UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA DULUTH

Duluth climbing coach sent to prison for child sex abuse material

Tom Olsen — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 18:44:31 GMT

ST. PAUL — A former Duluth climbing instructor has been sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison for possessing child sexual abuse material.

Lucas Matthew Kramer, 45, pleaded guilty to a federal charge in October and was sentenced Wednesday, March 19 by U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud.

Kramer previously served as climbing coordinator for the Recreational Sports Outdoor Program at the University of Minnesota Duluth and as president of the Duluth Climbers Coalition, a nonprofit organization that encourages and organizes various ice, rock and indoor climbing opportunities for all ages.

Court documents indicate two tips were submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) by Kik, an instant messaging app. The first was received in 2022 regarding a profile with the username "northernboy35," and the second came the following year and directed authorities to Kramer's UMD email address.

The Duluth Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Unit executed a search warrant at his Lakeside neighborhood home in December 2023, seizing multiple electronic devices.

A plea agreement stated that approximately 85 files containing NCMEC-identified abuse material were ultimately found on four phones. Videos dated between May 2022 and December 2023 reportedly depicted graphic sexual acts between adults and children as young as toddlers.

It was also discovered that Kramer had used the Telegram messaging app to request nude photos from users who self-identified as being as young as 10, according to the agreement.

Authorities had expressed concern that Kramer's role as a climbing instructor gave him "access to juveniles of all ages," though court filings have not contained any allegations of misconduct toward any youth he coached.

He was first charged in State District Court last May, but that case was dropped in favor of a federal indictment in July.

Defense attorney Christopher Keyser asked the court to depart from guidelines — roughly eight to 10 years — and order Kramer to serve a year of home detention with GPS monitoring and 2,000 hours of community service.

Keyser contended the guideline range “grossly outweighs a just punishment” for a defendant who possessed a relatively small quantity of abuse material and argued Kramer is a rare defendant who doesn’t have a sexual attraction to minors.

“Mr. Kramer possessed child pornography as a ‘commodity’ when interacting with others on social platforms, not to satisfy any sexual desire towards children,” Keyser wrote, citing a psychological evaluation.

The attorney added that his client has sought treatment, maintained significant family and community support and will continue to experience consequences.

“While often unmentioned,” Keyser said, “there is a permanent shame he now carries for the remainder of his life. Mr. Kramer cannot erase this shame, but he can — and has — made strides toward rebuilding faith in himself and earning trust from his supporters.”

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Sing disagreed with the defense’s assessment, requesting a 97-month prison term.

“Kramer’s minimization and rationalization of his behavior is troubling,” Sing told the court. “It does not appear that Kramer has meaningfully grappled with his own offense conduct or correctly calibrated to the harm he caused.”

The prosecutor said Kramer “carefully cultivated his collection,” building connections and distributing some of the material to others, as well as directly engaging in “numerous sexually charged chats with children.”

“To be clear, Kramer abused every child he watched, traded, and contacted,” Sing wrote. “Survivors of child abuse and exploitation report higher rates of PTSD, suicide, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and other disorders. Sadly, these children rarely recover completely from the trauma of sexual abuse.”

Tostrud released Kramer under previously ordered conditions, including home confinement, pending a voluntary surrender date. His sentence also includes five years of supervised release following his prison term, $10,000 in restitution to an identified victim and $7,600 in other fines.

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5-goal period pushes Minnesota Duluth to shutout sweep over Bemidji State

Jared Rubado — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 01:36:43 GMT

BEMIDJI – Goals were at a premium for five periods at the Sanford Center.

Minnesota Duluth scored thrice in those periods against the Bemidji State women’s hockey team. The remaining frame, however, was lopsided.

The sixth-ranked Bulldogs scored five times in the second period in a 6-0 win over the Beavers on Saturday afternoon, completing a shutout sweep on the road.

“The second period got away from us,” BSU head coach Amber Fryklund said. “We had lapses there, and if you give a team like Duluth those opportunities, they’re going to capitalize. Our power play moved the puck around really well and we had some momentum there (in the second period), and I really liked our jump on the penalty kill. But we just had some lapses.”

After an uneventful opening 20 minutes – one that included a successful penalty kill for both BSU and UMD and just seven combined shots on goal – action picked up in the middle frame.

Olivia Wallin found herself on a partial breakaway in the opening minutes of the second period. Eva Filippova made the initial right-to-left save, but the rebound kicked out to Jenna Lawry, who put Minnesota Duluth ahead with the game’s first goal.

Wallin doubled the lead two and a half minutes later. She tipped Hanna Baskin’s shot over Filippova’s head, pinning the Beavers on their heels early in the second period.

From there, the Bulldogs took over.

After UMD killed off a high-pressure Bemidji State power play, Clara Van Wieren made it 3-0 on a rush with Danielle Burgen. Van Weiren’s shot went through a screen and under Filippova’s arm to make it 3-0.

Caitlin Kraemer, who scored the only two goals in Minnesota Duluth’s (17-11-2, 12-10-2 WCHA) 2-0 win the night before, picked up where she left off. She added a breakaway tally late in the second period before Grace Sadura tipped in another to cap a five-goal second period.

“We talked about the way we have to play,” Fryklund said. “We have to go out and finish the game with our habits and details, and make sure you take pride in how you finish the game. It’s making sure we’re working hard. Our team, we don’t give up. You have to try and build some momentum and continue doing the things that you’re doing well. … Going into the third period, it’s about the response we had as a team.”

Kamdyn Davis added a sixth goal in the third period, but Fyrklund left the bench more pleased than she did for the second intermission.

“Our third period was OK,” Fryklund said. “We managed the puck a little better and were able to keep them off the board, aside from the one goal. I’m really proud of their effort and their response in making sure they finished the game the right way.”

After Friday’s loss, Fryklund wanted to see her players funnel more pucks to the net. Bemidji State had nine shots on Friday but entered the third period with 10 on Saturday.

“Duluth is such a good defensive team and makes it really hard to get the net,” Fryklund said. “They had eight blocks again today, and they made it really hard just to get pucks to the net. Obviously, we didn’t score this weekend. In order to win hockey games, you have to score. … A focus for us today was how we could maintain (better) puck possession. We had some good chances, but it’s an area of continued growth for us.”

The Beavers (5-25-1, 3-21-0 WCHA) are on the road next weekend at St. Thomas before returning to the Sanford Center Feb. 21-22 to take on No. 1 Wisconsin.

“We want to build on Friday’s game,” Fryklund said. “We thought we played really well for those 60 minutes and our first period today. … As we reflect on the weekend and the things that didn’t go well today, we’ll revisit that and refocus and be intentional with what we do in practice this week. … It’s a big series for us next weekend, and we’re looking forward to an opportunity to play.”

No. 6 Minnesota Duluth 6, Bemidji State 0

UMD 0 5 1 – 6

BSU 0 0 0 – 0

First period – No scoring.

