There’s something undeniably magical about walking through the woods in autumn. I’ll hike in any season but fall offers a sensory experience unlike any other: summer’s energy released in bursts of color, the crisp scent of decay and renewal that no candle could capture, and the distant drumming of a ruffed grouse.
That’s why I hesitated, briefly, when the invitation arrived for the Advocates for the Knife River Watershed (AKRW) forest tour on Saturday, September 27. We might have spent that day hunting for the source of the drumming, but after talking it over with my husband, we agreed that the chance to learn about stewardship while touring a forest in the Knife River watershed area was too good to pass up.
Apparently, we weren’t alone. Registration for the tour, led by Conservation Specialist Nate Quadhamer of Lake County Soil and Water Conservation, filled quickly. There’s talk of future tours, and if you have the chance to join one, I highly recommend it. I was fortunate to join the group and would give it a “10 out of 10 would go again” rating.
About two dozen of us gathered that morning on AKRW members Rodney and Julie Johnson’s property. We came from different walks of life and had various reasons for attending, yet all shared a curiosity, a willingness to engage in open conversation, and a deep love of conservation.
The Johnsons began talking to the previous landowners about seven years ago about buying the large parcel of land with a goal of conservation. Working together, the day of the purchase was the same day the land was put into a conservation easement.
Essentially, placing land into a conservation easement prevents development. The state purchases the development rights from the landowner, who still retains ownership and participates in a stewardship program.
“When you sell the development rights, you also agree to a stewardship plan,” explained Julie. “So, we connected with Nate.”
After touring the site, Nate was just as enamored with the property as the Johnsons, and soon all of us were as well.
“It’s just a marvelous piece of property, just unbelievable,” he said. “It’s got topographical variety. It’s got some swamps. It’s got some beaver land. It’s got upland.”
The tour highlighted comparisons between recently managed forest sites, which were treated to mitigate spruce budworm outbreak impacts, and similar unmanaged stands. It also included a site with ongoing management of the invasive buckthorn and a black ash lowland threatened by the approaching emerald ash borer. Attendees also saw high-quality examples of mature mesic hardwood forests with maple-basswood. For those who could stay longer, there was a stop in the rare Northern red oak forest, a true treat for the area.
“There’s really nice mature red oak on the east side, mature maple basswood, some old growth upland cedar, some old growth lowland cedar, really nice patches of cedar yellow birch and kind of the transition zones, Captain Jacobson Creek, and then some really poor spruce budworm, heavy sites mixed in,” said Nate.
With such a large parcel of land, a forest stewardship plan helps prioritize management areas and provides guidance on what that management and mitigation might look like. Plans are tailored as closely as possible to the landowner’s goals, with the ultimate aim of maintaining a healthy, diverse forest.
“Everybody’s goals and objectives might be different so it’s good to think about what you value with the land because that’s really important. That’s what is going to motivate you to take action,” said Nate. “If you don’t ever get out in the woods and find value, then you are probably not going to take care of it. I’m thinking about what resources you care for, what you want to see preserved or enhanced. That’s a very important part of being a land manager, a land steward, and there’s no right or wrong way necessarily.”
Participating in a land stewardship program provides access to various cost-share programs that help implement the plan, making it more affordable for the average landowner. Nate noted that even properties smaller than the Johnsons’ are eligible for stewardship plans.
“Some people have this romantic notion of ‘I’m going to own the woods and it’s going to take care of itself,’” said Nate. “But oftentimes intervention and management are proactively increasing forest health and sustaining that forested condition for future generations. Humans have been on this landscape for a very long time and have played active roles in the forest. We belong in the woods and our actions in the woods, depending on what you do, can be very beneficial.”
Forest stewardship and land management is not a new concept and though there are additional dangers in modern times with invasive species and other impacts, humans have been tending to the forest for many generations.
“We forget about the roles that indigenous peoples played in the forest. So, forests have been maintained by human activities for a pretty long time,” said Nate. “Then there’s new threats, like invasive species that have come from Europeans essentially clear-cutting forests and trying to turn into cow pastures or more clear-cutting all the old growth, and then what comes back is much different than what was there before.”
Nate clarified that clear-cutting isn’t always a harmful practice and can be beneficial in more ways than one.
“I think timber harvests can be a very useful tool in creating habitats and paying for restoration,” he said. “When you’re dealing with this much land, it can be a really, really useful tool to help meet your goals. In some areas, a timber harvest might not be the best option, but in other areas it certainly could be. It all depends on the landowner’s goals and objectives.”
