Stories in this Issue
Timber Sustainability in Minnesota
Sustain 1.1 Software for forest managers
Clean Water Act
Duluth Streams
Digital Construction
Donahue, Pat
Mat, Inc.
Peat
Arrowhead Manufacturers and Fabricators Association (AMFA)
Septic on-site systems
Johnson, Lucinda North American Benthological Society Board (NABS)
Healthy and sustainable forests are like a beautiful cake, we want to have it and eat it, too. But thoughtful use of our forests today is critical if we want them to continue to provide products and habitats for future generations.
Minnesota has approximately 7.6 million acres of timberland managed by county, state and federal agencies. NRRI researchers have pulled together decades of data to help public land managers make informed decisions about forest harvesting. The result is "Sustain 1.1," a software program that can predict how harvesting affects forest sustainability; in other words, meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
"In some areas the current condition is outside the forest's range of natural variability and most management we do is not a good decision for the land," said NRRI's JoAnn Hanowski, coordinator of the Sustain 1.1 project. "But there are some choices that are better than other choices. This software will tell resource managers that harvesting one stand of trees is a better choice than another stand."
The forest's range of natural variability is based on its history, the trees and plants that grew there and the birds that flew there, before people started harvesting it.
By studying historic data, researchers know that healthy forests have a variety of plant species of varying ages. Using tree succession and bird populations as indicators of the forests' health, the researchers plotted past forest conditions and compared them with current conditions.
"People seem to think Northern Minnesota was a landscape of pine," said Hanowski. "There were super huge canopy pine trees, but in several ecosystem types there was a lot of aspen, birch, fir and spruce that grew underneath and with the pine. Pine was the major tree species, but there were a lot of other trees, too. The diversity of trees and ages contributes to a sustainable forest."
Diversity in trees is difficult to maintain. Around 80 percent of Minnesota's forest-based economy is based on aspen, so an abundance of aspen is grown to meet people-driven needs. Mother Nature may force us to do something different.
"Maintaining the productivity of Minnesota's forest soils is critical for sustainable management of forests," said NRRI's George Host, a soil expert and co-leader of the Sustain 1.1 project. "Recent research has shown that damage to soils from compaction and other factors can cause significant reductions in the productivity and diversity of forest ecosystems. If we understand which soils are most sensitive, then manage carefully, we can maintain sustainable forest conditions and still contribute to our natural resource-based economy."
Bird studies were also used in the software program to understand how the forests grow after a natural or man-made disturbance. NRRI's bird monitoring data backs up the plant and tree data, noting how bird species change along with changes in vegetation.
"A good example is the Blackburnian Warbler. Historically, we figured there were between 189,000 and 221,000 breeding pairs in northeast Minnesota," said Hanowski. "Today, we have around 149,000, so the population is below the historic range. If we're looking at sustaining populations, we need to look at how their habitats have changed and what types of habitats to provide in the future."
NRRI's Terry Brown wrote the software program for those who manage large tracts of land and who already have access to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) equipment. It was not designed for individual landowners.
"What we found wasn't a surprise," said Brown, an expert in ecosystem modeling. "We knew, for example, that old age forest growth is under-represented in this area, but this program gives us the numbers to work with."
The Sustain 1.1 program covers two areas of Minnesota: the Northern Superior Uplands and the Drift and Lake Plains areas. Land managers in those areas, St. Louis County, the DNR, and the U. S. Forest Service, have embraced the concept of sustainability.
Paul Olson, GIS technician for the Minnesota DNR, thinks Sustain 1.1 will be a useful tool for the teams deciding what areas of the forest will be harvested.
"For the decision makers, it's another piece of the puzzle, another factor to consider, when they have to figure out where to cut wood," said Olson.
The project was publicly funded with $300,000 from the Legislative Commission for Minnesota Resources so the software is available free to public land managers. Future versions of the program may cover expanded land areas and may address individual landowner needs.
Sorry, but we have another acronum for your alphabet soup vocabulary: TMDL. It stands for Total Maximum Daily Load, a process used to figure out how much pollution a body of water can handle while still meeting water Federal quality standards.
You may be hearing this acronym slip into conversations. Why? Because it's a tool that's helping scientists clean up our lakes and streams. NRRI's water experts use TMDL to estimate the amount of pollutants a body of water can carry without being degraded.
This effort is a fairly new focus of the federal Clean Water Act which, since 1972, has been working toward cleaning up pollution "point sources," pipes and ditches that carry wastewaters from factories and sewage treatment plants into streams and lakes. Now each state needs to look for pollution "non-point sources," the stuff our modern lives leave behind, such as, sediments, mercury, oils and hydrocarbons, pesticides and fertilizers.
