Evan Larson

Ph.D. in Geography with a minor in Natural Resource Sciences and Management, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (2009)

M.S. in Geography with a minor in Environmental Policy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2005)

B.A. in Environmental Sciences, Willamette University (2002)

Courses taught

• GEOG 1040: Planet Earth
• GEOG 1270: Global Vegetation
• GEOG 2230: Cartography
• GEOG 3330: Environmental Conservation
• GEOG 3340: Biogeography
• GEOG 3570: Fire History and Ecology
• GEOG 3950: Guided Research
• GEOG 4120: Seminar on Island Biogeography
• GEOG 4120: Seminar on Fire History and Ecology
• GEOG 4760: Ecology and Landscape Field Trip
• GEOG 4920: Independent Study in Dendroecology
• GEOG 4950: Geography Seminar

Current Projects

• Nimaawanji’idimin giiwitaashkodeng: We are all gathering around the fire; with Melonee Montano (Tribal Fathom Fire LLC) and Robin Kimmerer (Center for Native Peoples and the Environment; SUNY College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry); Wisconsin Sea Grant Award R/RCE-17
• Collaborative Research: RUI: P2C2--Medieval to Modern Climate Variability and Climate Change in the Great Plains; with Dave Stahle (University of Arkansas), Ed Cook (Columbia University), Dorian Burnette (University of Tennessee-Memphis), and Mike Stambaugh (University of Missouri); NSF Paleo Perspectives on Climate Change award number 2201352; also affectoinately referred to as "The Driftless Cedars" project
• Groundwater-forest interactions as guide for artificial groundwater recharge strategies to support agricultural and ecosystems in the Central Sands; University of Wisconsin Freshwater Collaborative; with Steven Loheide (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Updating existing tree-ring chronologies across the Midwest to develop reconstructions of temperature, drought, and lake level variability

(* indicates undergraduate student author)

Margolis, E.Q., Guiterman, C.H., Chavardès, R.D., Coop, J.D., Copes-Gerbitz, K., Dawe, D.A., Falk, D.A., Johnston, J.D., Larson, E.R., and 78 additional authors. 2022. The North American fire-scar network. Ecosphere 13(7): e4159. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4159

Colombaroli, D. and Larson, E.R. 2022. Editorial: Socio-ecological approaches to conservation. Past Global Changes Magazine 30(1): 33. https://doi.org/10.22498/pages.30.1.33

Johnson, L.B., Larson, E.R., Gill, K., and Savage, J. 2022. Blending tree-ring fire-scar records and Indigenous memory in northern Minnesota, USA. Past Global Changes Magazine 30(1): 36–37. https://doi.org/10.22498/pages.30.1.36

Larson, E.R., Kipfmueller, K.F., and Johnson, L.B. 2021. People, fire, and pine: Linking human agency and landscape in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and beyond. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 111(1): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1768042

Kipfmueller, K.F., Larson, E.R., Johnson, L.B, and Elizabeth Schneider. 2021. Human augmentation of historical red pine fire regimes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Ecosphere. 12(7): e03673. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3673

Larson, E.R., Underwood, C.A., and Allen, S. 2020. The Driftless Oaks: A new network of tree-ring chronologies to improve regional perspectives of drought in the Upper Midwest, USA. Progress in Physical Geography 45(3): 375–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133320960670

Larson, E.R., Johnson, L.B., Johnson, L.R., Wilding, T.C., Hildebrandt, K.*, and Kipfmueller, K.F. 2019. Faces in the wilderness: A new network of crossdated culturally-modified red pine in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Northern Minnesota, USA. Human Ecology 47: 747–764. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-019-00109-4

Frelich, L., Blossey, B., Cameron, E., Davalos, A., Eisenhauer, N., Fahey, T., Ferlian, O., Groffman, Peter, Larson, E., Loss, S., Maerz, J., Nuzzo, V., Yoo, K., and Reich, P. 2019. Side-swiped: Ecological cascades emanating from earthworm invasion. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 17(9): 502–510. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2099

Leys, B.A., Griffin, D., Larson, E.R., McLauchlan, K.K. 2019. Century-scale fire dynamics in a savanna ecosystem. Fire 2(3): 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire2030051

Johnson, L.B., Johnson, L.R., Larson, E.R., and Kipfmueller, K.F. 2018. Culturally-modified red pine, birch-bark canoes, and the fur trade on Lake Saganaga, Minnesota, USA. Historical Archaeology Journal. 52(2): 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-018-0102-2

Larson, E. R.  2017. Seeking wilderness: Tree rings, history, and the meaning of wilderness in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Minnesota Conservation Volunteer 80: 22–30.

Larson, E.R. and Green, M.A.* 2017. Fire history at the confluence of the Driftless Area and Central Sand Plains of Wisconsin: A case study from Castle Mound Pine Forest State Natural Area. Natural Areas Journal 37: 309–321.

