Students enrolled in Dr. Evan Larson’s Fire Ecology course in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Society participated in a four-day field trip, contributing to projects aimed at reintroducing low-intensity fire to the landscapes of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region. Students visited the University of Minnesota Cloquet Forestry Center where they piled and burned woody fuels along a burn break. This work helps reduce the intensity of future prescribed burns to enhance the benefits to the forest ecosystem and improve the safety of the burn crew.
The following day, students went to Minnesota Point at the head of Lake Superior, where they cleared woody vegetation and debris from around old-growth red pine trees. This preparation is critical to prevent damage when fire is reintroduced to the site for the first time in over 150 years later this year. Restoring fire to Minnesota Point will be a significant cultural and ecological milestone because the area holds deep significance for the Ojibwe people, as well as people of diverse backgrounds who live in the area today. This effort is being planned in collaboration with local groups and is helping to build community and cooperation. Evidence of past fires, including fire scars and cultural modifications, can be seen on many of the old-growth red pines and helped to inspire this work.
Wisconsin Point was another significant area that students visited. Like Minnesota Point, it is a culturally significant area with historical evidence of fire and Ojibwe engagement with the land carried in the rings of pine trees spread throughout the site. Fire was reintroduced at Wisconsin Point just last fall in a collaboration between the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the City of Superior, and The Nature Conservancy. Visiting this site gave students an opportunity to observe the ecosystem’s response months after the prescribed burn.
“Participating in this trip helped students experience first-hand the hard work and community building that is part of the important growing effort to restore fire to the lands of Wisconsin and beyond,” said Larson.
Written by Grace Unmacht and Evan Larson, University of Wisconsin–Platteville
Link to original story: https://www.uwplatt.edu/news/uw-platteville-students-contribute-fire-restoration-efforts-across-wisconsin-and-great-lakes-region