Peat Program
Minnesota Sphagnum Inc.
Lalich column: Lake Superior
Tom Levar
Entrepreneurial Development Program
Walleye Aquaculture
Birch Products
Taconite Mining
Wetlands
Water Quality
Carol Johnston
Voyageurs National Park Digitizing
QSAR
Gilles Pinay
Peat, a boon to farmers and gardeners, particularly in dry climates, is the organic residue of plants that have partially decomposed. It is abundant in Minnesota primarily because peat-forming plants thrive in the cool, wet environment of former basins of large, shallow lakes. Eleven percent of the land in the state is covered with peat, resulting in Minnesota's claim to 25 percent of the peat in the lower 48 states. Used for agricultural purposes, high-quality peat is in great demand for its water-holding capacity, and its chemical and physical benefits to plant growth.
But historically, the sphagnum moss peat business in Minnesota has done well due to competition from large Canadian producers, the questionable quality of some Minnesota peat and the lack of support for these enterprises. But now, just east of Floodwood, Minn., all signs points to a successful venture. Boyd Baughman, MSI president, was first contacted by NRRI Scientists Tom Levar in the fall of 1985. At the time, Baughman a former college dean and psychological consultant, was heading a peat operation in Sheboygan County, Mich., for out-of-state owners. However, that operation had only another four or five years of production remaining before the quality would decrease. Having gotten into the peat business in 1981, and realizing the potential, Baughman was looking for new possibilities. Having been put in contact with Baughman by other members of the peat industry, Levar invited him to visit and investigate a potential harvesting operation in Minnesota.
"Tom's contact was at an opportune time," Baughman said.
The Department of Natural Resources had just completed an intensive survey of the west part of the Arlberg Bog, one of the largest, accessible peat deposits in Minnesota. As Levar relates, the superior quality and possibilities caught Baughman's attention and he joined other interested parties in bidding for a lease. Baughman, after convincing the DNR that his background in the industry was sound, received a 25-year lease in August 1986 for 640 acres of the bog.
"The peatland is in excess of 8,900 acres and he is definitely located on the best of the bog," Levar said.
Combined with financing arrangements and a marketing agreement with Hyde Park, Inc., a horticultural products distributor in New York, plans went ahead for building a processing plant and hiring employees.
The plant will have a $200,000 payroll when in full production. Currently the plant employs about 20 people from Duluth, Cloquet, Floodwood and Meadowlands. When the plant starts its night shift, 34 employees will work seven days a week.
Through private financing, Baughman invested close to $1 million to establish MSI, and he expects a payback in under five years. Operations of the plant began in June. And, according to Baughman, NRRI was the key that made it happen.
"When we received the lease in August of 1986, we asked Tom (Levar) and NRRI to be our technical agents to take care of permitting, expansions, environmental worksheets and impact studies," Baughman said. "If it weren't for Tom and the NRRI, we simply wouldn't be here."
Because the use of this peatland is carefully monitored by MSI, as specified by several agencies, NRRI also assisted Baughman with meeting guidelines and taking care of the necessary red tape to begin and continue operations. But the Institute also offered technical expertise.
"We also assisted with designing a production system and laying out drainage systems in the bog," said Levar.
And current NRRI research and development is aimed at new peat products that Baughman eventually hopes to add to his line, such as value-added, loose-filled products.
Although several similar ventures have failed in the past, Baughman's business is set up for almost definite success.
"With the partnership with Hyde Park, MSI has 100 percent of its sales committed. Whatever they produce, they can sell," Levar said.
And Boyd backs up that statement, adding that the market is more or less unlimited and he could sell twice what the plant will produce this year, estimated at 1200 bales per day.
On the 158-acre MSI production area, large vacuums make passes over the peat, taking a half inch of the spongy material off the top. Two inches maximum will be taken off the field each year and it is estimated that the site will render a quality harvest for the next 30 to 50 years, according to Levar.
Harvesting begins as early as April, even if the ground remains frozen, and continues through September. Once vacuumed, the sphagnum is put into stock piles, then intro tractor-drawn trailers and taken to the processing plant, where it is dumped into hoppers and fed through screens to remove sticks, roots and non-moss material. From there, the peat is bagged, compressed into four cubic foot bales and packaged. Much of MSI's superior quality horticultural sphagnum is then palletized and stretch-wrapped for shipment throughout the Midwest.
