In this issue:
Minnesota’s state forests are always on the job 🌲
This Bear Island State Forest site is working to protect water quality.
Every hour of every day, Minnesota’s 60 state forests are hard at work: they filter water, clean air, provide homes and food for wildlife, sequester carbon, and give us places to hike, hunt, ride, and otherwise explore. And state forests have an additional “job” that makes them different than a forest you might find in a state park or scientific and natural area.
This timber harvest in Kabetogama State Forest is part of a working forest, creating an opening for young trees to grow as well as wood fiber for everyday products.
As working forests, in addition to balancing values like conservation and recreation, our state forests are also managed to provide a sustainable supply of timber for forest products we use every day.
And they’re not the only ones working! It’s the job of DNR foresters to ensure state forests continue to provide environmental, recreational, and economic benefits now and into the future. They steward state forests through a wide range of management activities, from planting and tending new seedlings to planning and overseeing timber harvests.
DNR forester Anthony Messicci measures the diameter of a tree in Crow Wing State Forest.
Recently, DNR forester Anthony Messicci inventoried a stand in Crow Wing State Forest, collecting data on the size, number and species of trees. Though a harvest is decades away, the information helps foresters guide the growth and health of the forest.
Regardless of what stage of life a forest is in, foresters are thinking ahead (often far ahead!) to make sure state forests balance that broad range of values. “It’s really important to have a why for what we’re doing,” Anthony said. “It’s all part of a greater plan – and a much longer-term plan than any of our lifetimes.”
Like us, forests are always changing, growing, and reacting to their environment. Through thoughtful management, we can ensure they remain forested and growing strong – working to provide sustainable wood products as well as wildlife habitat, places to explore, and the clean air and water we all rely on.
The science behind fall colors 🍂
Early to mid-October is typically a great time to catch vibrant fall colors in Smoky Hills State Forest.
As summer fades to fall, Minnesota's forests begin their annual transformation. Green gives way to shades of yellow, orange, red, brown and even purple before leaves eventually fall to the forest floor. But how does it happen and what determines color and timing?
A variety of leaf shapes and fall colors.
As days become shorter and temperatures begin to drop, trees prepare for winter. In the fall, trees reabsorb essential nutrients from their leaves and chlorophyll production slows and eventually stops. The yellow and orange pigments seen in ash, aspen, birch and elm are called carotenoids and are always present in the leaves, only becoming visible as green chlorophyll breaks down. The purple and red pigments seen in maple, oak and cherry are called anthocyanins and are produced from sugars that accumulate in the leaves. As leaves are changing, sunny days and cool, but not freezing nights can promote more anthocyanins, leading to especially vibrant reds and purples.
The biggest impacts on fall colors may not be the things you'd expect. Well-above average spring and summer precipitation have occasionally had a larger negative impact on fall colors than droughts, primarily due to leaf disease. Severe droughts have quite subtle impacts, reducing overall brilliance primarily through leaf loss during the summer, which is one way that trees adapt to drought. Hard freezes and cold, rainy, windy weather in the fall can reduce fall color quality and duration, but rarely dramatically.
Decreasing day length and cooling temperatures are the strongest influences on fall color timing. Warmer Septembers and Octobers delay peak colors, while early frosts accelerate them. Severe drought can subtly affect timing, with most trees delaying color change, although some species respond in the opposite way. All things considered, the timing and duration of peak colors don't vary much from year to year. Peak color can vary from location to location by two to three weeks but usually arrives within about a week of the average and lasts for about a week. Check out the fall color forecast as you make plans to see peak colors.
Late September to early October is typically a great time to catch vibrant fall colors in Bear Island State Forest in northeastern Minnesota.
Color by number: Minnesota’s native tree species in fall
Of our 53 native tree species:
🍂 44 change color in fall
💛 36 species turn yellow
🧡 10 turn orange
❤️ 10 turn red
🤎 7 turn brown
💜 1 turns purple
Want to make the most of the fall color season? Slow down and look at the details, not just the overall landscape. Forests contain many different stages of color at the same time because different species are on different schedules. While deciduous trees steal the show, remember to look for changing tamaracks too! Tamaracks are the only Minnesota conifer that changes color -their needles turn brilliant golden yellow before dropping.
Minnesota’s 60 state forests span 4.2 million acres and offer countless opportunities to experience fall color. From the boreal beauty of Finland State Forest in the northeast to the hardwood hills of Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest in the southeast, each forest offers a unique experience.
DNR staff share lessons, strategies for managing buckthorn 🌿
DNR staff hike out to a site impacted by buckthorn during a Forest Management Academy training.
Across seven different agency divisions, 5.2 million acres of diverse land and ecosystems to manage and an incredible variety of work, there are still a few universal commonalities all Minnesota DNR staff can relate to.
One of them? Buckthorn. For forest managers, non-native buckthorn is a headache to deal with. But one silver lining of the prevalence of buckthorn in some parts of Minnesota is that there is no shortage of examples that staff can learn from and apply to their own work.
This month, DNR staff responsible for managing state forests, wildlife management areas and aquatic management areas gathered for an internal training on managing buckthorn in forests. Foresters and wildlife managers toured a state forest site and a wildlife management area site near Brainerd, both of which had been heavily impacted by buckthorn. Staff discussed the treatments used and why they were chosen, their effectiveness, and lessons learned. One site featured areas with multiple follow-up cut-stump and basal bark treatments, while the other (much larger) site featured forestry mulching followed by broadcast herbicide application.
Buckthorn can be challenging for any woodland manager to treat. All kinds of factors can influence the best option for a particular site, including the amount of buckthorn, seasonal timing, current weather conditions, and considerations for other species present. If you want to manage buckthorn like a forester, here are some tips:
Have a plan of what you want the future site to look like before you begin treatment. (Like Taylor Swift sings, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!)
Not everything works out the first time, but you can learn from what doesn’t work as well as what does.
Document like a scientist! Take photos before and after treatment, and record the work done as well as results.
Be persistent. With buckthorn, there is no one size fits all approach, and a combination of management, including follow-up treatments, is often required to make a long-term difference.
If you have buckthorn of your own to manage, learn more on our website.
The crosscut 🪵
A curated selection of forestry-related media we enjoyed, and think you will too.
The Dovetail Partners series of essays on forest stewardship continues with “The Culture of Forestry,” which considers what it might take to rebuild a shared culture of forestry that connects ecological health, economic realities, and our relationship with the land.
This one might be a liiiittle in the weeds (or seeds), but for those with a long drive or walk and a big interest in the intricacies of seeding - including the use of helicopters - MN DNR Forestry’s own Silviculture Program lead Mike Reinikainen was a guest on SilviCast, a podcast all things reforestation from the Wisconsin Forestry Center. Give the episode a listen.
State forest scene: Fall fungi 📷
Lobster and amanita mushrooms growing in George Washington State Forest.
George Washington State Forest
If you’re looking for fall color, don’t forget to look down once in a while! Now is a great time to watch for fall fungi like this lobster mushroom and Amanita making an appearance in George Washington State Forest.
Have photos?
In each issue, we share an image captured in one of our state forests. Have photos? We'd love to see how you enjoy public lands! Share your state forest photos.