Second period – UMD GOAL: Lawry (Wallin, Henderson) 1:38; UMD GOAL: Wallin (Baskin, Burgen) 4:05; UMD GOAL: Van Wieren (Burgen, Mobley) 10:27; UMD GOAL: Kraemer (O’Brien) 14:47; UMD GOAL: Sadura (Davis) 18:33.

Third period – UMD GOAL: Davis (Wallin, Van Wieren) 5:28.

Saves – Filippova (BSU) 26; Holm (UMD) 13.

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Minnesota lakes have lost 2 weeks of ice cover in 50 years

Jimmy Lovrien — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 12:00:00 GMT

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. — In his 40 years as a fishing guide, Jeff Sundin of Grand Rapids has seen the lake ice season shorten firsthand.

“Without a doubt, the last several years, the arrival of cold weather in the fall definitely seems later than it used to be,” Sundin said, adding that there are still recent examples of years with good ice coverage.

Data backs that up.

Ice coverage on Minnesota lakes has declined by an average of 10 to 14 days over 50 years, with ice-in dates about nine days later and ice-out dates moving four to five days earlier, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reported in 2021.

The why — climate change — is known. Minnesota winters are warming quickly. Duluth has seen winter temperatures rise 6.4 degrees between 1970 and 2020.

“Overnight minimum temperatures in the winter have gone up. We’ve seen that throughout the state,” said Pete Boulay, a climatologist at the DNR. “And if you don’t have the cold air around, you’re not going to form ice.”

But the effects of shorter lake ice duration? That hasn’t been studied as much.

A research review published last month in the journal Science, co-authored by Ted Ozersky, an associate biology professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth and interim director of the Large Lakes Observatory, seeks to begin filling that knowledge gap.

There’s no one reason for the lack of winter lake research.

Ozersky said researchers may not have ice safety training, and equipment and techniques are often not designed for the cold.

Researchers often spend winters inside teaching, with the fieldwork season beginning in the spring, he said.

“And finally, I think historically, there has been this sort of self-reinforcing cycle of ignorance, where people are not doing winter work,” Ozersky said. “There are not studies about winter and lakes in the literature, so people assume that winter is sort of unimportant and boring, and they don’t do these studies.”

At its most basic, even the date when ice forms on a lake — and stays all winter — is harder to come by than ice-out dates.

Boulay once recorded historic ice-in dates for Minneapolis’ Lake of the Isles from the back of a cupboard in a mansion’s servant’s entrance.

“They’re tearing down the house and they say, ‘Get over here quick and write these down.’ … I should have just taken the cupboard with me,” he said.

Ozersky said the review seeks an audience of not just scientists but also interested members of the public.

“We’re still sort of in early stages of trying to catch up with summer research,” he said. “But we felt that at this point, there is enough to start saying some general things about what loss of winter means for lakes.”

Among the review’s conclusions:

Loss of lake ice will mean fewer winter kills on smaller lakes, meaning fish could establish themselves in once-fishless lakes, disrupting existing communities of invertebrates and amphibians. More open water means more lake-effect snow and rain downwind of larger lakes, such as the Great Lakes. Ice cover increases a lake’s carbon retention and ice-covered lakes stay cooler all year, slowing methane production. Less ice means warmer lakes throughout the year, and warmer water fuels the potential for harmful algae blooms. Ice can protect a shoreline from waves and erosion, and the loss of ice may mean more property damage, turbidity at water treatment intakes and eutrophication — excessive nutrients that can cause fish kills and algae blooms — near the lakeshore.

However, the loss of lake ice and its environmental effects can also have cultural and societal consequences.

Going forward, Ozersky said he expects research into lake ice to include additional social scientists “to try to understand how people are perceiving this and how people are experiencing these changes.”

In the meantime, Sundin said he’ll try to retain memories of robust winters spent ice fishing.

“The best we can do is track and remember the stories to tell our grandkids,” he said.

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Prehistoric Minnesota fish defies aging

John Myers — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 14:00:00 GMT

McGREGOR, Minn. — The last time bigmouth buffalo fish had a really good reproduction survival year in the Rice River near here, the Japanese and the Nazis were winning World War II, Franklin Roosevelt was president and Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” was the new No. 1 song in the U.S.

It was 1942, and many of those bigmouth buffalo that hatched that year are still going strong in the Rice River system in Aitkin County, where they are now 82 years old.

But they are still youngsters compared to other bigmouth buffalo in that system, and in other lakes and rivers across North America, as scientists are finding out more about one of the oldest living non-plant species anywhere on Earth.

“We have found them up to 112 years old in northwestern Minnesota. … There was one in Saskatchewan that was 127 years old … but those are from really small sample sizes, so they may actually get much older,” said Alec Lackmann, an ichthyologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Lackmann was the lead researcher in a new study examining bigmouth buffalo in the Rice River system, where it enters Rice Lake, in the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

From 2021 through 2023 researchers studied 390 fish in the river where they move into the lake to spawn, finding more evidence that the bigmouth buffalo may be the extreme example of “episodic recruitment” among living creatures. They spawn in most years, but they seem only to pull off truly successful reproduction once every half-century or so.

Lackmann was joined in the study by Sam Seybold of the Aitkin County Soil and Water Conservation District and Mark Clark, a UMD biology professor. Their research results were published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports.

Lackmann said that 99.7% of the bigmouth buffalo now swimming in the Rice River system hatched before 1972, and 95.4% before 1960. The youngest fish found, just one of 390 studied, was from 2012.

The research appears to show that more of the native fish are surviving that hatched during high-water events in later spring or summer, such as the one fish found from 2012, the year of a massive midsummer flood.

Going back 80 years, “we don't have good water-level data from that long ago,” Lackmann noted, but weather records show there were some high water years in the early 1940s and 1950s that appear to coincide with the good year classes of bigmouth buffalo.

“Not a typical April high-water event, because that’s too early, before they spawn, but something in late spring and early summer,” he noted.

What Lackmann and others are finding is that bigmouth buffalo don’t just grow old and big — up to 50 pounds and beyond — but that their old age has likely developed over centuries as an adaptation to their seemingly poor ability to successfully reproduce and see young of the year fish survive.

With the lack of little fish making it in any given year, the species would have been wiped out if the adults didn’t live so long if they weren't able to survive across the decades-long gaps in new fish moving up.

“They face a predation gauntlet,’’ Lackmann said, from the time they hatch at the size of a grain of rice to the time they are old enough to fend for themselves. So many different critters eat them that, during the study years, by the time midsummer rolled around, researchers couldn't find a single baby bigmouth buffalo that had survived even a few weeks.

Even more amazing than their ability to outlive humans, and every other creature in our region, is that they appear to show no real signs of aging, or senescence, even at 100.

“They are still getting better, stronger, at age 100,’’ Lackmann said. “They don't show any signs of aging... For all we know, an 80-year-old bigmouth buffalo could be a young one.”