As a consequence of the drought conditions in the Midwest and South, diversion of water from the Great Lakes has again become a topic of considerable concern this summer. The debate on this subject may temporarily subside of weather patterns improve, just as the discussion of control of last summer's high water levels in the Great Lakes has subsided. Numerous other topics, however, such as the effect of accumulation of toxic substances in trout and salmon on sport and commercial fisheries, are certain to command more and more attention.
As one considers the far-reaching political, social, economic and environmental consequences of pending decisions with regard to the use and protection of Great Lakes' water, it is clear that there is a need to develop a comprehensive water policy for the Great Lakes. Proper scientific understanding of the Great Lakes, on which to be able to evaluate the implications of proposed scenarios to meet economic, societal or environmental needs, must be a key first consideration to establishing such a policy.
With these thoughts in mind, I had an opportunity to attend a Lake Superior Water Policy Conference in Duluth in April. The expressed intent of the conference and assembled team of international experts was to address critical economic, political and environmental issues in the Lake Superior basin. Many interesting facts about Lake Superior emerged, including:
-Lake Superior is an oligotrophic lake. As such, it is a cold and nutrient-deficient body of water that is extremely sensitive to change in quality, despites its size.
-The water in Lake Superior could cover Texas to a depth of 50 feet. Unlike Lake Erie, which received a cleansing flow in several years, it would take 550 years to flush out 90 percent of the contamination now in Lake Superior.
-There has been an extraordinary impact of exotic introductions into Lake Superior, such as lamprey and salmon. These may yet threaten the dynamics of the lake.
-Although very little is known about their effects, factors such as wave action, counterclockwise flow of water in the lake, temperature inversions and turbidity caused by suspended clay may play major roles in Lake Superior.
The first speaker at the conference, Charles Goldman, of the University of California, Davis, set the tone for the conference by detailing his experience with Lake Tahoe, a lake smaller than Lake Superior, but scientifically very similar. Goldman stressed the value of a sound base of scientific information for setting economic and environmental policies with respect to a lake and its watershed system. He emphasized the credibility that this information has within the legal system, and its consequent important to achieving economic and environmental policy trade-offs.
With respect to Lake Superior, Goldman observed that it is "incredible how little data is available on Lake Superior" and concluded that it is one of the lease studied major lakes in the world. He stressed the importance of establishing a long-term data collection program on lake Superior in the very near term in order to have a reference point on which to make major policy decisions ten years from now. He noted that, despite the size and complexity of the Lake Superior Basin System, a properly designed plan with carefully chosen test zones was entirely plausible and would yield a wealth of information. He cautioned, however, that testing would have to occur over a minimum of five years to account for natural fluctuations within the Lake Superior system.
Speakers following Goldman, in one way or another, echoed his call for a Lake Superior Basin initiative, and the conference closed with an open discussion of how to proceed. It was generally recognized that, while the question was regional in nature, that some organization had to take the lead. With recognition that Wisconsin and Michigan programs were focused on lakes Michigan and Huron, and that Ontario's principal interest was in areas of higher population density along Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron, attention centered on the University of Minnesota.
Subsequent discussions within the University have focused attention on UMD, and in particular, NRRI, as the logical center for a Lake Superior Basin initiative. The prospect of a comprehensive Lake Superior program is exciting, but will require coordination of a significant amount of University, State and Federal Government resources.
As a first planning step to this major undertaking, a proposal has been developed to bring together an internationally recognized group of experts to develop a needs assessment and implementation plan for a Lake Superior Basin Initiative. A multi-disciplinary proposal by the UMD Biology Department, NRRI and the University's St. Anthony Falls Hydraulics Laboratory has been submitted to the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources to request research funds to begin this major initiative.
When it gets right down to it, Levar loves peat.
"It is some of the most awesome material in the world. The mosses have so much color and beauty and texture," he says.
And so it should be. As one of NRRI's peat experts in the BioProducts Division of the Center for Applied Research and Technology Development, Levar deals solely with the Institute's peat projects. As team leader of NRRI's peat program, Levar does everything from scouting for potential companies to locate in Minnesota to helping peat companies with equipment and machinery suppliers.
In addition to assisting with establishment and expansion of peat companies in Minnesota, such as the recently established Minnesota Sphagnum Inc., Levar also is involved with current projects to develop new peat-based products and high-tech applications for the material.
A native of Ely, Minn., Levar holds degrees from the University of Minnesota in soil science and horticultural science. He did post-graduate work and eventually became a staff member for the Department of Soil Sciences at the University in the Twin Cities. He began with the department as a research assistant by teaching graduate level soils and organic soils courses.
