Forest Assisted Migration

By daVid aBazs

Thirty-six years ago, as my wife and I were searching for land to start a small diversified farm in the Northwoods, we were only interested in parcels that had already been cleared of trees and were located above the 40’ latitude line, thus shortening our growing season and giving us time to do other things along with farming. We picked Finland, Minnesota on a map based on its geography and location along the North Shore of Lake Superior. We visited the area in November, and by January we were living out our dream on an old Finnish homestead that was resprouting with trees and shrubs after a brief period of agriculture half a century earlier. The twenty acres of cleared land, initially required to obtain ownership through the Homestead Act, were growing back with wild berry bushes and the beginnings of the northern forest.

We made our first compost piles out of moose and bear “manure” to start the process of building up the thin soil and turning the land into fertile gardens amongst the trees that dominated the landscape. The gardens expanded and the fields grew in fertility and abundance, but the forest around the homestead seemed compromised and weak, battered by extreme weather, diseases, and pests. The boreal and mixed hardwood forests along the entire north shore of Lake Superior were struggling. Past logging practices, massive wildfires, and poor land and resource management choices, along with a changing climate, had all put a noticeable strain on the forest’s resilience and recovery.

At first, we pushed back against the idea that climate change could put the future of our northern forest in jeopardy. Now, with documented temperature rises of 2.5 ‘F in parts of our region and our personal experience of navigating ever more extreme weather conditions, we have begun to accept and adapt to what is happening. We see the changes, we feel the changes, we mourn the changes - but we also are motivated to act in response to these changes. What can we do? Through the research of professors Julie Etterson at the University of Minnesota - Duluth and Meredith Cornett and The Nature Conservancy, we learned that farmers in our region may have a role to play in increasing the integrity of our forests. Their test plots showed that tree seedlings grown from seed sources south of us are more resilient and robust than tree seedlings grown from local seed sources. It is suggested that seed from as far south as 250 km might be better suited for the current growing conditions in our area. This research provided us with a possible way we could assist the forest to be more resilient and thrive into the future by “assisting” in the migration of the tree genetics. The forest no longer has the luxury of thousands of years to adapt to gradual change. Some models indicate that there is as little as 50 years before climate change will be enough to turn northern Minnesota’s boreal and hardwood forest into an oak savanna grassland with only a few pockets of trees.

The Forest Assisted Migration project is our way of helping the trees “walk” north in a timescale that just might make a difference in the existence and health of the forests for future generations. Three entities came together to create a plan: Julie Etterson of University of Minnesota Duluth, Meredith Cornett of The Nature Conservancy, and me. I work for University of Minnesota Extension as executive director of the northeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership. We identified two bottlenecks:

1. There is no seed collection system in place that sources genetically diverse seeds from southern locations in Minnesota with the intent of planting them in more northern locations. We needed to identify locations, develop seed-collecting protocols, and find people to do the collecting. 2. We need to increase the number of these “climate forward” tree seedlings available for restoration and reforestation needs.

To address the first bottleneck, the sourcing of tree seeds, we have identified forests, groves, parks and farm land in central and southern Minnesota (south of the tree planting region) where we have permission to gather seed. Some of these areas have large stands of Red and Bur Oak, Red and White Pine, Black Cherry, Yellow and River Birch and American Basswood. As we establish a more robust team of seed collectors, we have begun to collect those tree seed populations to make these seeds available for planting as part of our solution for the second bottleneck, a more robust growing network.

That brings us to the beginnings of the Farm and Forest Growers. In 2021, we piloted our first group of 14 farmers, providing training and equipment information to get the farmers tooled up to plant the first group of climate adapted tree seedlings. We had large and small tree seedling operations assist us with this training; including the greenhouse manager of the University of Minnesota - Duluth, a former manager of potlatch, a manager of JW Tourney USFS Nursery in Michigan, the founder of the Itasca Nursery and the Badoura DNR Minnesota State Nursery manager. We researched and found plug and pot options for growing the seedlings. All of the equipment and seeds were based on the criteria of The Nature Conservancy, the main supporter of this growers network development, which is providing a guaranteed market at a premium price. There is additional interest from Minn. Power, County Forestry departments and Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and we know the market for these climate forward seedlings will continue to grow based on the commitment of a coalition of groups building out the vision of Minnesota Million - the reforestation of one million acres of our state by 2045.

Most of the farms and family nurseries who were involved in the Farm and Forest Growers’ pilot year had greenhouses and growing experience, but they spent thousands of dollars and countless hours adapting their operations to growing this new crop of trees. Each of the 14 farmers had different types of structures, potting soils, fertilizers and growing methods. Along with the worst drought in memory that first year, we had mice and squirrels eat the seeds, irrigation systems that failed, and temperatures hotter than normal. After growing the trees for the full season, each farmer then has to store the seedlings at or near freezing to get them through the winter in good condition for delivery to the Nature Conservancy in the spring. There were good survival rates in some of the root cellars but other efforts to store the seedlings outside resulted in significant losses from rodents and the cold. To be acceptable for sale to our buyers, each seedling had to be at least 4” tall with a single stem in a cell with a diameter of 1 - 2” and a depth of 5” - 8”. Many of our trees did not meet the size criteria, and we had some that were total losses. There were countless management adaptations along the way, as we compared notes and learned from each other. Despite these challenges, by delivery day, we had 10,000 very nice tree seedlings for The Nature Conservancy. With all of the initial capital costs and expenses, there was no profit that pilot year, but we learned a lot. And what we heard from the farmers, as eternal optimists, was “next year will be better!”

In 2022, we increased to 17 growers, one farmer pulling out due to labor challenges and one from illness, with five more growers stepping forward to join the Farm and Forest Growers work. With the farms and nurseries spread out throughout Northeastern Minnesota, the growers continued to gather by Zoom. We shared notes, leaf conditions, seed germination rates, watering ideas, successes and failures. Management methods and changes were made to turn our vegetable greenhouses into tree seedling houses. In some cases, roll up side openings were installed, fans added, shade cloth trialed, automated irrigation systems designed not to mention new techniques for seed planting, new potting soil mixes and methods of filling the plugs more efficiently. At my farm, I was able to add shade cloth and an automated watering system that gave 8 minutes of water, 4 times a day (at 4 hour intervals) and the seedlings responded well. Not only did the yellow birch grow much, much better, the reduction of our labor was a game changer. Along with improved health, the yellow birch exceeded the minimum height criteria by reaching 12” and more. So high that now my boxes are too small for the packaging and storing cycle!

Along with the individual challenges and solutions, we are working with our University, organizations and institutions to build out the seed collecting systems so that the farmers have all the seed that is needed to plant. Efforts are underway to build more infrastructure with our growers within the larger Forest Assisted Migration project to create a more resilient human system to support ongoing assistance in building a greater resilient and thriving forest system. The Farm and Forest Growers are exploring incorporating as a cooperative and the systems are being built to sustain a robust “supply chain” of climate forward tree seedlings to keep our forest alive, not just for our economy, tourism, and wood resources, but for the wildlife of the Northwoods that depend on an intact forest ecosystem. Farmers can be and are becoming a key player in finding solutions to the social and ecological crises of our time. Along with soil carbon considerations, now farmers are assisting with the increased production of “climate forward” tree seedlings to help the existing forest health, diversity and resilience while adding additional forested land through the Minnesota Million initiative. This might be one way to be part of the solution while making a living wage doing so!

David Abazs and his wife Lise have run Round River Farm for the past 35 years. He is the University of Minnesota Extension’s Executive Director of the Northeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership. He will be presenting an Organic University on Forest Assisted Migration at the Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference.

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