Coniferous Forest
Science
The Coniferous Forest
Coniferous forests or pine trees to me are represents Minnesota. I mean, ever since I was a kid, the pine forest had a real fascination. I always wanted to rewind it as a young kid to build a log cabin and live in the wilderness, pretty much what I ended up doing here. The pine forest is where I've always felt at home. My favorite tree is the white pint, of course. That's my biggest inspiration of any plant. Minnesotans share an affection for the tall pines birch and aspens that evoke for us the mystique of the coniferous biome. A mystique that is deepened by the region's extensive peatlands and bogs. Legendary lakes and river systems, and it's elusive wildlife. For thousands of years, the richness and diversity of life in Minnesota's northern forests and wetlands has been maintained through complex processes set in motion by fundamental forces such as fire, wind, and light. Traditionally, humans have played a role in this process as well.
In the past before the Europeans got here before there were white people on this continent, the Indians would burn off large areas of fire. Kurt gannon's observations of the coniferous biome have come through experience as a commercial fisherman, lager, and natural resource manager. They wouldn't be controlled by the would be just areas that they felt had to be taken care of so that it would produce berries, which they depended dependent upon, it would open up the area so that small game and large game would move into the area. It would become great habitat for the wildlife. But the human role in the coniferous biome changed abruptly about a 150 years ago, with the arrival of European immigrants equipped with saws and a different perspective toward the Woods.
Jack Riley's ancestors were among those drawn to Minnesota's north country by the promise of the forest's bounty. With the extensive logging that was done in the 1800s and up until the beginning of the 20th century, essentially everything was cut in Minnesota. And that was about the time that my grandfather showed up on the scene and really the only forest that were left at the time were just remnants. Today, in Minnesota, biological diversity has been significantly reduced. Acre upon acre of single species, same aged trees, are now harvested for production of pulp and paper products. While the forest industry contributes importantly to the state's economy, simplifying the mix of trees in the forest has eliminated habitat for a variety of plant and animal life. The future of our business really is dependent upon what we do in the forest today. And we found white pine and exciting part of that. Jack rile is family logging operation, maintains mixed forests on about 60% of their lands.
They're also working hard to bring back a species that has had a difficult time recovering since the state was first logged over. The white pine, it's an important species. Species for neotropical birds, deep Woods, birds, of course, eagles and Osprey favor white pine for a nest and roost. Encouraging diversity in the forest by allowing mixed species of trees to grow to maturity can help mend tears that have occurred in the fabric of the coniferous bile. Doctor Lee fray licks research focuses on the current and future impacts of climate change on Minnesota's coniferous forest. We have some plots like the one at hegman Lake on the echo trail in the boundary waters. Where we've mapped every tree, the exact location, the species, the size and we did this ten years ago. And so we're following the forest over time, we're going back periodically and remeasuring the trees to see our new species of trees entering the forest. And red maple, which is a temperate zone species or deciduous where a species is invading the boreal forest.
It is increasing in abundance. And we haven't seen the boreal species dying off yet. I mean, it just hasn't gotten warm enough to kill them directly, but they're going to have to compete with these species from warmer climates that are starting to move in. And it will be interesting to see how they compete with those species in the future. I think it's inevitable that the boreal biome will leave Minnesota because we're talking about temperature changes in the summer of ten or 12 or 13°F, which would make the boundary waters as warm as the middle of Iowa and the question is, can you grow arboreal forest in the middle of Iowa will moose live in the middle of Iowa? And the answer, of course, is no. In the boundary waters, we have had recently the big blowdown of 1999 and we expect more big blowdowns in a warmer climate because thunderstorms will be more severe and they'll occur further north.
So it's really of interest to go and look and see what that does to the landscape. And then we had the big fires of 2006 and 2007, the cavity Lake and ham Lake fires. Those are the biggest fires we've had in Minnesota in a century. So those fires burn some of the areas that blew down and this combination of wind followed by fire used to be incredibly rare, but we predict that in a warmer climate, it will actually become a very common combination of disturbances. An area near snowbank Lake near Ely, where I let a hike last summer. It was in the blow down and then it later burned.
In this case, it was a prescribed burn, but it was a Jack pine and black spruce forest that blew down and what's coming back is red maple and red oak and borough and pinnock. And so this combination of disturbances in a climate that's already a little bit warmer. Is already starting to transform the forest. This bile, the coniferous biome here has a number of challenges with the warming and then particularly if we get drying, the pine will turn to deciduous or leaf for us. We could in 50 years or a hundred years from now, this pine forest might not be here. Which is really quite dramatic.