VOYAGEURS NATIONAL PARK, Minn. 鈥� It was sometime in the summer of 2021, when Talon Stammen witnessed a wilderness encounter only a fortunate few ever experience.
A doctoral student in biology at UND, Stammen was sampling amphibians along the edge of a beaver pond deep in the interior of Voyageurs National Park when a ruffed grouse blasted out of the brush.
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A gray wolf was in hot pursuit.
The encounter occurred in the Cruiser Lake area, Stammen says, a part of the remote northern Minnesota park with 鈥渁 lot of wolf traffic.鈥�
The wolf spotted Stammen, and a staredown ensued.
鈥淗e paused just 6 feet from me and spent a long time just looking at me,鈥� said Stammen, 29. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think he knew what I was, for sure, because I didn鈥檛 move at all.
鈥淎nd then he went after the ruffed grouse again.鈥�
A 2012 graduate of Red River High 歪歪漫画, Stammen spent parts of four summers from 2019 through 2022 researching the impact of beaver activity on the forest community 鈥� mainly amphibians and invertebrates 鈥� within 218,200-acre Voyageurs National Park.
As part of his research, Stammen monitored 55 beaver ponds, ranging from tabletop size to a few acres, within the park, collecting invertebrate and water quality samples and documenting amphibian species both visually and through acoustic recorders programmed to record 5 minutes out of every hour throughout the nighttime hours.
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Stammen now is poring through the reams of data he collected, which will be the subject of his doctoral dissertation.
鈥淭here鈥檚 very little pollution in this area,鈥� Stammen said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a wilderness area, for the most part, and that鈥檚 a wonderful aspect to this project 鈥� it鈥檚 looking at what a really healthy ecosystem looks like, so we can make a comparison to more human-impacted ecosystems like something adjacent to an agricultural area.鈥�
Ideal research setting
The only water-based national park in the U.S., Voyageurs National Park has the highest density of beavers in the Lower 48, according to Steve Windels, a wildlife biologist at Voyageurs who worked with Stammen and his UND adviser, Bob Newman, in coordinating the project.
Newman and Windels also are members of the committee, required for all doctoral candidates, working with Stammen on his research project. Other committee members are UND faculty members Jeffrey Carmichael and Jefferson Vaughan, and Brad Rundquist, dean of UND鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences.
As a committee member, Windels says his role is to help Stammen shape the questions he鈥檚 going to ask and how he analyzes the data and crafts the narrative that will ultimately explain his results.
鈥淏eavers are known as a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer so they basically have modified this landscape,鈥� Windels said. 鈥淚 try to make the point that what Voyageurs looks like now is probably what a lot of southern boreal forests looked like back in 1500, before the fur-trade era.鈥�
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Until Stammen鈥檚 project in Voyageurs, Newman said he鈥檇 only worked with one graduate research project in Minnesota, a wolf study conducted in conjunction with the Red Lake Band of Chippewa.
Every other project has been in North Dakota, Newman says, but Stammen wanted to work in the boreal forest, an ecosystem not found in the state. Newman, an ecologist whose specialty is amphibians, knew Windels and suggested perhaps the Voyageurs wildlife biologist would have a project.
鈥淪teve Windels and others for a long time have been doing beaver studies up there, and they鈥檝e looked at a lot of different aspects of the ecology of the place and its relationship to beaver activity,鈥� Newman said. 鈥滲ut nobody had really focused on the amphibian piece.鈥�
Besides providing the necessary permits for working and camping in the backcountry of Voyageurs National Park, the National Park Service supported Stammen鈥檚 research by supplying 25 acoustic recorders used to record and document amphibian species, along with batteries and SD cards, Windels says.
Stammen also received a couple of UND scholarships and worked as a graduate teaching assistant. Beyond that, Stammen was on his own 鈥� just the way he likes it.
鈥淗e designed a project that just relied on the work he could do by himself with just his canoe and his legs to get around,鈥� said Windels, a Crookston native. 鈥淎nd so, he would come for a couple of weeks at a time and disappear into the backcountry and then reappear a couple of weeks later just as cheerful as when he went in.
鈥淗e did a great job.鈥�
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Working alone and spending two weeks or more at time in the wilderness wasn鈥檛 a challenge for Stammen, an avid naturalist and outdoorsman who grew up exploring the islands of Lake of the Woods from the family cabin at the Northwest Angle, that remote chunk of Minnesota bordered on three sides by Canada.
