As a land-grant institution, the University of Minnesota has an obligation to the citizens of the state to advance the public good. Recently, the College of Natural Resources carried out this duty on a grand scale. In collaboration with Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), the college produced "Minnesota: A History of the Land." This four-part documentary series tells the story of Minnesota's beautiful and complex natural history and the people who helped shape the landscape.

From glaciers forming lakes, to Native Americans and European settlers reordering and reshaping the land, to present-day activists and citizens working to restore Minnesota's ecology, the documentary recalls the effects both nature and the human hand have had in altering the land and how those changes impact the future of the state.

This series depended upon extensive University research, not only by executive producer Barbara Coffin and her production team, but 28 University faculty and staff from 10 colleges and units across the state. These advisors and interviewees contributed both their knowledge of the state's unique ecology and their interpretations of important lessons from the past.

A steward of the state

"I'm pretty familiar with Minnesota," said retired ecology, evolution, and behavior professor John Tester. But he is being humble. Tester has spent his entire life in this state--growing up, getting an education, and devoting a career to the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR)--making him an ideal advisor for this project.

Tester worked at the University's Lake Itasca Forestry and Biological Station as an undergraduate in 1949 and 1950. His doctoral thesis, completed in 1960, examined the effects of burning, grazing, and mowing as land management tools in prairies west of the park. His management recommendations advocating controlled burns were controversial for many years. Fire prevention was standard practice, based on the assumption that inhibiting natural fires could protect prairies and forests. But Tester understood, as did the Native Americans, that controlled fires could clear the ground for the propagation of prairie species and white pine. "The prairie was disappearing, because the aspen was taking over," said Tester. Eventually, controlled burns became widely accepted and native prairie species returned to the park.

In the mid-1990s DNR officials asked Tester to draft a management plan for the natural resources of Itasca State Park. "They needed someone who was ecological, but not political," said Tester. His plan advised controlled burns in the prairies and forests, and a managed deer population to reestablish the white pine that had been largely destroyed by logging, natural fire prevention, and hungry deer.

He also researched the behavior of prairie toads west of Itasca State Park and led a University team that developed the technique of placing radio transmitters on animals to study their movements and behavior. Many species, including hawks, owls, grouse, fish, deer, red fox, squirrels, and turtles, were monitored.

In 1995, as a culmination of Tester's years of research in Minnesota, he published Minnesota's Natural Heritage: An Ecological Perspective. The book details the state's geologic history, climate, and three major ecological systems--deciduous forest, coniferous forest, and prairie--and how they function. Tester's book and his extensive understanding of Minnesota's ecology were an invaluable resource for "A History of the Land" production team researcher Lansing Shepard and producers John Whitehead and Polly Fry.
Ultimately, Tester sees the production as a service to the people of Minnesota. "I love it. I wish it could have been longer," said Tester. "And the photography is fantastic."

Advocating for a greener Minnesota

As a professor emeritus of geology on the Duluth campus, John Green brought a slightly different perspective to the production. "I've been mainly doing research on ancient rocks on the North Shore and near Ely," said Green. His current research is a continuation of the work he has been doing in the Lake Superior area since 1962.

"One of my interests has been in environmental geology," said Green. So it was not surprising that he became involved in the environmental controversy related to the Reserve Mining Company. In the 1960s, the company dumped 67,000 tons of taconite tailings per day into Lake Superior at Silver Bay. When North Shore residents began to protest the dumping, Green was there as faculty advisor for UMD's Students for Environmental Defense, who demonstrated and testified at hearings. "I was asked to be an expert witness," Green said of the case that would eventually end the dumping. As shown in "A History of the Land," this fight against the polluting of Lake Superior was inspirational to citizens, students, and faculty. They realized they could work cooperatively to persevere against a big company and make a change in the environmental health of the state.

Today, Green continues to advocate for Minnesota's environment. "Our current logging and motorized vehicle activities have an impact on the forests," he said. "But there have been improvements for logging," said Green. New equipment for harvesting timber can lessen damage to the forest floor.

"Another concern is the impact on water quality of North Shore streams from the increasing residential and recreational development in these steeply-sloping watersheds," he added. And his water quality concerns extend far south of Minnesota. "Erosion from Minnesota farms has contributed to a large 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico," Green said. Fertilizers, pesticides, and other agricultural pollutants drain into rivers and streams and accumulate in the gulf, resulting in an oxygen-deprived area that cannot support aquatic life.

"But there has been some awakening and awareness, starting with Arne Carlson's administration, when pollution problems and land-use practices, for example, began to be addressed," said Green.

Like Tester, Green was pleased with the outcome of the production. "I think they did a very good job. There is so much in our history that is directly concerned with people's relationship to the land," said Green. "It will be a valuable educational resource."

Getting the word out

From the beginning, the goal of this project has been to transfer knowledge--"to develop ecological literacy by telling human stories related to the land," said Coffin. Natural history has been traditionally taught with books. Now, "A History of the Land" offers a colorful, vivid spectrum of Minnesota's natural history through images of the landscape, interviews with experts, and reenactments of historic events. The series' Web site, www.historyoftheland.org, features interactive maps, and a viewer's guide and teachers' guide for those who want to learn more.

"We live in a visual society. Television and video can be an effective way to reach a broad audience," said Coffin. The series showcases spectacular, sweeping aerial views of the landscape taken by videographers hanging harnessed from a helicopter. "Viewing the Minnesota landscape from high above offers us all an important perspective. Our human imprint is clear," said Coffin. State-of-the-art animations bring Minnesota's history alive by illustrating movement of glaciers, recessions and advancements of forests and prairies, and overall geographical changes of the land over the course of 16,000 years.

Donors, including Mary Lee and the late Wallace Dayton, long-time environmental philanthropists, had faith that this production was an powerful way to educate Minnesotans about the importance of our role as stewards of the land. Other major benefactors of this outreach project were The McKnight Foundation, the MetroEnvironment Partnership 2000 of the Metropolitan Council, and the Minnesota Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources. Their contributions were essential for the college to get the word out.

And the word is getting out. The February premiere broadcasts on Public Broadcasting Service stations averaged 250,000 viewers statewide on both nights.

The success of the production has led "A History of the Land's" creative team to develop new productions about Minnesota's natural history. A documentary film studio, History of the Land Productions, is being set up at the University's Bell Museum of Natural History. The creative team has started working on a new one-hour program on the history of Minnesota forests, and is planning to create short video clips on Minnesota's natural history for exhibits in the Bell Museum. "We have a responsibility to the state to re-use and re-package this extensive library of Minnesota footage," Coffin said of the vast collection of material compiled for "A History of the Land."

"Minnesota: A History of the Land," serves not only as a foundation for new productions, but also a foundation for awareness about the land. It shows how the land has changed people's perspectives; as the people shaped the land, the land ultimately shaped its inhabitants. Likewise, this production has the potential to shape people--to redefine how citizens think about their natural resources, to compel the people of Minnesota to give back to the land that has given so much.

WRITTEN BY AMY DANIELSON