For comparison, an old walleye or bass might be 10 or 12 years old, and the record old ones are in their 20s.

Lackmann said scientists studying the human aging process are starting to pay attention to bigmouth buffalo research to see what gives the fish its ability to keep going strong even after a century.

“These fish are absolutely amazing. There’s nothing else out there like this we know of,’’ Lackmann added.

Lackmann and others have been supporting stronger protections on bigmouth buffalo in Minnesota, noting they are now considered simply rough fish, with no limits on how many can be taken and removed from any lake or river. They are occasionally caught on hook and line, and some are speared, while bowfishing using archery gear is gaining in popularity.

Minnesota lawmakers in 2024 created a new legal category of fish, native rough fish, that offers the Department of Natural Resources the opportunity to develop limits and regulations for bigmouth buffalo and other native fish once considered "trash," but those regulations are still being developed.

“These fish are similar to sturgeon and paddlefish, even longer lived and even more episodic in their (reproduction.) So we think they need to be given some sort of conservation protection," Lackmann said.

Other problems bigmouth buffalo face are human-made barriers such as dams and spillways which may prevent them from spawning at all in some low-water conditions.

Lackmann said it’s best if Minnesota protects this unusual fish that may play a critical role in the ecosystems of the state’s lakes and rivers and may even provide secrets on how humans might age better.

“There is a 50-year recruitment failure for bigmouth buffalo in this (Rice River) system, even though we know that they're migrating and spawning annually. This is something that's completely unparalleled in the animal kingdom, as far as we know, for a species to be going so long without successfully having another generation,” said Lackmann. “When you couple that with the current, unlimited and unregulated nature of their exploitation that's been increasing, especially in the past 10 years with the rise of bowfishing, there is extreme concern for the long-term sustainability of this species.”

About the bigmouth buffalo

The bigmouth buffalo, the largest member of the sucker family, lives in lakes and rivers in most of Minnesota except for the Lake Superior watershed. It is native to Minnesota, and unlike many fish, it can survive in cloudy, warm water as well as pristine lakes and rivers. Unlike other members of the sucker family, the bigmouth buffalo has a mouth at the front of its face. They eat phytoplankton and zooplankton but not other fish. They look like carp without barbels. They can live for more than 100 years, grow 3 feet long or longer and weigh more than 50 pounds. Bigmouth buffalo range in color from green to gold to almost black and can have a coppery sheen.

Source: Minnesota DNR

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UMD researchers tackle how to remove invasive species inside boats

John Myers — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:00:00 GMT

DULUTH — Anglers and other boaters can use their Shop-Vac, garden hose, an air compressor — and a few minutes of elbow grease — to better clean the nooks and crannies inside their fishing boats to slow the spread of aquatic invasive species.

That’s the finding of a two-year research project by scientists at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute.

What researchers found, after exhaustive field tests on a fishing boat and then extensive laboratory analysis of the results, was that the vacuum cleaner in your garage, along with your garden hose and the high-pressure air from a compressor, can all be used, along with simply using your hands to pick up big pieces of vegetation, to get aquatic invaders out of your boat so you aren’t spreading them to new lakes.

“Some basic tools and a little effort got pretty good results,” said Valerie Brady, NRRI researcher who led the project. “The vacuum was really successful. Vacuum up everything you can see — water, dirt, vegetation — and you likely will vacuum up the things you can't see.”

The research showed that just a few minutes of effort — up to seven minutes was the most time researchers spent on a cleaning — helped remove any water and weeds from inside the boat, NRRI researcher Holly Welland Kelly said. Even tiny amounts of water can carry zebra mussel babies, called veligers, and tiny spiny water fleas.

Researchers planted dead spiny water fleas in the boat along with noninvasive native plants and bits of ribbon to simulate invasive plants. Then they conducted tests using each cleaning method and then, after each test, rinsed the interior of a 16-foot Lund Alaskan boat and captured anything remaining to analyze what the cleaning effort missed.

They did this 10 times for each cleaning tool method, decontaminating the boat after each round, then replanting more invasives and their surrogates, Welland Kelly said.

They found a combination of garden hose washing, a vacuum cleaner and handpicking removed nearly 80% of potential invasive spiny water fleas from inside the boat. Even the order of what tool was used mattered, with vacuuming before rinsing working best. The cleaning could take place before leaving the boat landing, if the right tools are available, but can also easily be accomplished back home in the yard.

“The point is, it doesn't have to be perfect. You don’t have to get every spiny water flea out of the boat. … But if you reduce the total for any potential future spread, you reduce the odds that species will actually take hold in a new lake,” Brady said.

Using just a garden hose to clean out the entire boat was more than 70% effective in removing spiny water fleas, while a vacuum alone was about 65% effective at removing the invaders.

Just using your hands didn’t work well for getting rid of spiny water fleas, but it did pretty well removing simulated vegetation, nearly 90%, that was visible to the naked eye.

Using all cleaning methods combined removed nearly 95% of invasive plant surrogates.

The study found boaters should:

Use a compressed air tool to blow out the drain line of the live well, often corrugated plastic that can hide water and critters. Use towels or wipes to dry inside the live well and similar spaces. Use a vacuum before other tools to clean a boat. A garden hose rinse can remove missed invasive species after using other tools, but you still need to get any water out afterward, so vacuum, drain and then dry.

“What works well to clean the outside of your boat was pretty well established,” Brady said. "You pull the drain plug; you clean off your trailer. There are a lot of cleaning stations available (at boat landings) out there that can help you with those, pretty quick and easy. What we didn’t know until now was what worked to clean out the inside of your boat, where a lot of water can be hiding, and a lot of things in that water, in live wells, under the floor.”

It’s also already been established what the best options are for removing invaders from fishing gear like anchor ropes, downrigger cables and fishing line: wiping them off after each use.

The tests for the inside boat project were conducted in the fall over the last two seasons in a controlled area at the NRRI building near Duluth International Airport. Scientists then analyzed more than 700 samples over the winter to see which methods were most effective.

There are a few main points researchers want anglers and other boaters to take home from the results:

It’s not that hard. A few minutes of effort inside your boat, like you would clean out the inside of your truck when you wash the outside, makes a big difference. It works. Combining several cleaning methods can remove more than 90% of invasive vegetation and nearly 80% of spiny water fleas. It’s not a lost cause. There are invasive species confirmed in about 1,350, or 12%, of Minnesota’s 11,842 lakes, including about 610 lakes with zebra mussels or suspected of having zebra mussels. That means more than 10,000 of the state's lakes, 88%, are not infested yet.

The $110,000 boat-cleaning project was funded by Minnesota's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, which gets funding from the state’s lottery profits.

Preventing or at least slowing the spread of invasives is far more effective, and more cost-effective, than trying to remove them once they are established.