In 2011, Stammen built a birch bark canoe using traditional tools 鈥� including a Hudson Bay ax, a 鈥渃rooked knife鈥� and a deer shank awl 鈥� and materials he harvested from the islands of Lake of the Woods. Stammen learned his woodworking skills from his grandfather, Art Grabowski, an accomplished craftsman who died in 2019 at the age of 105.
鈥淭alon has the view through the eye of 鈥� and I don鈥檛 mean this in a negative way 鈥� a 19th century natural historian,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淗e likes being out in the woods, he likes watching wildlife and plants and what things are doing and immersing himself in that kind of environment.
鈥淗e defined the large parameters of the project.鈥�
Northwoods experiences
During his four seasons of fieldwork, Stammen says he was able to have 鈥渆very major Northwoods experience,鈥� including the wolf encounter that left him too stunned to snap a photograph when the wolf was close.
On hot, windless days deep in the wilderness, the mosquitoes at times were 鈥渋nsane,鈥� Stammen says. Every summer, he contracted Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness most commonly transmitted by the blacklegged tick, also known as the deer tick.
鈥淓very day, I鈥檇 have a dozen or more ticks on me, even though I鈥檇 use DEET or permethrin,鈥� Stammen said. 鈥淚 know the feeling of Lyme disease now. You have a little headache when you wake up, and you know right away, 鈥極K, I need to get an antibiotic.鈥欌��
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Days in the field were long, Stammen says, often beginning at dawn and continuing past dusk. All this while trudging through swamps, bogs and other rugged terrain.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit messy,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou have to do the best you can because you鈥檙e out there sampling in a challenging environment, and when I鈥檓 trudging around the edge of a pond up to my waist in really difficult 鈥� you know, mud and stuff like that 鈥� I think no one will ever really know all the work鈥� that went into collecting data.
Still, Stammen says, he wouldn鈥檛 trade his time in the field for anything. Especially those cool mornings when steam fog would rise off the water.
鈥淲hite horses,鈥� renowned Northwoods naturalist and writer Sigurd F. Olson called the phenomenon.
鈥淭he best part of this whole project is just being out there in the woods and enjoying nature,鈥� Stammen said. 鈥淪ometimes, it鈥檚 challenging, and sometimes, it鈥檚 just amazing.
鈥淣ot everyone gets to appreciate just the silence of it, the stars at night with no ambient light to obscure it, beautiful birdsong in the morning.鈥�
And, of course, the sounds of wood frogs, spring peepers and other amphibian life that could be just deafening, at times.
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Stammen will give a presentation on his research, 鈥淏eaver Crafted Wetlands: Amphibian and Invertebrate Communities in the Boreal Forest,鈥� at 7 p.m. Friday, June 2, as part of the Northern Landscapes Festival at North House Folk 歪歪漫画 in Grand Marais, Minnesota.
It鈥檚 an environment in which he feels more comfortable than he does in academia, Stammen says.
鈥淚鈥檒l put a lot of time into doing a really good job because I feel like it can have a tremendously positive impact,鈥� Stammen said of his upcoming presentation. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a room full of people who all have this interest, and they want to learn something more about it.
鈥淚 feel something like that is more my audience than, say, going to a scientific conference, where we鈥檙e just talking about the statistics and management implications.鈥�
Process over product
While it鈥檚 too soon to draw any conclusions from his fieldwork, Stammen says he feels very fortunate to have worked on a project he could do by himself. If all goes according to plan, he鈥檒l present his dissertation and receive his doctoral degree next spring.
鈥淚t was really lucky that I could find a project that was doable with just one person, but it was still a major undertaking for one person because there are a lot of parts to this,鈥� Stammen said. 鈥淚 was able to negotiate doing a really traditional field-based observational study where it鈥檚 just me out in the woods with a notebook in my canoe and boots.
鈥淔or me, it was really important 鈥� one, to be in northern Minnesota 鈥� but also to go at a slower pace because I feel like when I鈥檓 out in that system, I鈥檓 able to get to know it really well and observe closely and understand something more about it.鈥�
His fieldwork, Stammen says, has been more about the process than the product 鈥� 鈥済etting my diploma or publishing a paper or something like that.鈥�
Simple things, such as watching a moose walk around a pond and eat vegetation. Or seeing bear cubs in a tree and wondering which way to go to avoid encountering the mother.
Being part of nature, and not just an observer.
鈥淛ust all of those really personal experiences where you get to interact with wildlife from a distance or close up, and it鈥檚 just a magical moment,,鈥� Stammen said. 鈥淭o me, that was the best part of all the time in the field, all of those moments in nature.
鈥淚 think that鈥檚 what鈥檚 meaningful to me.鈥�
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