This full day Feed and Forage Management training provides participants with practical knowledge and hands on experience to improve forage systems and livestock feeding outcomes. Attendees will explore forage harvest equipment and identification at a local dealership, followed by in depth instruction on forage quality and evaluation. The training will highlight annual and grass based forage systems, with a focus on selection, management, and productivity in grazing operations.

Josh Tjosaas and Jeremy Daberkow (AgCentric) break down various crop enterprises, input costs, break evens, and the 2026 planning on cost of production.

Restored streams and oxbows provide critical wildlife habitat, increase water storage capacity, and reduce sediment loading in our waterways - benefiting both surrounding lands and downstream water resources. Scott Ralston (USFWS) discusses how these restoration projects are planned and implemented. He outlines the restoration process and explain how these efforts create lasting ecological and water quality benefits.

The Forest Management and Wildlife Habitat Symposium is a two-day, in person event held at the Cloquet Forestry Center that will feature researchers and forest managers sharing science-based management approaches for conserving, enhancing, and sustaining wildlife habitat in Minnesota Forests.

Learning Objectives

Day 1 - Landscape-Level Focus:

This workshop is designed to equip foresters with strategies to communicate silvicultural objectives effectively to loggers and put together sales that are marketable and meet silvicultural objectives. Throughout the day we'll have a mix of indoor and field sessions that come at the timber sale process from multiple different angles.

Learning objectives:

This field day is an in person, field based workshop for natural resource professionals to explore applied forest management strategies that support forest bird conservation within the Chippewa National Forest and surrounding landscapes. The field day will highlight managed sites that employ silvicultural techniques designed to create and maintain spatial complexity and heterogeneity within a range of forest cover types and age classes.

Join UMN extension and forest health experts in Little Falls to learn more about oak wilt on its leading edge in Minnesota. As we work to slow the spread of this fungal disease northward, broad familiarity with its symptoms and potential management strategies is critical. This workshop will cover common symptoms of active oak wilt with hands on demonstrations of current wilt pockets. We will also show effective management methods employed on two private properties in Little Falls and discuss additional viable management strategies.

This workshop is specifically for technical staff and planners from SWCDs and NRCS who are looking for advanced training on irrigation practices. The two day workshop, which is be a mix of classroom and in field demonstrations on irrigation practices, has attendees work hands on to develop a plan for Irrigation Water Management (CPS 449). A goal of the workshop is that attendees will increase their readiness to pursue Job Approval Authority (JAA) for irrigation practices.

The City of Brainerd and Great River Greening are partnering to host a Biochar Demonstration at Rotary Riverside Park:

• Live demonstration converting buckthorn wood waste into biochar using on site kilns
• GRG staff will be onsite running the kiln and answer questions/educate on biochar, its uses and how flame capped kilns work
• GRG Staff will walk participants through the process of managing a kiln from loading to ignition to quenching
• Demonstration will be with Big Box and Ring of Fire kilns

Join Great River Greening in cooperation with the Stearns County Parks. Great River Greening will be on site demonstrating and discussing the use of biochar kilns, and how brush piles and wood waste are processed into biochar.

GRG staff will be onsite running big box flame cap and ring of fire kilns, converting waste wood into biochar, answering questions/educate on biochar, its uses, and how the kilns work.

GRG Staff will walk attendees through the process of managing a kiln from loading to ignition to feeding to quenching.