“We’ve dramatically slowed the spread of aquatic invasive species in Minnesota because of the actions people are taking and because we are paying attention,” Brady said. “If you look at states like Michigan, zebra mussels were essentially everywhere before they knew what was happening. Now, they have pretty much given up. Minnesota doesn't have to give up.”

How invasive species spread

It’s not birds that spread the most invasive species. It’s people, usually in and on boats, canoes, kayaks, boat trailers, mobile docks, fishing and diving gear and waterfowl hunting boats and gear.

The sheer number of potential vectors, or means of spreading, is high in Minnesota, where there were 822,450 watercraft of all kinds registered as of last year, the most of any state except Florida, which has just over 1 million boats. About 1 of every 6 Minnesotans owns a boat of some type.

Aquatic invasive species in Minnesota waters

Critters: zebra mussel, quagga mussel, common European carp, grass carp, silver carp, bighead carp, faucet snail, New Zealand mud snail, spiny waterflea, eastern mosquitofish, golden clam, Asian jumping worm, round goby, Eurasian ruffe, signal crayfish, rusty crayfish.

Plants: Eurasian water milfoil, flowering rush, starry stonewort, Brazilian waterweed, European common reed, waterthymes, purple loosestrife, water hyacinth, Carolina fanwort.

Recommendations from NRRI study Agencies such as the DNR, lake associations and counties should provide cleaning tools, especially vacuums, at more boat launches. Maintain vacuums at boat cleaning stations to ensure maximum sucking power. Boaters should use as many tools as possible because they are more effective together. Agencies should place targeted signage at boat launches to explain how and when to use tools. Is your favorite lake or river infested with invasives?

You can find out using this interactive map from the Minnesota DNR: eddmaps.org/project/midwest/tools/infestedwaters/?page=map.

Decontaminate between lakes

Find free boat decontamination stations at mndnr.gov/decon.

It’s the law

In Minnesota, you may not:

Transport watercraft without removing the drain plug. Arrive at lake access with drain plug in place. Transport aquatic plants, zebra mussels or other prohibited species on any roadway. Launch a watercraft with prohibited species attached. Transport water away from Minnesota lakes or rivers. Release bait into the water. Starry stonewort found in Pokegama Lake

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources this week confirmed the invasive algae starry stonewort in Pokegama Lake, near Grand Rapids in Itasca County.

Specialists from Itasca County and the DNR found starry stonewort interspersed with native plants on and around a boat ramp on the southwest end of the lake. The DNR has updated signs at public accesses and is working with Itasca County to provide decontamination and expanded watercraft inspections. Follow-up surveys are being conducted to determine starry stonewort distribution in the lake.

Starry stonewort can form dense mats, which can interfere with recreational uses of a lake and compete with native plants. It is most likely spread when fragments have not been properly cleaned from trailered boats, personal watercraft, docks, boat lifts, anchors or other water-related equipment.

Starry stonewort is usually identified by the star-shaped white bulbils for which it is named. These bulbils typically don’t become visible until late summer but were observed on the starry stonewort in Pokegama Lake and in other locations this spring. The early visibility of bulbils might be due to unusually warm winter temperatures and below-average snowfall this past winter.

Starry stonewort has now been confirmed in 30 water bodies in Minnesota. It was first confirmed in Minnesota in 2015.

If you find starry stonewort or any other invasive species new to a lake or river, report it to the Minnesota DNR by contacting the closest area invasive species specialist at mndnr.gov/invasives/ais/contacts.html.

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Winter Boreal Stargazing Week starts Saturday

John Myers — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 13:46:55 GMT

DULUTH — After the growing success of their annual summertime night sky series now spreading across Minnesota, night sky enthusiasts are broadening their winter Boreal Stargazing Week to multiple locations Feb. 10-18.

Boreal Stargazing events are free and feature captivating night sky tours, Nordic ski stargazing, snowshoe hikes and live conversations with astronomers.

Attendees will enjoy a rare opportunity to explore our inspiring universe alongside dark sky experts and experience the magic of Minnesota’s night skies.

Boreal Stargazing events are sponsored by Voyageurs Conservancy, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, Starry Skies North, Voyageurs National Park, Superior National Forest, Expeditions in Education, The Bell Museum, Wood Lake Nature Center and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Boreal Stargazing Week events Voyageurs National Park: Nighttime Snowshoe Hike, Feb.10, 6 to 7:30 p.m., Black Bay Beaver Pond near the Rainy Lake Visitor Center. Join a park ranger and Voyageurs Conservancy for a guided snowshoe hike and telescope observation session at Black Bay Beaver Pond (to access the Black Bay Beaver Pond, drive a quarter-mile on the ice road from Rainy Lake Visitor Center). Snowshoe rentals are free and available upon arrival at Black Bay Beaver Pond trailhead. Bring warm layers and a headlamp. No reservation necessary. BWCAW: Snowshoe to the Hegman Lake Petroglyphs, Feb. 12 and 16, 5 p.m., Hegman Lake, BWCAW Entry Point 77, north of Ely. Join an evening snowshoe into the world’s largest Dark Sky Sanctuary, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Enjoy a roughly 5-mile snowshoe to visit the Hegman Lake pictographs while experiencing the grandeur of the universe. Hosted by the Superior National Forest and the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. Some snowshoes are available for free. Registration required at friends-bwca.org/event/bwca-hegman-snowshoe-feb-2024. Exploring Dark Skies at the Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium, Feb. 16, 7 to 9 p.m., Alworth Planetarium, University of Minnesota Duluth. Learn about the adverse effects of light pollution and what you can do to be a steward of the night sky. From 7 to 9 p.m., join “Astro” Bob King, the Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium staff and the Arrowhead Astronomical Society to explore the wonders of the night sky outside. See Jupiter and the moon up close. No reservation necessary. Twin Cities: Night Sky Watching Party, Feb. 16, 6 to 8 p.m., Wood Lake Nature Center, 6710 Lake Shore Drive, Richfield. Registration required at bit.ly/4btuH9V. Voyageurs National Park: Ski Event and Telescope Program, Feb. 17, 6 to 7:30 p.m., Tilson Bay Bogwalk near International Falls. Join the Polar Polers, Voyageurs National Park and Voyageurs Conservancy for cross-country skiing and a telescope observation session at Tilson Bay. Meet at the Tilson Bay Bogwalk parking lot. Bring warm layers, a headlamp and skis. Limited rental skis are available for free at the Rainy Lake Visitor Center if picked up before 4 p.m. and then brought to the ski event just a short drive away. No registration required.]]>

Scientists identify, count tiny plastic particles in Lake Superior

John Myers — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 13:00:00 GMT

DULUTH — It’s been known for years now that Lake Superior and many other waterways are loaded with plastic. It’s washing up on shore. It’s in the fish. It’s even been documented in tap water and in beer brewed around the region.

Some of that plastic started small, like the tiny beads in facial scrubs and other personal care products that washed down the drains and didn't get filtered out in treatment plants.