"These non-point sources usually require better management of the watershed and must be dealt with on a large scale," explained NRRI water ecologist Rich Axler. "These problems don't lend themselves to a simple technological fix, like point sources of pollution do."
The TMDL process starts at the state level by identifying impaired waters and then working with local agencies, interested parties and citizens who know the lakes and streams they live near. Regional meetings or presentations are held to outline water quality problems and get input from the public.
Once the impaired waters have been identified and prioritized, researchers add the individual waste load allocations among point and non-point sources beyond their natural levels, plus a margin of safety, and use the result to prioritize the water for clean-up efforts. Then, the team develops a plan to reduce the pollution "load" to the site for Environmental Protection Agency approval. So far, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has identified 140 Minnesota water bodies as "impaired" and expects that will grow to 400 by the time the counting is completed in 2013.
And that's only half of the job. Next, everyone must agree on who or what is reponsible for the problem, find the most cost effective solution and come up with the money to implement the clean-up plan.
It's a big job, but the goal is admirable; to make sure all of Minnesota's water bodies are clean enough for fishing, playing and drinking.
Duluth has a heavy responsibility on its shoulders for the water that moves through its urban landscape. Within the city limits are some 42 streams, 12 of which are trout streams, that flow steadily into Lake Superior.
Trout are especially sensitive to environmental pollutants. That Duluth has been able to maintain 12 trout streams says they're doing a pretty good job at keeping the water clean. This year, NRRI research will help step up the efforts to keep them that way.
The Duluth Streams project is a collaborative effort of the City of Duluth, NRRI, Minnesota Sea Grant, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District. The goal is to monitor four urban streams using remote sensing technology, and transfer the information to the public on the interactive kiosks at the Great Lakes Aquarium and the Lake Superior Zoo, as well as online at DuluthStreams.org.
Like other cities across the country, Duluth will be required to have a discharge elimination system storm water permit in place by March 2003. One requirement of the permit is for public education and the development of a pollution prevention plan.
"Now more than ever, we're seeing efforts to protect our natural environment," Mayor Gary Doty said. "The first step toward protection lies in understanding and that's why we're proud to support this work."
DuluthStreams.org will include maps, reports, community action activities and other fresh water information that's now difficult to access. The idea is that a well-informed public will make better decisions about land use.
"Providing the public with data from their local streams and user-friendly tools to interpret the information should help engage people in understanding and caring for their water resources," said NRRI researcher George Host.
Urban streams are particularly susceptible to sediment overload from runoff. The sediments carry pollutants like mercury and other heavy metals from asphalt surfaces and fertilizers from lawns. This is harmful to organisms living in, and near, the water.
"The particles smother the bottom of the stream where aquatic insects live and deplete the food supply for fish," said NRRI researcher Rich Axler. "Sediments also decrease the oxygen that fish and insect eggs need to survive. The pollutants can poison aquatic life and pose health risks to people eating them."
The Duluth Streams project is funded with $352,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency's national EMPACT (Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking) program.
Old-fashioned building techniques get high tech boost
NRRI is dusting off the "kit house" idea popular in early part of the last century and remodeling it with computer-aided drawings and automated machining from this century.
Pre-cut, site-built houses were a popular catalog purchase in the early 1900s. Sears sold the most, delivering about 100,000 Honor-Bilt Modern Homes to towns across American between 1908 and 1940. Each house kit was handcrafted and precision cut in a factory, and then numbered from the frame 2x4s to the kitchen cabinets. The kits were hauled off the railcar flat-packed and ready-to-assemble. First-time homeowners who could swing a hammer bought them, built them and raised our grandparents in them.
The idea faded after WWII, but the need for affordable housing today makes them attractive once again, with a high-tech twist.
"The cost of land, financing, labor and building materials makes housing very expensive these days," said NRRI wood products engineer Pat Donahue. "We're using today's technology to streamline the building process to make it more efficient and affordable."
Donahue and co-researchers Scott Johnson and Sue French are at the leading edge of applying modern technology to pre-cut, site-built construction. With funding from St. Louis county and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, NRRI is launching Digital Construction. The program's focus will be on developing new combinations of housing materials already in use and researching construction systems for companies that make manufactured homes and pre-cut building systems. The research team will start with a pilot-scale manual processing line that can simulate automated processes, like sawing, drilling and routing, to precisely cut wood frame components. The new equipment will also help predict real-time manufacturing and construction assembly time tables.
NRRI's Digital Construction program is an expansion of an already successful partnership with LHB Architects and Engineers of Duluth. Together they've modified and tested an American version of Kato Sangyo Metal Fit Building Systems, a pre-cut construction system from Japan. The Kato Sangyo technology is ready to be used this summer in a demonstration home for the Northern Community Land Trust in Duluth.