In 1983, Levar left soil sciences to open his own consulting business, Peatlands Diversified. He originally worked with the Institute on a consulting basis, and became a full time staff member in 1984.
"I became interested in peat because I wanted to work in Northern Minnesota and I like it here," Levar said. "There are few places in the U.S. that have appealed to me and provide a sense of adventure and challenge, so I focused my career on where I wanted to live, and it had to be a northern climate."
And, he says, NRRI is the place to be in peat research. He foresees the Institute becoming the lead peat research center in the United States.
"We have an excellent nucleus in academics and industry and have a great opportunity of doing landmark peat research at the Institute," he said. "We Have the technical resources, as well as the peat resources."
But Levar's interest in peat doesn't stop in the office, it extends to his hobbies. His extensive gardens at home are planted entirely in, what else, peat.
A 10-week program that teaches potential entrepreneurs about entering the business world recently concluded with a "graduation" and formal review of business plans by a panel of experts.
Nineteen potential entrepreneurs representing 13 business ideas took part in the program, which was coordinated by the NRRI Business Group in conjunction with the Small Business Development Center (both of which are part of the SBE/NRRI Center for Economic Development [CED]). At the conclusion of the classes, held weekly at the Eveleth Technical Institute, six of the businesses were ready to face the panels for a review and evaluation of their preliminary business plans.
"And the other seven should be ready within a year," said Kjell Knudsen, CED Director.
Each of two panels, comprised of two business development professionals and a loan officer from prominent banking institutions, reviewed three business plans. Panel members offered advice in everything from financing and marketing to expansions and start-up possibilities. The panels' advice was frequently frank with entrepreneurs often put on the spot to explain the reasoning behind financial projections and methods.
Larry Fortner, a publishing professional who is starting a news magazine for senior citizens, said the panel review was an excellent way to end what had been an informative and helpful course.
"The program helped me shape my planning process and gave me a framework within which to work," Fortner said. "And the panel reinforced my confidence and convictions, they helped me see that I have identified a good idea and at this point I have gathered all of the information I can for success."
In addition, Fortner said the business expertise he was able to tap into during the program would have been inaccessible to him otherwise.
"This is an incredible resource. There is no way I could have afforded advice like this from business professionals, especially the attitude of wanting to help people and wanting them to be successful. They guided and gave insight I never could have bought," he said.
For Donna Lundgren, the owner of Secretary on Call, a secretarial/typesetting/resume/mailing service company, participation in the program was a way to re-analyze her business and the panel provided some valuable insights.
"The panel gave me a lot of information on what I should do to build as far as pricing structure and the service that I offer. The panel did an excellent job and gave me many suggestions and worthwhile advice," Lundgren said.
And for David Brodersen, inventory of the Broadster, a two-wheel, collapsible driving cart for use in the horse business, the panel review was a means to determine if his product would be accepted, and to discuss marketing strategies and pricing.
"I am convinced I have a product that will reach heights I never dreamed possible," he said.
Participants in the program represented a wide geographical area including Saginaw, Hibbing, Gilbert, Duluth, Proctor, Eveleth, Carlton, Cloquet and Floodwood. But in addition to assisting entrepreneurs from throughout Northern Minnesota, Clem Cossalter, consultant to the Business Group, says the program can be especially helpful to residents on the Iron Range.
"We set the objective for this program to encourage and facilitate entrepreneurship and we are convinced that this type of service was needed on the Range. We want them to know that there are competent people here to help when starting a business," Cossalter said.
And, according to Knudsen, the program has been an unqualified success and plans are underway to offer it again in the fall.
"After 10 short weeks, we had six business plans completed. And that's proof of the pudding the potential entrepreneurs we thought were out there actually exist."
They are walleye, and probably the best cared for walleye in Minnesota. They are fed six days per week with each day having a 16 hour light and eight hour dark period, and given a measured dose of tetracycline to ward off disease, and even have their own caretaker. And these fish have been growing up to eight times faster than they would have in the wild.
The fish are part of an aquaculture research project, funded by Minnesota power to see if walleye could be grown in the controlled environment characteristic of an intensive aquaculture facility. This was done using the heat from the warm water resulting from the station's cooling process.
In the past, the Boswell Aquaculture Research Facility has been used to grow rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, channel catfish and lake whitefish.
"The market for walleye is growing because commercial fishermen can't harvest enough of them," said Mike McDonald, NRRI research associate. "This study is to determine if this facility can be used to grow walleye on an artificial diet."
