Cutfoot Experimental Forest

The Chippewa National Forest (CNF) is participating in a study called the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) Network. The goals of this project are to test different silvicultural approaches to climate change and forest health adaptation that will also serve as useful examples across the U.S. and Canada.

The National ASCC Network leads worked with the Chippewa National Forest and local partners to design and implement a silvicultural study for climate change adaptation on the Cutfoot Experimental Forest in Minnesota.

The installation on the Chippewa National Forest Cutfoot Experimental Forest, located on the Chippewa National Forest and the homeland of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, was the first ASCC project site to be planned and implemented. The Cutfoot Experimental Forest (CEF) covers approximately 3,3000 acres, the majority of the CEF which consists of natural-origin red pine-dominated stands. The native pre-European settlement ecosystem of the CEF was largely fire-dependent, mixed-species, pine woodland. The stands identified for the ASCC project are dominated by red pine that originated following a wildfire roughly 100 years ago.

Key Projected

Climate Change Impacts

Key projected climate change impacts that the project team considered for the region encompassing the Cutfoot Experimental Forest ASCC site include:

Increasing growing season drought and associated tree stress, resulting in reduced forest growth and leading to more susceptibility to pests and diseases
Increasing annual and seasonal average, high, and minimum temperatures
Increased risk of wildfire

Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives for red pine woodlandsecosystems, like those on the Cutfoot Experimental Forest, including:

Challenges

Red pine, a dominant tree species in north-central Minnesota, is projected to have reduced habitat suitability and growth under future climate scenarios, particularly increased growing season drought
Other northern species that are native to pine woodlands in the region on the Cutfoot site are expected to have see reduced habitat suitability with under climate change, including quaking aspen, balsam fir, paper birch, jack pine, and white spruce
Increasing summer temperatures, growing season drought, and fuels build-up to due decades of fire exclusion may result in heightened severe wildfire risk

Opportunities

Thinning of red pine stands to closer to a woodland stocking level is known to enhance resistance of growth declines during even severe drought
Some tree species native to northern pine woodlands are expected to have increased habitat suitability under climate change, including bur oak, northern red oak, and red maple, while some nearby species native to the next southern climate zone are expected to have increasing habitat suitability, (both native to the red pine ecosystem), including bitternut hickory, black cherry, and white oak (currently found in the next southern climate zone in Minnesota)
Habitat suitability for eastern white pine an important native species in these ecosystems, and northern red oak is not expected to change substantially in north-central Minnesota

Management Goals & Treatments

Resistance

Resilience

Transition

Implementation

A team of natural resource specialists from the Chippewa National Forest (CNF) and regional scientists participated in a three-day workshop in July 2013 to develop the ASCC treatments for the site. The team developed a set of management objectives, desired future conditions, and silvicultural tactics for each adaptation option: Resistance, Resilience, & Transition.

Monitoring

Monitoring is an essential component of the Cutfoot ASCC study. Research partners from several institutions are working together to investigate the effectiveness of different silvicultural treatments aimed at creating adaptive ecosystems. Some of the monitoring items include:

Residual tree survival and growth
Songbird and other wildlife community responses
Natural regeneration and planted seedling survival and growth

Progress & Next Steps

The Cutfoot Experimental Forest ASCC project site will be tended and monitored into the future. This includes vegetation control around planted seedlings and deer browse protection on pine seedlings. A second entry into the resistance treatment will likely be planned to keep the residual basal area at 90-100 ft2/ac. Team members are using the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) to model forest growth and survival to assess how well each treatment meets its associated DFCs under climate change scenarios.

Site Leads & Partners

Brian Palik (USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station) is the site lead for the Cutfoot Experimental Forest ASCC project site. Site level coordination is supported by Doug Kastendick (USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station). Key partners include the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the Chippewa National Forest, Linda Nagel (Utah State University), Tony D’Amato (University of Vermont), Peter Clark (University of Vermont), Miranda Curzon (Iowa State University), and Rebecca Montgomery, Jamie Mosel, Josh Kragthorpe (University of Minnesota), .Toni Lynn Morelli (USGS), Alexej Siren (University of New Hampshire)