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2013 Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Forest at the Crossroads, and the Boreal Forest Art Project
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Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Forest at the Crossroads, and the Boreal Forest Art Project
March 23, 2013
We’ve been taught that Minnesota alone of all the states holds three vast natural regions called biomes. These ecological communities cross the state diagonally from northwest to southeast: prairie in the southwest, a wide band of hardwood forest and oak savanna next, and the boreal (northern) forest of the northeastern part. But did you know that their boundaries are already shifting northward? The boreal forest is starting to retreat from Minnesota into Canada, and in the Twin Cities we'll have a climate like present-day Manhattan, Kansas by the end of this century. The characteristic trees and smaller plants, fungi, insects, birds, and other fauna that make up the boreal community are going to vanish from Minnesota.
The boreal forest and its transformation was the topic when Dr. Lee Frelich spoke to our group. Dr. Frelich is a forest ecologist with the
Kathy Franzen, who hosted the event, described the Boreal Forest Art Project that she has organized. The member artists have created and exhibited images of the most threatened trees, including balsam fir, white spruce, balsam poplar, tamarack, quaking aspen, red pine, jack pine, and others. Currently they’re working on depicting other threatened plants and insects, and eventually will add birds that are part of the boreal forest ecological community. The next exhibit will be in
Global climate change is no myth. That was Lee’s first message, as he reviewed and dismantled eight myths commonly used to deny that the earth is warming. Our climate is not only warming, it’s also triggering a chain of effects that damage
Many of us were amazed to learn from Lee that the spread of earthworms is also driving the changes in the forest. There are no native earthworms in
Lee concluded with photos comparing a present-day Boundary Waters view with an open landscape of oak savannah. By the way, he’s looking for an artist who can create a landscape showing what it will look like when the oak savannah surrounds a Boundary Waters lake. If you have a recommendation for him, you could reach him at freli001@umn.edu.