The unfolding Forest Service reorganization targets important scientific facilities along with ongoing research projects. Current nationwide Forest Service research stations will be consolidated down to the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Colorado, and 75% of agency research facilities — at least 57 — will be closed. With the Northern Research Station in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, slated for closure, it’s internationally recognized research on forestry and climate change is at risk.
As Dan Kraker reported for MPR News, Grand Rapids researchers have conducted decades-long large-scale experiments on wetlands and forests at experimental forests within the Chippewa National Forest, including the 2,800-acre Marcell Experimental Forest, established in 1960. This experimental forest hosts one of the lab’s best-known projects: the SPRUCE (Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environment) experiment, where scientists have built 10 environmental chambers in the forest where climatic conditions can be varied to simulate various future climate scenarios. Scientists measure ecosystem responses to a range of climate changes in the massive chambers. It’s one of the largest ecosystem experiments in the world.
“That facility has been there for 65 years,” retired Research Ecologist Brian Palik told Kraker. Palik worked at the Northern Research Station for 30 years before retiring recently. Having scientists physically close to the experimental forest to conduct research has been key to the facility’s success, Palik said. “It’s just something that’s hard to do in the same way when you’re three hours away at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul…. The impact is international of the research that has and does come out of there.”
Photo: At the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments experiment in Minnesota, researchers assess the response of northern peatlands to increases in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide.
