Portrait of a Forest on the Climate Edge

By Jessica Leber
National Audubon Society
September 21, 2022
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

In Minnesota, a boreal forest ecosystem could shift north over the Canada border this century. Local photographers, scientists, and land managers are grappling with what that means—and how to respond. Around the world, climate change is reshaping habitats already at their limits. In northeastern Minnesota, near the Canadian border, lies a boreal biome at the southern edge of its climate range. This swath of mixed coniferous forest now transitions to temperate forest to the south in the state, and drier woodland and prairie to the west. Warmer winters, longer and hotter summers, and more variable precipitation ranges are currently transforming this boreal zone, and these shifts have profound implications for vegetation and wildlife of the region. 

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