The project started last September with 6,250 fingerlings being received by early October, about 1,500 were donated by Leech lake Reservation and about 4,800 purchased from Golden Pond Fisheries, Erskine, Minn. The basis for the experiment is to see how fast the walleye will grow if given ideal conditions, such as a warm environment.
"The metabolism of fish doubles for every 10 degree increase in temperature and for six to eight months out of the year, fish in the wild are at about zero degrees, which is one reason Minnesota does not have a bigger aquaculture business," McDonald said.
The fish in the study are kept at a constant temperature of about 69 degrees Fahrenheit and are expected to be table size after about a year and a half, according to a bioenergetic model McDonald uses to predict how the fish in the study should fare.
"It's basically an input-output model for fish and it forecast the growth rate based on food consumption and temperature," McDonald said. "And we can use the model to predict what should happen to the growth of the fish to correlate it to results from the experiment."
"And the model says the fish should be growing like gangbusters and be able to go from fingerling to market size (1.25 lb.) in about a year and a half, where in the wild they would weight about a quarter of a pound."
The study fish are doing well and have grown from four to five inches in length to 10 to 12. But, as McDonald points out, walleye are a notoriously difficult fish to grow, especially because of a problem getting walleye fingerlings to eat artificial food.
At the fingerling stage, they need to be taken from the wild, where they have been feeding on insects and small fish, and "converted" or trained to eat palletized food in captivity, according to McDonald.
"The fry won't eat artificial food until they are about two inches, and ours were four to five inches when we tried to switch them over, which is even more difficult and some of them starved. They are more finicky than Morris," he said.
Further research will be necessary to obtain additional information for evaluating commercial-scale walleye production as a model for other systems that have waste heat or thermal effluent.
In that vein, the NRRI Business Group, in a companion effort, is studying possible commercial applications for walleye aquaculture, the economics of growing walleye and potential markets for the fish.
The table market for walleye is extensive, said Jim Skurla, business development specialist with the group. "Ninety percent of the walleye for table consumption in the U.S. come from Canada, but why can't we produce our own walleye?"
In addition, according to Kjell Knudsen, Business Group director, although the demand is there for the fish, it is unknown if the public will pay enough for it to provide a profit.
"The price of walleye is high and, in the future, the supply will get tighter. Walleye aquaculture has been a dream for many years," he said. "But the initial start-up costs would be high and there are so many intensive control variables of pens and troughs, controlled feeding and light, and those all translate into the final cost of the product."
The Business Group hopes eventually to devise a business plan to tell potential entrepreneurs who are interested in entering the walleye aquaculture business whether such a fish operation can be successful.
The recommendations were part of "Birch Products from a Cottage Industry in Minnesota," a report on the second part of a two-part study funded by a $28,000 grant from the Blandin Foundation to the Institute and researched and written by Associate Scientist Joseph Wood, Scientist Christian Edwardson and CARTD Associate Director Roy Adams. The first part of the study was completed by the Forest Products Department of the College of Forestry at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.
The study includes an overview of the success of the white birch industry in other parts of the country, specifically New England, and an analysis of the prospects for manufacturing wood products in Minnesota based on the use of birch by small-scale cottage industries.
"The whole idea was to look at the industry in the northeastern part of the country and see what we could bring to bear on Minnesota, which has a lot of birch," Adams said. The report assesses the current consumption of birch and takes a close look at existing cottage and home-based industries that either use birch or have the possibility to use birch, through profiles of three successful businesses: Forestedge in LaPorte, Minn.; Lady Slipper Designs in Bemidji; and Hill Wood Products in Cook, Minn.
Although it currently does not use birch in its products, Lady Slipper Designs, a manufacturer of high quality merchandise such as Indian products, Ojibwe baskets, jewelry and designer birdhouses, is used as a primary model in the study because of its success as a classic cottage industry. Lady Slipper acts as a central marketing and management company that sells materials to independent contractors who work out of their homes. The contractors sell the finished products back to the company for marketing and distribution.
"If we are going to develop more cottage-based industry, one of our recommendations is to use Lady Slipper as a model and encourage the company in development of wood products made from birch and/or other species," Adams said.
Another recommendation of the report is for the state to establish a prototype manufacturing shop, possibly located at the Institute, to develop products and to demonstrate to cottage-based companies how products are made and how such a shop would operate.
"This would help new and existing small, wood-based companies with production and technological improvements," Adams said.
