The northern forests are important to the united states and canada by helping to maintain the water quality of the great lakes and storing carbon and providing habitat to millions of plants and…

This $3,677,697.95 federal Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) under the National Wildlife Refuge System Enhancements (CFDA 15.654) program supports Michigan State University (MSU) in conducting a comprehensive forest inventory and developing sampling protocols for National Wildlife Refuges in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

The key products and services to be delivered under this 5-year award include: 1) delineating forest stands and developing a sampling design protocol and database for management-level forest inventory and long-term forest plot data collection, 2) managing staff and contractors to collect forest data in select refuges, and 3) providing the FWS with the resulting sampling protocols, datasets, and written refuge and regional reports to inform planning and resource management decisions. This effort aims to address the need for a reliable, consistent forest inventory to support the resiliency and management of northern forests within the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The northern forests are important to the united states and canada by helping to maintain the water quality of the great lakes and storing carbon and providing habitat to millions of plants and animals including numerous species identified of greatest conservation need and acting as a major driver for northern economies through timber and recreation related jobs. Addressing the complexity and widespread nature of threats and challenges to the resilience and integrity of northern forests requires collective action and a quantitative understanding of forest conditions and an adaptive approach from forest owners. A thorough inventory of existing conditions is necessary for making informed decisions and for assessing forest resiliency. Refuges do not currently have a reliable forest inventory to base local management decisions on nor a consistent survey protocol for landscape scale actions. Mnfi with involvement from FWS will delineate forest stands and develop sampling design protocols and database for management level inventory and more in depth long term forest plot data and analyze data. Mnfi will also manage their staff and contractors to collect data in select refuges in michigan and minnesota and wisconsin to inform planning and resource management decisions at multiple scales within the service. FWS and mnfi will deliver sampling protocols and datasets and written refuge and regional reports. The beneficiaries to this effort will be refuge planners and managers and regional FWS conservation efforts and others managing northern forest. Subrecipients of this award include local forest experts and field technicians from both minnesota and wisconsin.