LEE E. FRELICH
Research Associate, Director of Hardwood Ecology
University of Minnesota, Department of Natural Resources

What kinds of trees are killed by forest fires or tornadoes and why? What effects do people's activities have on forests? How do invasions by non-native species such as European earthworms change the forest? How do forests recover after these disturbances? These are the types of questions that I try to answer as an ecologist who specializes in forest disturbance.

When I was 10 years old my mother had a garden with more than 200 species of plants. To avoid other chores such as mowing the lawn, I volunteered to take care of the garden. It was necessary to learn how to identify all these plants, and figure out how much water, sunlight and fertilizer they needed to stay healthy. After several years I realized that forests contain hundreds of species that somehow get along without the care that people invest in their yards. There must be natural processes that allow all these native plants to survive.

After reading every book on forests that the local public library had, I decided at the age of 12 that I would eventually get a Ph.D. in forest ecology and start answering the questions posed at the opening of this biography. That is exactly what happened. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelors degree in Botany and Bacteriology in 1980, and a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology in 1986. Since then I have done research on forest fires and windstorm disturbance in remote wilderness areas like the Boundary Water Canoe Area in northern Minnesota and the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Upper Michigan. Very often I consult with the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on how to apply the lessons learned from wild forests to those forests used for commercial production of timber and paper pulp.

However, I never abandoned the city. I enjoy being one of the few people who is an expert on the most remote wilderness areas, but who lives in the middle of a big city. The garden in Loring Park near my downtown condominium has more than 200 kinds of plants, and I have worked with the Minneapolis Park Board and many neighborhood volunteers to design and maintain the garden over the last 5 years.

Healthy forests are necessary for people to have a quality life on the earth, even for those who live in the city. There are many threats to forests from humans, but we are also learning how to help the forest, and how to minimize our impact. During the last 20 years we have learned as much about forests as we did on the last two centuries. It has been really exciting to be part of this learning process and to know that my scientific discoveries will help maintain healthy forests for centuries into the future.