USACE partners with the University of Minnesota on ecosystem study

Photo By Melanie Peterson | Sara Rother, USACE forester, cuts down a dead tree to make room for new seedlings at Indian Slough, near Wabasha, Minnesota, on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, May 1.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is partnering with the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities with a ew Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit project which will be evaluating tree seedling survival relative to soil water and inundation. USACE representatives along with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and University of Minnesota representatives planted American elm, silver maple, cottonwood and river birch seedlings.  

WABASHA, MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES

05.01.2024

Story by Melanie Peterson 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is partnering with the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, on a new Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit to evaluate tree seedling survival relative to soil water and inundation.

“We are planting four different species of common trees: cottonwood, river birch, American elm and silver maples, in the floodplain of the Upper Mississippi River,” said Rebecca Montgomery, a professor in the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

Trees were planted the first week of May at Indian Slough, near Wabasha, Minnesota, on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge; a site south of Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin; and a site north of Indian Slough.

Montgomery said her research looks to understand how forests are impacted by climate change and how to adapt management to the upcoming challenges associated with climate change.

“Upper Mississippi River forests are stressed right now and new trees are not regenerating, so we are planting trees and studying what conditions in the floodplain support their growth and survival in the hopes of better understanding how we keep these forests as forests,” said Montgomery.

Montgomery, co-principal investigator for the study, along with her colleague Marcella Windmuller-Campione, also a professor in the Department of Forest Resources, said their research looks to understand how forests are impacted by climate change and how to adapt management to the upcoming challenges associated with climate change.

This project is funded through USACE’s environmental stewardship business line and managed out of the La Crescent field office in La Crescent, Minnesota.

Lewis Wiechmann, a forester with the St. Paul District in the regional planning and environment division north, said, “The study will look at the effects of different climate and environmental gradients on seedlings that are commonly found in the floodplain and drive future management of the forest.”

Over the next few years, the seedlings are individually tracked and remeasured to evaluate environmental gradients, Wiechmann explained.
“This will help provide valuable data to properly manage the floodplain,” said Wiechmann.

It is the policy of the St. Paul District to apply principles of good environmental stewardship to the natural and cultural resources located on Corps administered federal lands. The district manages more than 77,000 acres of land and more than 400,000 permanent easements across the Upper Midwest - an area equivalent to around 745 square miles. On these lands, the district’s natural resources staff is responsible for grassland, fisheries, forest and wetland management; regulating public use; managing water levels; establishing and enhancing vegetation; shoreline stabilization and more. The staff closely coordinates all its activities on its river lands with other federal and state natural resource agencies.

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• Date Taken: 05.01.2024
• Date Posted: 05.29.2024 16:18
• Story ID: 472490
• Location: WABASHA, MINNESOTA, US