Digital Construction will allow NRRI researchers to develop other construction systems, as well as try some of their own ideas. Object-oriented CAD databases will streamline many contractors' functions, for instance, 3-D visualization of buildings, which will allow for design and material changes before construction begins.
"Housing is such as important social issue and it has a huge economic impact on the region," said Donahue. "The trend in the housing industry is toward more precision automation. Our timing couldn't be better with this."
2) New joinery techniques and different types of engineered wood for post and beam construction to improve construction efficiency and quality.
3) Protocols and procedures that can be replicated in communities across the U.S., leading to a modern ISO system for single family and multi-family housing. 4) Providing new opportunities for businesses to manufacture and deliver innovative pre-cut frame homes.
Small town business grow up, not out
Cattle-farmer-turned-entrepreneur Joe Karpik says it takes a little bull-headed stubborness to keep his multi-million dollar business running successfully. It also takes knowing when to ask for help. Karpik called on the expertise at NRRI to expand his market base, develop a new peat-based product line and test products.
"NRRI has helped us, even from the day we started here," said Karpik, president and founder of Mat, Inc., a company that makes re-seeding fiber blankets and mulches used for soil-erosion control. "They did all the final testing on our equipment and products and wrote up the results. If we write it, it has a certain value, but if it says NRRI on the test results, it lends a lot more credibility to it."
Karpik's idea for grass-seeded wood fiber blankets has expanded to include making blankets out of other recyclable products, like newspaper and corn stalks. Both the machinery and the blankets are proving to be very versatile. One customer even uses the fiber blankets on a poultry farm to keep the hens' feet dry.
NRRI's peat group helped Mat, Inc. venture into a new area, using sphagnum peat to make oil absorbent blankets. It floats on the water and absorbs up to 10 times its weight in oil. The idea really took off after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Now Mat, Inc. sells that product to companies in Texas and New Jersey for use at oil refineries and drilling sites.
Mat, Inc. employes 30 people at its Floodwood, Minn. plant and it's important to Karpik that his small hometown remains the heart of the business. Part of the company's continued success comes from growth, however, and he's planning to open two new facilities.
With NRRI's help, and building off the solid foundation that other companies laid before them, Mat, Inc. is well on its way as a leader in their industry with customers all over the globe, without having to leave home.
NRRI has "sparkplug" for manufacturing association success
It took a few tries over many years to get Northern Minnesota manufacturers to put competition aside and work together as a support system. But NRRI's Gene Betts, along with staff at Minnesota Technology, Inc., kept at it until the time was right and it all clicked.
The result is the Arrowhead Manufacturers and Fabricators Association (AMFA), established in 1997, now serving 56 members and providing a domino effect of economic development for the region.
Betts is foreman of NRRI's Machine Shop and his knowledge runs deep in the manufacturing and fabricating fields. He's been called the "sparkplug" that jump-started the AMFA and continues to hold it together. Sharing his skills and being a cornerstone in this organization is a natural outreach for him. It also fits NRRI's mission to promote economic development in Minnesota.
"There are so many threads that weave this Association together," said Betts, who currently serves as the Association's treasurer. "The more I can help strengthen the threads of this group, the stronger the manufacturing industry will be for all of us."
That strength is especially important as U. S. manufacturing industries face increasingly heavy global competition and economic dips. Under the AMFA umbrella, business owners share new production methods, technologies and hire speakers with topics relevant to their industry.
"Unless we work together as a region, our likelihood to succeed is pretty slim," said AMFA member and past-President Gary Corradi. "Maybe dealing with your competition causes a little heartburn, but it's just critical that we work together as a team. If we don't supply the goods here, they will be supplied somehwere else, or out of the country."
Corradi is operations manager of Smart Screens in Chisholm. He said the primary advantage he's experienced with the AMFA is the networking and reources gained from other manufacturing businesses.
One continuing struggle for these industries is finding and keeping skilled employees. The group has addressed that by setting up the AMFA Education Trust to provide scholarships to students who are pursuing careers in the manufacturing trades. The trust also promotes manufacturing-related employment to students who might not otherwise hear about the opportunities in the region.
"There had been several attempts in the past to pull this group together and it hadn't succeeded," said Phil Bakken, Development Manager at the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Agency (IRRRA), which has been an AMFA member since its inception. "Now it's working quite well, due largely to the work of Gene Betts. There are a lot of businesses who see value in what we do for their industry."
Alternative systems offer choices for difficult home sites
With a headcount of around five million people in Minnesota and each of us typically using 75 to 100 gallons of water per day, it's critical that we're careful about where our drains and flushes go.