Other plastic starts bigger — pop bottles, plastic bags, poly-fleece clothing and more — and wears down, breaking up and disintegrating until the particles or fibers are smaller than a grain of rice, many pieces just a fraction of the diameter of a human hair.

The tiniest of microplastic particles are the ones some scientists worry are being consumed by small living organisms like zooplankton, and which may be working their way up the food chain to fish and maybe even people.

The plastic pieces are so small, scientists note, that they could pass from the stomachs into the bloodstreams of living creatures and maybe even into their brains — everything from tiny organisms on up.

“If I chew off a piece of plastic straw and eat it, it's probably going to pass through my system and get pooped out because it’s pretty big. … But if the piece of plastic is so tiny that it can pass through the gut barrier and into our bloodstream, that’s what worries me,” said Elizabeth Minor, professor in the Swenson College of Science and Engineering and Large Lakes Observatory at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Until recently, scientists had no good way to identify or count those tiniest of plastic pieces, no good way to distinguish them from bits of organic matter, confounding efforts to see what they were made of, what their origins were and what damage they may be doing.

The good news is that researchers at UMD, led by Minor, and others at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, have developed a new approach to identify those tiny plastic bits — combining different specialized techniques — to classify and count plastic bits as small as 5 microns. (For comparison, a human hair is about 70 microns in diameter.)

The bad news is that, when they tested dozens of samples of Lake Superior water for the study, they found tiny plastic pieces in every single one — hundreds of tiny pieces in each liter of water taken from a half-dozen locations on the lake and in the St. Louis River Estuary.

From each sample of Lake Superior water, researchers found between one and three large pieces of plastic per liter, the kind we already knew was there. But when they started counting the tiniest particles with their new system, they found 600-1,500 pieces in each liter of Lake Superior water taken from all the sites.

That means that, while most pieces are tiny, there are far more pieces of plastic floating around than previously known.

“The order of magnitude of how many more of the small pieces there were was surprising. Nobody knew if you couldn’t see them to count,” Minor said.

It’s not just the plastic bits themselves that are a problem. These small particles are often mixed with harmful chemicals and can even transport disease pathogens and pollutants.

“No one really knows the risk that these microplastics pose to fish or even people because we haven’t had any reliable way to count them or determine what they are made of,” Minor said. “Now, we might be able to push that risk assessment research farther along. … Finding out what dose level causes a health response.”

The study was published in a recent edition of the journal Limnology and Oceanography Methods.

"With this method, we're not just counting particles blindly or relying on mathematical models," said Nicole Poulton, Bigelow Laboratory senior research scientist and one of the study's co-authors, in a statement. "We're actually able to determine how much plastic is present and what those plastics are."

The science stuff

In their new approach to identifying tiny microplastics, the researchers first processed the water samples to remove organic matter that could be confused for microplastic and infused the samples with a dye called Nile red that stains plastic.

They then use a flow cytometer to line up the microscopic particles and hit each with a laser — at a rate of 100s of particles per second — that causes the stained microplastics to light up, allowing the researchers to separate them out from the rest of the sample.

Flow cytometry is commonly used in the biomedical field, but Bigelow Laboratory's Center for Aquatic Cytometry, of which Poulton is the director, has played a critical role in expanding its use in environmental research.

For this study, the Bigelow researchers used the flow cytometer to isolate and measure individual microplastic particles and then sent them to UMD to be further analyzed. Minor's lab used pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry, or pyGCMS, a popular tool for determining the chemical composition and total weight of plastic samples.

After refining the method in the lab, the researchers tested it with natural samples of surface water from Lake Superior. They found that tiny particles — those in the 5- to 45-micrometer size range — were more abundant by several orders of magnitude than larger particles that could be easily measured with traditional methods. They also found both polyethylene and polypropylene, plastics that make up countless products from single-use plastic bags to textiles, an important first step for identifying sources of plastic pollution.

Plastics in bottled water

Researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities recently used dual lasers and similar technology to find microplastics down to just 1 micron in size, and they discovered 110,000-400,000 bits of plastic per liter of bottled water they tested — several brands that had been purchased from Walmart — according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It’s believed most of the plastic particles came from the bottle itself and the filtering system used during the bottling process.

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Northland researchers look to biochar as possible climate solution

Jimmy Lovrien — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 12:00:00 GMT

DULUTH — To keep global temperatures from increasing more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above pre-industrial levels, the goal laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement, emitters must cut carbon dioxide emissions.

But some of the greenhouse gas already in the atmosphere will need to be removed and stored, too, according to the most recent report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Durably stored” carbon is “a requirement to stabilise CO2-induced global surface temperature increase,” the panel's report said.

Enter biochar, a charcoal created when organic waste or biomass is heated in a low-oxygen environment, a process called pyrolysis.

Trees store carbon but letting them decompose naturally or burn releases that carbon back into the atmosphere. And under some conditions, a decomposing tree can also release methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas.

But transform the wood with pyrolysis and add it to soil, mix it in with concrete or filter stormwater with it, and that carbon stays in the biochar.

“It’s transforming the form of carbon into a recalcitrant form of carbon material that lasts a much longer time, whether you put in the soil or you put into a material,” said Eric Singsaas, materials and bioeconomy research group leader at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute. “Either way, it’s going to prevent it from turning back into carbon dioxide and going back into the atmosphere.”

A 2021 meta-analysis of 20 years of research affirmed “biochar carbon persists in soil for hundreds to thousands of years” and can help create favorable conditions for root development by boosting the soil’s water availability and porosity and lowering its acidity.

It can be used in other ways, too.

In a ground-floor lab at NRRI’s Hermantown facility, postdoctoral associate Tadele Haile and chemistry graduate student Johanna Jernberg monitored contaminated water dripping into a series of PVC pipes filled with biochars, each made of different materials, prepared in different ways or mixed with different ratios of sand. Preliminary findings show one of the forms of biochar removed 70%-80% of E. coli in the water, compared to about 30% removal in the column of sand, the experiment’s control.

The NRRI has a pilot project using biochar to catch runoff from a parking lot in the Twin Cities before it reaches the Mississippi River, and Singsaas said biochar could be placed alongside roads to filter oil, metals and other contaminants as they wash off the roads.

“Not only is it doing that environmental job of keeping our lakes and streams clean, but at the same time, you’re sequestering carbon, atmospheric carbon, and you’re giving it a job,” Singsaas said.

Through a Department of Energy grant, the NRRI is scaling a process to replace the use of coal in the steelmaking process with a mixture of biochar and steel waste. Similarly, NRRI has partnered with Eagan, Minnesota-based lead recycler Gopher Resources, which has a Department of Defense grant, to replace coal with biochar to convert lead oxide back to lead when recycling car batteries.

Though that biochar wouldn’t sequester carbon for thousands of years like biochar in the ground, it would displace the use of fossil carbon like coal, Singsaas noted.

