Scott Russell, Writer

(Gunflint Trail, Minn.) Lee Frelich stood at the foot of a 300-year-old cedar tree on the shore of Sea Gull Lake and gave the good news, bad news analysis about global warming.

The good news: The native cedar could survive the warmer temperatures and still could be part of the state’s boreal forest. The bad news: Deer, once infrequent guests here, are moving north, spurred by milder winters. And deer love eating small cedars.

“As the number of deer increase in the warmer climate, it [cedar] won’t be able to reproduce,” said Frelich, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Hardwood Ecology, video rolling. “We don’t think it has a very good future in northern Minnesota.” MORE »

(Gunflint Trail, Minn.) Christopher Cox, Pew Environment Group’s Minnesota representative, stood amid the burnt trees of a recent north woods forest fire and talked about global warming.

“Global warming is not something that just happens in sub-Saharan Africa or the polar ice cap,” Cox said, videotape rolling. “It is something that happens right here in our back yard.” MORE »

I’m not a great gardener, but I love to weed. It’s a trait I got from my mom, who is an Olympic weeder. MORE »

The nationally recognized Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is opening a Minneapolis charter school this fall, its first in the state.

KIPP schools feature long school days, a long school year and character development. They are a model for boosting academic success of low-income, minority children. MORE »

Several dozen Native American protesters and allies tried to upstage a Minnesota Sesquicentennial event at Fort Snelling Saturday. Protesters said the state’s 150th birthday celebration failed to tell the whole story and demanded the state acknowledge broken treaties, land theft and ethnic cleansing. MORE »