Article by Barb Spears, MNWWN President
I attended the Minnesota Forest Resources Council (MFRC) North Central Landscape Committee (NCLC) Summer Field Tour on Monday July 31. It was my first tour like this in a very long time and my first opportunity to connect with the North Central Landscape Committee members since moving to Grand Rapids in June. It was a fun and educational day!
A few of the women on the tour with Lucette in the background.
The tour focused on tree seed and nursery production. Our first stop was in Grand Rapids at the UPM Blandin College White Spruce Seed Orchard, a member of the Minnesota Tree Improvement Cooperative (MTIC). Seed orchards produce seed for reforestation efforts and this orchard was designed to provide improved seed for UPM Blandin’s annual reforestation planting of up to 1.5 million white spruce seedlings. The UPM Blandin papermill, founded in 1901, is one of North America's leading producers of high-quality lightweight coated magazine and catalog printing papers with white spruce being the preferred paper fiber. So they need MANY seeds to grow trees to get the fiber to make paper!
Some interesting things I learned are that white spruce has tremendous genetic diversity, as opposed to red pine that is a bit of an outlier for conifer species with little opportunity to improve genetics and production. The tree improvement efforts have resulted in forty superior white spruce genotypes with increased production of 18-25%, a shorter harvest rotation, and may be more climate adaptable.
The next stop was for lunch at a nice lakeside park in Hackensack where we met Lucette Diana (Kensack) Bunyan. According to local legend, Lucette was the wife of well-known woodsman (and legend) Paul Bunyan. Lucette was born in Iowa and left the family farm to help her aunt and uncle in their logging camp in northern Minnesota. Lucette, being 17 feet tall, resulted in the need to build a larger cabin, so her aunt and uncle had Paul Bunyan help level some trees for the building. Following a suitable courtship, Paul and Lucette were married back in Iowa on June 9, 1838. They returned to Minnesota, where she lived in the logging camp with her husband.
Our final stop was at the Minnesota State Forest Nursery in Badoura. This nursery has provided over 1 billion native tree and shrub seedlings for Minnesota plantings since 1931. While the 2023 season is over, you can sign up for newsletter updates to get information on the 2024 tree seedling sale. Seedling lists and prices will be available in late summer. If you need help selecting the right seedlings for your site, contact a DNR Stewardship forester.
One topic of discussion at the nursery was the challenge of seed and cone collection for nursery production. The DNR is always looking for help, and there is some compensation for seed and cones. If you’re interested, visit the DNR web page for more information at Cone and seed collection | Minnesota DNR (state.mn.us)
Below in this newsletter about the MFRC landscape committees, Jaime Thibodeaux introduces the Regional Landscape Committee Program and invites landowners or other interested parties to get involved. It’s a great way to connect with others in your landscape area, learn about and access information and helpful resources, and participate in a tour like this!