Biochar can be made from different materials, prepared at different temperatures and processed into different shapes, and researchers are still figuring out what combinations work for different applications.

Biosolids from a wastewater treatment facility can be turned to biochar, but that waste can be high in heavy metals and PFAS.

The source of the biochar must also be sustainable. Forests, which already store carbon, should not be clear-cut to make biochar, the UN warned in its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.

“However, afforestation or production of biomass crops for bioenergy with carbon dioxide capture and storage or biochar can have adverse socio-economic and environmental impacts, including on biodiversity, food and water security, local livelihoods and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, especially if implemented at large scales and where land tenure is insecure,” the report said.

But if a biochar industry emerged in the Northland, it could source its material locally, from waste materials that would otherwise burn.

Patrick Johnson, forest fire management officer for the Superior and Chippewa national forests, said Forest Service crews remove about 500 acres of forest underbrush to reduce fire fuels while letting the surrounding larger, mature trees continue to grow.

Balsam fir, which burns easily and doesn’t have a market, makes up much of what’s removed.

After it’s removed, it’s piled on-site and left to dry for a year or so. Then it’s burned.

“There’s nothing we can really do with it. It’s not strong enough timber to turn into any sort of dimensional lumber, a lot of it is dying so it isn’t very good for turning into pulp paper and stuff either,” Johnson said. “And there’s just a limited market for our balsam fir, the small diameter aspen, spruce that isn’t big enough for sawn timber.”

Now, the thinning of fuels is limited to areas that pose a risk to property. But if there’s a biochar market, and more money to pay for that removal, it might allow the Forest Service to double their fuel removal efforts, Johnson said.

“If there’s a biochar option, we would be able to — instead of just stacking it and burning it on-site — we’d be able to turn it into some sort of useful product,” Johnson said.

But for the biochar market to take off, it needs the right incentives.

“(Biochar is) pretty well understood in the scientific community to be a functional solution that’s ready to go,” said Carrie Masiello, professor of earth, environment and planetary science at Rice University in Houston. “The trick is finding the right reward structure to make sure that people who use it get lots of benefits, both in terms of crop yielded or whatever environmental benefit they’re hoping for, or if they participate in a carbon market, that their work is recognized appropriately.”

One way of incentivizing more biochar is through carbon offsets, something an individual or company can purchase that would then fund a project to store carbon. However, the industry has largely overstated the amount of carbon it can save in forests and harvested wood products, according to a review of nearly 300 projects published in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change in March.

The practice is also routinely is criticized for allowing companies to justify the continued emission of greenhouse gases while branding themselves as environmentally friendly, a practice called “greenwashing.”

Masiello, who has authored several dozen articles on biochar, is now focused on policy solutions.

“I think it’s widely understood that we absolutely need to give people an economic incentive for doing the right thing. We can not hang our climate success on people voluntarily spending their own money and finding the right economic construction for our county, the United States, for different types of counties, that’s going to take some thought and some work.” Masiello said.

Right now, the carbon market incentivizes doing something that wouldn’t otherwise happen, called additionality.

For example, some offsets go toward preserving forests that aren’t threatened and would remain there anyway — carbon offset or not.

Masiello gave the example of a wind farm built someplace where wind is already cheaper than coal. “That’s not additional,” Masiello said.

But apply that to a farmer who could add biochar to their soil to increase their crop yield. Suppose it allows them to turn a small profit. In that case, a carbon market might judge that as not additional as the landowner would have the economic incentive to do that anyway, Masiello said.

“And so what you can end up with is a bunch of landowners, a bunch of farmers, who just throw their hands up in the air and they're like, ‘What do you want us to do? Do you want us to be part of this? Or do you not want us to be a part of this?’”

Rewarding carbon storage must be in concert with emission reductions, Masiello said.

“We have to turn off the tap. We have to stop emitting CO2,” Masiello said. “But we’re far enough along here that not only do we have to stop emitting it, we probably — we definitely — need to be pulling some out of the atmosphere too. And so that’s what biochar can do for us.”

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UMD grad kayaks solo around Lake Superior in 63 days

John Myers — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 13:00:00 GMT

DULUTH — Zane Brosowske says he spent a lot of time alone during the early pandemic, that he often went days in his dorm room without seeing another living person while attending University of Minnesota Duluth classes online.

“I was an only child. I lived alone in the dorms at UMD. … I am good at entertaining myself,” he said with a little laugh.

He now thinks that experience may have helped him on his summer vacation this year, a 63-day circumnavigation of Lake Superior — more than 1,200 miles, alone, in a sea kayak.

Brosowske, who graduated from UMD in May with degrees in environmental and outdoor education and communication, left Duluth on June 3 and kayaked clockwise around the world’s largest lake. He returned to Duluth on Aug. 4.

“A lot of people, when they heard I was doing this solo, said, ‘You are going to go into some really dark places being alone so much,’” Brosowske noted. “But that didn't happen. … I remember one day, I was soaking wet, shivering from the cold, trying to get my wet gear set up, and thinking how miserable I’d look to someone who walked up to me. There was no one around, but I just burst out laughing because I was having so much fun. … I'm able to decide to be positive, and I kept that positive attitude for the whole trip.”

The trip was hard, strenuous at times, monotonous at times. But Brosowske remained philosophical. He classifies events in life three ways:

Things that are fun when you do them and fun when you look back. Things that are fun when you look back but not so much while you are doing them. Things that are just not fun at all.

“This was a combination of the first two,” he said.

At times, Brosowske said he became addicted to his solitude and the routine of paddling as much as he could each day to complete his goal of finishing the circle.

“I think this trip helped me dust off the corners of my brain a little bit to help me get ready for the next things in my life,” he said.

Grew up outdoors, plans to stay there

Brosowske, 22, grew up in Pelican Rapids in western Minnesota’s Otter Tail County. He spent a lot of time with his grandparents, including at one of their cabins in the woods, his favorite place to visit and explore.

“I loved the trees and being alone in the woods and being outdoors. … I think that's what set me on this path,” he said. “I was a Boy Scout, too, and that influenced how I look at things.”

Brosowske initially decided on UMD to study environmental science. But he quickly learned that major was too much science for him and not enough environment. So he morphed into UMD’s outdoor and environmental education program.

“I knew that’s what I wanted. I’m always outdoors, snowboarding, (Nordic) skiing, mountain biking. … I was on the UMD mountain bike team. ... I skied the Birkie this year. … I’m the guy on campus who rode a unicycle everywhere. … Everybody knew me as the unicycle guy,” he said.

Brosowske worked as an intern and also volunteered at the Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center just outside Duluth, a place where UMD students can learn about, and then instruct others about, sustainable natural resource management along with a big dollop of outdoor recreation. He’s got another part-time gig at the center starting next month and is looking for more work, maybe retail, that centers around outdoor recreation.