Copes-Gerbitz, K.*, Arabas, K.B., Larson, E.R., and Gildehaus, S.* 2017. A multi-proxy environmental narrative of Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) habitat in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Northwest Science 91: 160–185.

van de Gevel, S., Larson, E.R., Grissino-Mayer, H.D. 2017. Separating trends in whitebark pine radial growth related to climate and mountain pine beetle outbreaks in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Forests 8: doi:10.3390/f8060195.

Harley, G., Maxwell, J, Larson, E.R., Grissino-Mayer, H.D., Henderson, J., and Huffman, J. 2017. Suwannee River flow variability 1550–2005 CE reconstructed from a multispecies tree-ring network. Journal of Hydrology 544: 438–451.

 Larson, E.R., and Rawling III, J.E. 2016. Developing new sources of proxy climate data from historical structures in the Lake Michigan-Huron basin. Journal of Great Lakes Research 42: 328–335.

Gildehaus, S.*, Copes-Gerbitz, K.*, Arabas, K.B., and Larson, E.R. 2015. The dendroclimatological potential of Willamette Valley Quercus garryana and insights on the uncertainty of past Pacific Decadal Oscillation variability. Tree-Ring Research 71: 13–23.

Salzer, M.W., Larson, E.R., Bunn, A.G., and Hughes, M.K. 2014. Climate response in near-treeline bristlecone pine. Environmental Research Letters 9:114007.

Allen, S. and Larson, E.R. 2014. The Driftless Oaks: An environmental history of southwest Wisconsin. Wisconsin Natural Resources 38: 6–7.

Larson, E.R., Allen, S.*, Flinner, N.L.*, LaBarge, S.G.*, and Wilding, T.C.* 2013. The need and means to update chronologies in a dynamic environment. Tree-Ring Research 69: 21–27.

Larson, E.R. and Kipfmueller, K.F. 2012. Ecological disaster or the limits of observation? Reconciling modern declines with the long-term dynamics of whitebark pine communities. Geography Compass 6: 189–214.

Larson, E.R. 2012. Influences of blister rust and mountain pine beetle on whitebark pine. Nutcracker Notes 22: 14–15.

Kipfmueller, K.F., Larson, E.R., and St. George, S. 2012. Does proxy uncertainty affect the relations inferred between the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and wildfire activity in the western United States? Geophysical Research Letters 39:L04703.

Larson, E.R. 2011. Influences of the biophysical environment on blister rust and mountain pine beetle, and their interactions, in whitebark pine forests. Journal of Biogeography 38: 453–470.

Campbell, E.M., Keane, R.E., Larson, E.R., Murray, M.P., Schoettle, A.W., Wong, C. 2011. Disturbance Ecology of High-Elevation Five-Needle Pine Ecosystems in Western North America. Pages 154–163 in R. E. Keane, D. F. Tomback, M. P. Murray, and C. M. Smith, editors. Proceedings: The Future of High-Elevation Five-Needle White Pines in Western North America. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station RMRS-P-63, June 28–30, 2010, Missoula, Montana.

Larson, E.R. and Kipfmueller, K.F. 2010. Patterns in whitebark pine regeneration and their relationships to biophysical site characteristics in southwest Montana, central Idaho, and Oregon, U.S.A. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40: 476–487.

Kipfmueller, K.F., Elliott, G.P., Larson, E.R., and Salzer, M.W. 2010. An assessment of the dendroclimatic characteristics of three conifer species in northern Minnesota. Tree-Ring Research 66: 113–126.

Larson, E.R., Kipfmueller, K.F., Hale, C.M., Frelich, L.E., and Reich, P.B. 2010. Tree rings detect earthworm invasions and their effects in northern hardwood forests. Biological Invasions 12:1053–1066. DOI 10.1007/s10530-009-9523-3.

Crockett, K., Martin, J.B., Grissino-Mayer, H.D., Larson, E.R., Mirti, T. 2010. Assessment of tree rings as a hydrologic record in a humid subtropical environment. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 46: 919–931.

Larson, E.R., van de Gevel, S.L., and Grissino-Mayer, H.D. 2009. Variability in fire regimes of high-elevation whitebark pine communities, western Montana, USA. Écoscience 16: 282–298.

Elliott, G.P. and Larson, E.R. 2009. Disturbance and successional dynamics in an old growth white pine-mixed hardwood forest of the Great Lakes Region of Minnesota. Geographical Bulletin 50: 37–56.

Ziegler, S.S., Larson, E.R., Rauchfuss, J., and Elliott, G.P. 2008. Tree establishment during dry spells at an oak savanna in Minnesota. Tree-Ring Research 64: 47–54.

Arabas, K.B., Hadley, K.H., and Larson, E.R. 2006. Fire history of a naturally fragmented landscape in central Oregon. The Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 36: 1108–1120.