One of the Johnsons’ top objectives was to address the damage caused by the spruce budworm while also controlling the invasive buckthorn overtaking the area. Nate described the first site we visited as some of the worst he had seen when he first toured it. By that Saturday, it almost looked as if it had been clear-cut.
Hikers pointed out young buckthorn along the trail, some even stooping to pull it from the forest floor. This invasive plant was introduced from Europe as a hedge plant. While effective for hedges, it quickly monopolizes light, water, and nutrients in the surrounding area. It threatens forests and wetlands by contributing to soil erosion, providing food for pests, and having no natural controls. It is illegal to import, sell, or transport buckthorn in Minnesota.
But try telling that to the “dang” birds, as one participant called them, who love the dark berries and spread the seeds over long distances. The group discussed the effectiveness of applying herbicide directly to stumps, which targets regrowth without harming surrounding vegetation. Fall is considered the ideal time for treatment because buckthorn retains its leaves longer, making it more susceptible to herbicide while other plants have gone dormant.
Spot spraying with triclopyr-based herbicides was recommended for selective control, particularly in mixed-growth areas. Broadcast spraying may be used in zones dominated entirely by buckthorn. The group emphasized safety, proper labeling, and legal compliance, noting that herbicide labels are federally regulated and must be followed exactly.
Alternatives such as repeated cutting or using goats were mentioned, but these methods risk harming desirable plants. The realistic goal is not complete eradication but rather reducing buckthorn dominance to restore native habitat and biodiversity.
From invasive species to threatened native trees, the tour moved next to the black ash basin. Northern Minnesota is home to more black ash trees than anywhere else in the country. Our guide explained that black ash forests are typically well adapted to soggy, swampy conditions and mucky soil. In areas with an elevated water table, the soil stays saturated for much of the growing season and then dries out by year’s end, creating nutrient-rich muck far richer than peat.
This area was a major concern for Nate and the Johnsons because the emerald ash borer is approaching.
“Resistance within black ash is less than 1%,” Nate advised. “A lot of people own black ash basins, swamps, localized depressions, and don’t know what to do about it. I think we have this kind of knee-jerk reaction, more reactive than proactive.”
Without the ash, there is an added challenge because it helps regulate the water table. As part of the stewardship plan, Nate recommended planting species to replace the ash, including white cedar, yellow birch, bur oak, swamp white oak, basswood, red maple, silver maple, tamarack, balsam poplar, and American elm.
“Once you move that ash and you move that evapotranspiration, you potentially have an elevated water table longer into the growing period or the growing season and creates conditions that it might become more marshy and not really allow for tree growth,” said Nate. “And so kind of proactively coming in ahead of time and getting more diversity mixed in there so you do have more trees taking in water that are already established before that water table is really high.”
Hearing about the potential loss of black ash, I felt as if I were standing in a sacred place, one that would soon be transformed and one I wanted to fully take in while I had the chance. Ash is a beautiful, supple, and special wood, valued for both its strength and cultural significance.
“Culturally, they were very important because it’s very flexible. So, they made baskets and various things out of it,” said Nate. “Culturally, that is very, very important to the indigenous peoples.”
Further up the trail, we came to an area that showed that sometimes leaving nature alone is the best choice. I saw the quite familiar, often dreaded sight, of fallen balsam trees scattered across the forest floor.
I was surprised to learn that the stewardship plan recommended leaving the area as it was. It was explained that with so many acres and a focus on diversity, leaving the fallen branches untouched in this section could actually benefit the forest.
“There’s a lot of good maple, basswood, and yellow birch,” said Nate. “So, as I walked through here, it was all blown over. Deer don’t like to go through them because they’re tough to navigate and so you actually have really good red oak and yellow birch. You have that seedling coming up, that really good regeneration.”
He explained that managing the forest is all about weighing pros and cons and doing your best to maintain balance based on the land.
If the Ash basin had felt sacred, “The Cathedral” was transcendent. Sunlight filtered through the vibrant, multi-colored leaves of towering sugar maples and massive basswood trees, casting patterns that seemed like stained glass. Julie remarked on the effect, and it was impossible to disagree.
On the ride back from the last stop of the tour, the oak forest, riding on hay bales in a wagon pulled by an ATV, I remarked that this story could easily fill four pages. That was an understatement. It could probably be forty pages long.
The day was full of curious questions and astounding answers, and I learned far more than I had expected. Not just about forest stewardship, but also about everything we discovered along the trail. I returned home with a few acorns in my pocket and countless stories gathered in just a few hours spent in the beautiful woods with wonderful company.
For more information about the Advocates for the Knife River Watershed, visit akrww.org. To learn more about the Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District and its stewardship programs, go to www.co.lake.mn.us