But part of the existing problem, according to the study, is that birch is not being used for pulpwood from the smaller diameter parts of the tree. Although the species is plentiful, reasons for this include the difficulty in debarking the trees and the relatively high cost, compared to the aspen that is currently in use. This, according to Adams, reduces the availability of wood for higher value end products.
Thus, other recommendations in the report include intensifying efforts to promote birch for high-value products through developing the furniture and cabinet industry in Minnesota, examining the possibilities of using Minnesota birch sawlogs for turning squares and supporting efforts to improve techniques for birch debarking and search for new uses for birch pulp.
The key, according to Adams, is to promote the use of birch for these higher-value products, instead of low value applications such as fire wood, industrial use, pallets and construction.
Thys Johnson, director of NRRI's Center for Applied Research and Technology Development, taconite production and related employment has been cut nearly in half in recent years, so the natural conclusion is to believe the industry is dead or dying.
"The myth is propelled because the negatives, not the positives, are played up," Johnson said. "And in many ways, those negatives are more tangible. You may tell the guy on the street that the industry is coming back, but all he sees is that his neighbors don't have jobs."
In the early 1980s, demand for taconite dropped because domestic car producers began making cars with 50 percent less steel, and because of the low price of imported steel and an increase in the amount of imported, steel-based products, Johnson said.
"And all those variables reflect down the line, it just happens that the mining industry is at the end of the line," he said. But some of those variables are being turned around through research technology development, such as moving toward fluxed pellet production and organic binder, an increase in demand for domestic steel and the strength of the dollar.
"We have done a lot of work with the industry and that has resulted in a greater than 20 percent decrease in costs and corresponding increase in productivity," Johnson said. "And today, we can compete with foreign ore from Brazil and Canada."
Today, with Minntac, Minorca, Hibbing, Eveleth, LTV and National running at close to peak production, Johnson says he sees an industry that has stabilized and predicts no more shutdowns in the near future.
"Things look good because the mines are running at high capacities on a daily basis and the demand for steel is up," he said.
But, Johnson cautions there is a need for the industry to never forget, from a company and labor standpoint, that they are competing in a world market.
And he foresees a continued growth in the industry, although not to the extent of the past. Last year, 27 million tons were shipped, a figure influenced by the closing of Reserve Mining and the U.S. Steel strike. But this year, Johnson predicts, shipments will be up.
"Right now, if you simply erased the past history, you would say that Minnesota has a great mining operation, and it will continue to grow," he said.
"The Cumulative Effect of Wetlands on Stream Water Quality and Quantity: A Landscape Approach," includes a study, funded by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, of seven counties and portions of two more in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
"Many of the wetlands in that area have been lost to agriculture, draining and urban development, but many remain," said Carol Johnston, NRRI research associate who headed the study. "In the region studied, 7.6 percent is currently composed of wetlands, but that is only half of what formerly were wetlands in the area and that decrease has had an impact."
Historical data, most supplied by the Environmental Protection Agency, and aerial photographs were used to determine what proportion of wetlands were lost and relate the decrease to changes in water quality and flooding.
Wetlands were examined based on the characteristics of the watershed, such as a stream or river, that they drained into and sample stations were based at these watersheds. The watershed characteristics were reduced to eight principle components, such as average slope and position within the wetland.
Results of the study show wetlands do affect water quality in watersheds by trapping in organic suspended solids, such as silt, and retaining it on land.
"So the silt doesn't travel to a lake or large river to affect fish habitats," Johnston said. "It creates less of a problem downstream when the inorganic suspended solids are retained in the landscape."
However, organic suspended solids, such as decomposed leaves, were not retained by wetlands to the same degree, but the release of these substances usually has a positive effect on the watershed.
"Organic matter is the basis of the food chain, and could be used as a food source," Johnston said. The study also shows lower levels of human waste and nitrogen in the sample sites.
Wetlands also were shown to have a positive effect on flood control, although a threshold existed for positive impact. Wetlands that had less than 10 percent of their area reduced showed the maximum reduction of the effects of a 100-year flood.
Using the Institute's Geographic Information Systems (GIS), maps of the park will be digitized by electronically tracing lines on a map of the park to make it readable by a computer through a series of XY coordinates. Working on the project at the Institute are Research Associate Carol Johnston, Research Fellow Lucinda Johnson, Lab Tech John Bonde and under graduate research assistants Patrice Critchley and Jim McNitt.
Air photos also will be taken of Voyageurs to examine current vegetation and study what type of animal life the vegetation would support.
