Welcome and overview of the day. Brief introductions and go over the course project and other cohort updates. – Lane Moser and Eli Sagor, SFEC

9:15am: Soil formation and properties – Alan Toczydlowski, UMN-FR

10:15am: Break

10:30am: Forest soil management – Lane Moser, SFEC

12:00pm: Lunch

12:45pm: Hands-on soils portion. Show-and-tell with soil cores, field texture with soil samples from different horizons. Small group work with hillshade map interpretation. 

2:00pm: How soil maps were made; Geomorphology / glacial geology / landforms in Northern Minnesota; Web Soil Survey (how to obtain Soils data) – Mike Rokus, NRCS

2:55pm: Closing thoughts and break for the day for non-ecosilv attendees

3:00pm: Ecosilv Capstone Project discussion (Ecosystem Silviculture course participants only)