“I had him as a student and then saw what he was capable of out here at Boulder Lake. I had no doubts that he was going to make this trip just fine,” said Ryan Hueffmeier, a UMD professor and director of the Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center. “He’s just one of those kids who can make a plan and do whatever he sets his mind to. Plus he’s a nice guy.”

Hueffmeier said he watched as Brosowske put in 10- and 15-mile days kayaking around Boulder Lake last spring before his Lake Superior trip, getting in paddling shape and perfecting his techniques.

“He’s very committed to whatever he’s doing,” Hueffmeier said.

Brosowske’s goal is to build a career around having fun outside. That could be as a recreation guide, doing naturalist work, going on expeditions or writing about the environment and outdoors.

“I’m getting really interested in exploring environmental communications. I can see myself going in that direction,” he said, adding that he plans to write about his kayak expedition at some point soon.

“I don’t know for sure what I want to do,” he said. “I’m trying to keep my options wide open. But I know it will involve being outdoors and having fun outside.”

Between college and career

Brosowske knew this would be the summer to try a big trip, a big adventure, with no formal job lined up yet and his undergraduate degree behind him. He initially had a friend set to join him on the expedition, but that friend backed out at the last minute, just as Brosowske was buying his kayak.

“I had put so much time and effort and planning into it that it was an easy decision to go ahead with the trip,” he said. “You can only plan and prepare so much and then you just say it’s time to go.”

Brosowske said he never felt threatened by the weather or the lake itself. He never overturned, never got swamped, and didn’t even have any close calls.

“You plan for the worst and hope for the best and it really wasn’t bad at all,” he said.

He camped by himself near the shoreline on most nights but spent nine of the 62 nights in hotels, usually when he knew a storm or big headwind was coming. He averaged 15-30 miles per day.

“I allowed for 70-80 days when I started because I didn’t know what pace I could keep up. But it went much better than I expected,” he added.

His longest stretch of open water was 7 miles to cross the mouth of Thunder Bay, when he was more than 3 miles from the nearest shore. Most of the time he paddled close to shore. “I’d cut across the bays and the inlets but I was never too far out,” Brosowske said.

He was able to make some progress on most days, but was windbound at an abandoned Canadian lighthouse from days 12 to 15. “The door was unlocked so I spent a couple nights in there,” he said.

He was surprised by how much food he could store in the kayak. “I didn’t need nearly as much resupply as I thought I would. ... Plus it was good to get out and walk into some of the towns and find some good snacks,” Brosowsake said.

He did meet up with his grandmother on day 7 in Grand Portage, before crossing into Canada, but ended up giving her as much extra stuff he didn’t need as she gave him. She did bring him one very important item: a new spork. “I lost my spork right away and spent like three days eating my food with a tent stake … so I know now to always have two sporks after that,” Brosowske said.

He often simply dipped a cup in Lake Superior and drank, after consulting with other people who had kayaked the lake, but also used a water filter if he was near shore or the water looked at all suspicous.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires covered the lake for several days, he said, but was never bad enough at water-level to impact his paddling. “Despite making a sunny day feel like a severe foggy one, it didn't affect my breathing or anything,” Brosowske said.

No kayak experience

Brosowske had spent much of his lifetime outdoors but had little or no serious paddling experience. So he studied up on it, watched YouTube videos and attended symposiums and seminars. He also spent much of the winter in the pool at UMD where a whitewater kayak simulator allowed him to develop his paddling techniques, boat handling and learn how to roll — the technique of getting flipped over and righting yourself and the kayak without getting out.

“It’s not the same as a sea kayak, but it really allowed me to get confident in my paddling techniques,” he said.

He also spent countless hours paddling near Duluth this spring and picked the brains of kayakers who had already made the Lake Superior circle trip, including some instructors at UMD.

A huge following on Facebook

Brosowske has no personal social media presence. He says he saw his friends diving into their phones on Instagram and TikTok in high school and decided that wasn’t for him. But he agreed to let the Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center post his trip updates on the center’s Facebook page. Brosowske’s updates turned out to be a huge draw. Hueffmeier said. In the two months before the trip posts began the Boulder Lake page drew 7,000 visits. In the two months during this trip it hit 195,000 visits.

“A lot of people who might never be able to make a trip like this really became interested in following along, so I think it was another way for Zane to make something good out of the trip,” Heuffmeier said. The notoriety has taken a mostly humble Brosowske a bit by surprise.

“It’s difficult for me because I’m proud of what I've accomplished but I also know that pride begets arrogance,” Brosowske said. “I'm happy with what I did, and satisfied with what I’ve achieved, but I don’t want to dwell on this trip. … So now, what’s next?”

Sustainable natural resources

Brosowske has become immersed in the idea of sustainable natural resource management after his time at Boulder Lake. He interviewed people tied to natural resources around the lake both before he left on the trip and along the way, including several Canadians and folks he may have otherwise never met.

“I fell in love with Boulder Lake (Environmental Learning Center) because of the story they tell, how they educate, not advocate, about sustainable natural resources there,” Brosowske said. “What I wanted to do on this trip was see how you could ask those questions, and find out people’s opinions on what is sustainable for the entire lake’s watershed.”

Brosowske plans to compile his interviews and write stories about his findings as he winds down from the trip itself.

“Sustainability around the lake involves things like logging and land use and water levels and agriculture and shipping," he said, reaffirming that what happens on the land is always connected to what happens in the water, and to the people nearby.

Crossing the border

Brosowkse paddled in and walked up to the Canadian customs at Pigeon River as he entered Canada, without any issues. In Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, he was able to submit his passport through an app on his phone. (He could have applied for a Remote Area Border Crossing Permit to enter Canada, but forgot to apply soon enough for the trip.)

The worst part?

“Definitely the bugs. The mosquitoes in June and the black flies in July,” Brosowske said, echoing a common theme across the Northland this summer. “It was worse than anything I had ever experienced.”

Brosowske said swarms of bugs would harass him at all hours on shore and then follow him out on the lake in the morning, often getting under the spray skirt, which keeps water out of the kayak cockpit, where he couldn't even swat them as they munched on his legs.

“I had to make a mental checklist and have a plan ready so when I left the tent in the morning I could get packed up and going as fast as possible,” said Brosowske, who didn’t bring bug spray because he said he had never found one that worked well. “Sometimes I’d have to paddle for two hours to escape the bugs in the morning. They just kept swarming me even out on the lake.”

The best part?

Brosowske said he loved hearing the stories of the people he met in small communities along the lake. And he especially liked sampling the smoked fish.

“All the fish was good, but each one in each town was a little different. Usually it was whitefish,” he said.

“All of the little towns along the shore had something unique about them. But it was interesting how they were all tied to Lake Superior,” he said. “I realized that we all have much more in common than we think.”

The most beautiful scenery?

Pukaskwa National Park on the far North Shore in Ontario, with very few people, no development and rugged, pristine woods and shoreline.

The most beautiful shoreline?

