KYLE GILL

Lake Superior Chapter Chair

2020 is Kyle's second year as the Lake Superior Chapter Chair. During this time, he's been focusing on finding simple ways to keep chapter members connected. This has occurred through monthly Forester's Fika meetups and by hosting the 2019 MN SAF Summer Field Tour at the University of Minnesota Cloquet Forestry Center (CFC).

Kyle has been the CFC Forest Manager and Research Coordinator for the UMN Experimental Forests properties since 2015. In this role, he seeks to build an active forest management and research program that focuses on forests as complex adaptive systems. His forest stewardship philosophies include:

• Trusting that the only thing that endures is change
• The Landscape Triad conceptual framework for balancing multiple objectives
• Employing forest treatment techniques that mimic forest disturbance and development patterns to promote the capacity for resilience and adaptation to changes in climate and other forms of abiotic, biotic and human-caused uncertainty
• Recognizing that we humans are one part of forest ecosystem communities so need to approach land management with humility and respect to our other community members.

Kyle earned his M.S. (2014) in Natural Resources Science and Management and B.S. (2007) in Environment and Natural Resources from the University of Minnesota. For his M.S. thesis, he investigated forest development, dynamics, and relationship to climate of jack pine-dominated forests (FDc12, FDc23, and FDc24) in Minnesota’s central floristic region.

In his free time, he enjoys many outdoor activities, including cross-country skiing, mountain biking, and wilderness exploration, and philosophizing about life’s great and simple questions.