Research

Research at the CFC focuses on understanding the complex systems of forest management, ecosystem resilience, and sustainable stewardship and management of forest and natural resource-based systems.

Research, education, and forest management projects at the CFC explore holistic and individual aspects of forest ecosystem communities such as:

M. Schrage FDL Wolf Tracking
  • Silviculture
  • Wildlife populations and habitat
  • Forest genetics
  • Bio-cultural relationship to forests and place
  • Forest ecology, entomology, pathology, and hydrology
  • Ecological community restoration and resilience
  • Invasive species and their impacts on ecosystem processes
  • Forest ecosystem and individual tree productivity
  • Prescribed fire as a land stewardship tool
  • Inter-cultural land stewardship perspectives and partnerships

Researchers working at the Cloquet Forestry Center ask questions about northern forest ecosystems and how we can contribute to their long-term sustainability through a combination of forest management actions and inactions. Every year new projects are initiated and older projects are revisited. Some projects are short-term snapshots while others have been periodically measured since 1912.

Check out our Research Features to learn about some of the currently active research projects at the CFC.

Our Forest Manager and Research Coordinator oversees research implementation across the lands of the UMN Experimental Forests Research Network. Inquiries about past, present, and future research can be directed his way.