Pictured Rocks National Park in Michigan.

The most fun segment?

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin, with a lot going on, plenty of interesting shoreline caves, beaches and lighthouses, people to see — and it’s on the home stretch.

Type of kayak?

Wilderness Systems Tempest 170. It’s a 17-foot plastic boat known for its stability and rugged hull.

“It was perfect for me because, not only is it one of the less expensive models but, because it’s plastic and not fiberglass, it’s also one of the most durable,” Brosowske said. “Usually in sea kayaking you have two people to carry it (the kayak) so you don’t bang it up. But I had to drag mine across a lot of rock by myself and I’m really impressed with how it held up.”

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University of Minnesota trademarks fastest-growing poplar tree

John Myers — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 16:00:00 GMT

DULUTH — It’s been said that the true meaning of life is planting a tree "under whose shade you do not expect to sit," a hint, of course, that you’ll likely be dead before the tree gets that tall.

But researchers at the University of Minnesota now say you don’t have to wait that long after all.

The university has trademarked a new, rapid-growth tree that not only will shade your lawn and put up a natural fence between you and your neighbor faster than ever before, but a tree that could be a key to cleaning up polluted hot spots, reducing climate change and developing plastics and biofuels from crops other than corn and soybeans.

It’s called InnovaTree and it was unveiled Friday at Hauser’s Superior View Farm just outside Bayfield, the first place the tree is available for the public to buy.

University officials are hoping InnovaTree will become the Honeycrisp of shade trees. Much as university horticulture experts have developed some of the nation’s most successful apple varieties over the last century, researchers at the Natural Resources Research Institute arm of the University of Minnesota Duluth has spent nearly 30 years perfecting the fastest-growing, most disease-resistant poplar in the world.

How fast? Up to 8 feet in a single Northland growing season, some 64% faster than other hybrid poplars and four times faster than many common landscaping trees. That’s taller than a two-story house in just a few years. It will grow to more than 70 feet tall as a mature tree that can live for an estimated 75 years or more.

“The oldest InnovaTrees now are just 14 years. But its mother is a Minnesota native cottonwood, and those can easily grow for more than 100 years, so we’re expecting a really long-lived tree,” said Jeff Jackson, University of Minnesota Extension outreach educator.

Many uses

Need some quick shade to cool down an urban hot spot amid record-setting heat waves? Rapid-relief erosion control for farm shelter-belts and along streams? Check and check. InnovaTree also is being tested by U.S Forest Service and NRRI scientists for its ability to soak up toxins from polluted hot spots, called phytoremediation, including its ability to absorb sulfate, a byproduct of some mining operations.

Because InnovaTree grows so fast, research shows it can pull toxins out of the ground at a rapid rate. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds and even PCBs and heavy metals can be absorbed and either stored or broken down by the tree’s photosynthesis. And because it absorbs so much water as it grows, InnovaTree is being touted for urban rain gardens where it could slow runoff and help reduce flooding caused by increasing rainstorms.

InnovaTree could even be refined into bioethanol and bio-plastics to replace carbon-spewing fossil fuels. And it could be planted on marginal farmland across the globe to help ease global climate change, absorbing carbon four times faster than a red pine and earning carbon credits for the landowners.

“There’s really nothing else like it anywhere else. Of all the trees they (NRRI staff) worked on over nearly 30 years, this one came out on top,” Jackson said.

InnovaTree is sterile, like a mule, and its seed won’t sprout, so Hauser’s nursery received 25 10-inch cuttings of InnovaTree in 2021 and planted them, with more cuttings from those first trees planted in 2022. This April, Dane Hauser, the fifth-generation owner of the nursery, planted dozens of four-inch InnovaTree cuttings into pots and grew them in a greenhouse. Those cuttings are already 3-5 feet tall and ready for sale.

“For over 20 years, our NRRI team used natural selection and breeding to develop hundreds of poplar varieties in extensively replicated Minnesota and regional field trials,” said Bernard McMahon, NRRI’s now-retired hybrid poplar program tree breeder.

McMahon and other researchers and University officials were expected to gather at Hauser's on Friday to celebrate the results of their efforts. For each InnovaTree sold, the University of Minnesota will get a royalty, with the money planted back into research.

Changing markets

Jackson was called-in to help market the tree that after its originally intended use cooled.

Pushed by calculations in the 1990s that Minnesota's natural forests might run short of wood if demand from board plants and paper mills continued to expand, NRRI scientists went to work on hybrid poplars that could be grown on marginal farmland and replace fiber from forests.

But as the number of mills in Minnesota shrunk due to global competition, the demand on the state’s forests diminished, too. Attention then turned to growing hybrid poplars for biomass fuel to replace coal and natural gas. But that market, at least in the U.S., also cooled as coal prices plummeted and debate raged over whether burning biomass was truly carbon-neutral or not.

While the focus has shifted to the consumer market for InnovaTree, there are still potentially large-scale applications for carbon capture and fiber, Jackson noted. InnovaTree is being tested in Europe as feedstock for plants that produce oriented strand board, called OSB, because native forest trees in Europe are in high demand, short supply and very expensive. And foresters in eastern Europe are eyeing InnovaTree to help reforest war-torn Ukraine where countless urban and rural trees have been obliterated by bombs and shells.

Until then, though, it will be consumer purchases for landscaping trees that U of M officials hope will make InnovaTree famous.

“There are currently millions of hybrid poplars being sold in the U.S. for landscaping every year, and there’s no reason this tree can’t capture a big part of that market considering how much better it is,” Jackson noted. “This is not a tree that’s intended for natural forests. … But for landscaping and for phytoremediation and fiber, planted in cities and on marginal lands, we think it can have a really big impact.”

About Innovatree A cross between native eastern cottonwood and European black poplar, naturally cross-bred over 25 years until the star of the family emerged. Resulted from NRRI research, starting in 1996, on 1,672 hybrid poplar varieties from 115 families in 27 field tests at nine sites in Minnesota and sites in several other states. Is not a genetically modified organism but grows from the same, traditional horticulture practices used for apple and other fruit trees. The NRRI established over 45 field sites throughout the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. and has never had an escaped seedling survive outside the planting area. Doesn’t sucker and its seeds are infertile, so it won’t become an invasive species problem by spreading into native forests. It’s cottonless, so no fluffy stuff in the springtime. Hardiness across zones 3-6 — everywhere from North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin south to Missouri, Kentucky and Kansas. Grows best in full sun in well-drained loam, sandy loam, clay loam and light clay soils with annual rainfall above 20 inches. Captures an impressive 6.8-8.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide per acre per year.

To buy an InnovaTree

A 2-33-foot potted InnovaTree is $20. Visit Hauser’s Superior View Farm, 86565 County Highway J, Bayfield; call 715-779-5404; or visit superiorviewfarm.com. Shipping is available. It’s expected to be available at several other nurseries in the Midwest next spring.

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