Figuring out how to treat wastewater isn't a new problem, but NRRI is giving it some new attention when it comes to on-site septic treatment systems. It's about time. Statewide approximately 25 percent of us use on-site septic systems for our homes. In Northern Minnesota about half of the homes use on-site systems, and even 80 percent in some counties. That number is growing. Over 30 percent of all new construction homes are built with on-site systems.
Here in the land of 11,842 lakes, Minnesotans have an important responsibility to keep the water we live near, play in and drink from, clean. We also have an abundance of groundwater to protect. Different soil types, geographic conditions and population densities require different treatments. The wrong system in the wrong place can degrade our lakes, streams and groundwater and can potentially endanger public health. "We want people to know that there are effective and less expensive alternatives to the 'big pipe' sewer system," said NRRI researcher Barb McCarthy. "We can treat wastewater in areas that are impossible for standard trench septic systems. Difficult sites don't have to be at high risk for wastewater pollution."
NRRI teamed up with local industry as well as state and federal agencies to put alternative wastewater treatment systems to the test, and they've learned a few new tricks for this old trade. Researchers installed nine alternative systems for side-by-side comparison at a test site near Duluth. Then they worked those systems hard to see how well they hold up year-round in Minnesota's harsh climate.
"This research is so important right now, but it also means change and that's hard for people," said McCarthy. "In the past we've just tried to keep the raw sewage underground, but that was in the 40s and 50s when we had rural populations with low densities. We really need better options today."
The federal government is catching on, too. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing a national strategy to address "decentralized" (on-site septic as opposed to centralized sewer) systems. In a recent report, the EPA acknowledged that decentralized systems are permanent, effective components to the wastewater infrastructure. They're also admitting that there's a lot of work to be done.
"We do have some problems to address with on-site systems," said Joyce Hudson, environmental engineer for the U. S. EPA in Washington, D.C. "Ten to 15 percent of them are failing, and upwards of 25 percent in some areas. That's why the EPA is getting involved with this on a national level. We'd like to see a much more consistent, comprehensive approach taken with on-site system options."
The biggest problem is with regular maintenance. Homeowners aren't always operating and managing their systems correctly. And around half of the systems in place are over 30 years old, increasing their likelihood to be failing. A new management guide put out by the EPA has five different model programs that communities can adopt to manage their on-site systems. The programs range from simply sending reminder cards for system checks to homeowners, to turning over ownership and responsibility for all on-site systems in the community to a utility.
"We have some challenges ahead, that's for sure," said McCarthy. "But most important is getting the word out to the public to install the right system for their home and businesses and to keep up with the maintenance. Our water is valuable. If we can treat it effectively, we can recycle it back into the environment, where it belongs."
Here are some choices that NRRI thoroughly tested: standard trench system, shallow trench textile filter, in-ground peat filter, modular peat filter, single-pass sand filter, aerobic treatment, constructed wetlands, and drip systems.
When people "use" water it doesn't go away; it becomes dirty. The wastewater must be cleaned up before it is returned to the environment to be recycled for future generations. Wastewater contains pathogens (disease organisms), nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.), solids (organic, inorganic), chemicals (from cleaners, disinfectants, medications), and water.
Lucinda Johnson serves on NABS board
NRRI aquatic ecologist Lucinda Johnson was recently elected secretary of the North American Benthological Society (NABS), an international scientific organization with more than 1,650 members worldwide that promotes a better understanding of freshwater ecosystems and aquatic organisms.
Johnson was elected for a three-year term that began during the recent NABS annual conference in Pittsburgh, Penn. She has expertise in macroinvertebrates and fish. Her research focuses on quantifying the interactions between landscapes and aquatic systems such as streams and wetlands. Johnson is currently responsible for coordinating one six components of the Great Lakes Environmental Indicators project. She received a bachelor's degree in botany from Duke University (1976), a Master of Science degree from State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry (1984) and a doctorate degree in zoology from Michigan State University (1999).
"This position will allow me to influence the policies and direction of the group," said Johnson. "NABS represents the majority of freshwater scientists, especially those working on streams. It provides visibility for the research that is ongoing at NRRI and the University of Minnesota."
The Natural Resources Research Institute was established by the Minnesota Legislature in 1983 to foster economic development of Minnesota's natural resources in an environmentally sound manner to promote sector employment.
Natural Resources Research Institute
University of Minnesota Duluth
5013 Miller Trunk Highway
Duluth, Minnesota 55811
Michael Lalich, director
Center for Water and the Environment: Gerald Niemi, director
Center for Applied Research and Technology Development: Donald Fosnacht, director
Center for Economic Development: Stephen Marder, director
NRRI Now
Nora Kubazewski, editor
June Kallestad, writer
Trish Sodahl, layout
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