QSAR, a new software package developed at NRRI that can determine biomedical, toxicological and physical properties of chemicals using a group of mathematical models, is being marketed by the Institute for industrial use.
The program can be used for such applications as risk assessment, as a tool for coming up with new compounds and as a screening method for use by governmental, industrial and environmental agencies.
Representatives from Allied Signal Inc., Glaxo Inc., 3M Corp., Eli Lilly and Upjohn were given an overview of the QSAR research at the Institute and participated in a discussion of the current state of the technology and software development.
"We displayed a critical mass of scientists working in QSAR research in Duluth, at the Institute, in UMD's other departments such as biochemistry, chemistry and pharmacy and at the U.S. Environmental Protection lab in Duluth," said Jerry Niemi, associate director of the Center for Water and the Environment. "They were impressed that there isn't just one person in Duluth doing this research, there is a team."
During the workshop, Subhash Basak, research associate with the Center for Water and the Environment, discussed the computational methods currently being developed in drug design and risk assessment. Presentations also were given by Robert Carlson, vice chancellor for academic administration; Lester Drewes, professor of biochemistry and Ken Wallace, associate professor of pharmacology, on structure activity approaches in different areas of predictive toxicology.
Also explored during the workshop was the possibility of forming a consortium to promote continued research of QSAR in Duluth.
"We hope to continue interaction with these companies in the future," Niemi said.
The report, compiled by Scientist John Gephart, Assistant Scientist Karen Ruder and Electronics Technician John Tevik, details distribution of employment in the industry, types of products produced and the amount of resources used through easily readable charts and graphs.
According to Roy Adams, CARTD associate director, the report is particularly useful to examine the current status of the wood industry in the state and to look at gaps that could be filled.
Completed through a grant from the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources, the report is available through the Institute.
Pinay, previously a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, will be working with NRRI staff on the Animal Influences on the Aquatic Landscape project in Voyageurs National Park. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and specifically is examining the role beavers play in landscape dynamics in Voyageurs.
Pinay holds a Ph.D. in hydrobiology and nutrient cycling from the University of Lyon, France, studying soil-groundwater relationships and denitrification along the Garonne River. Pinay's part of the Voyageurs study will include studying the impact of beaver ponds on nutrient cycling.
"I'm very impressed with NRRI, its staff and equipment," Pinay said, adding that the well-equipped labs he has found at the Institute are rare in France.
This is the first visit to the U.S. for Pinay, 27, and his position at the Institute is one of his first that provides work in a wilderness setting.
"When in France, I don't work in wild areas, but now I work together with mosquitoes and other bugs; I even saw a black bear," Pinay said.
Bill Berguson, scientist with the BioProducts Division of the Center for Applied Research and Technology Development, recently had an article on "Salix Clonal Screening Research on Peatlands in Minnesota" published in the Proceedings from the Willow Breeding Symposium held last year.
Chris Edwardson, scientist with the BioProducts Division of the Center for Applied Research and Technology Development, recently was named vice chairman of the Forest Products Research Society's Upper Mississippi Valley Section. A member since 1976, Edwardson was selected for the position by fellow section members and will be coordinating and planning section meetings.
Axler will direct the Institute's central analytical lab and will conduct research on aquatic resources in Minnesota, in addition to developing a research program on the state's lakes.
A Philadelphia, Penn., native, Axler comes to the Institute from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he was director of the Limnological Research Center and participated in a variety of projects in such areas as food chain dynamics and enriching an unproductive lake with phosphorous to increase the sport fish population.
Axler is a physics graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia and holds a Ph.D. in ecology and limnology from the University of California, Davis, where he spent 11 years working on nutrient cycling and food chain dynamics in Castle Lake and Lake Tahoe.
Mladenoff will be conducting outreach programs for the Center and coordinating research assistance with local, county, state and federal agencies, as well as private industry. He also will oversee the Center's grants and budgets.
A Hurley, Wisc., native, Mladenoff comes to the Institute from San Francisco, where he was director of stewardship and in charge of ecology research and management for the Western Region of the Nature Conservancy, a private, non-profit conservation association.
Mladenoff is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and holds a Masters in natural resources with a Ph.D. in botany, plant ecology and forest ecology.
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 private sector employment.
NRRI Staff:
Michael J. Lalich, director
Center for Water and the Environment: Gerald Niemi, director
Center for Economic Development: Kjell Knudsen, director
Center for Applied Research and Technology Development: Thys Johnson director; Roy Adams, associate director
NRRI Now editor: Patricia Miller