Evan Larson

Evan Larson is a father, husband, teacher, and scientist who celebrates learning with heart and mind. Of European ancestry, Evan’s childhood took place in the woods of central Minnesota, helping his parents tend 80 acres of mixed hardwood forests. Drawn by mountains, oceans, and forests, his formal education includes an Environmental Science bachelor’s degree from Willamette University, and graduate degrees in geography from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (M.S.) and the University of Minnesota (PhD). Less formally, Evan's philosophy of life has been informed by significant doses of reflection, books, chainsaws and firewood. As a Professor and Chair in the Department of Environmental Sciences & Society at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, the work currently at the center of Evan's thoughts and energy is fueled by the enthusiasm of amazing Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborators who are together working to re-story the interwoven relationships among people, fire, and pine in Great Lakes Forests, and translating this work to more good fire on the ground.

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

I teach courses in earth and environmental science, fire ecology, research practicum, and fire practicum. My approach to teaching embraces hands-on experiences, authentic research-based inquiry, field trips, and on the ground application of what we learn in class to help my students develop their understanding the class content and link it to the world around them. Among the many courses I have taught at UW-Platteville, my current favorites are ENVSS 3340 Biogeography, ENVSS 3570 Fire Ecology, ENVSS 3580 Fire Practicum, ENVSS 3950 Research Practicum, and ENVSS 1040 Planet Earth!

Current Research Projects

In working with amazing students and collaborators, I am often engaged in numerous short-term research projects that come and go over the semesters and often fail to make this list, if only because there are so many cool things happening! A few of the long-term projects have merged into larger collaborations, such as the good work so many people are engaged in around supporting the resurgence of Good Fire to the forests of the Great Lakes Region. You can read about that project at www.ishkode.org. Some of the other large, currently-funded projects we are working on include:

• Translating Ishkode: A story of fire from book to film to the classroom; with Melonee Montano, Moira Villiard and Christine Baeumler (University of Minnesota); Wisconsin Sea Grant Award E-ELWD-34

• FIRE‐PLAN: Merging diverse knowledge systems to advance restoration of fire dependent forests in the Great Lakes region; with Melonee Montano (University of Minnesota), Lane Johnson (University of Minnesota), Kurt Kipfmueller (University of Minnesota), Courtney Kowalczak (Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College), Mike Dockry (University of Minnesota), Sean Dunham (USDA Forest Service), and Jack McGowan-Stinski (Lake States Fire Science Consortium); National Science Foundation Ecosystem Science and Geoscience Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity (GOLD-EN) programs, award number 2335838

• 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 affectionately referred to as "The Driftless Cedars" project

• Updating existing tree-ring chronologies across the Midwest to develop reconstructions of temperature, drought, and lake level variability

(* indicates undergraduate student author)

Larson, E.R., Zhaawendaagozikwe, V.R.*, Reynolds, M.B.*, Lockling, E.*, Ojibway, A.* In press. Bridging cultures and ways of knowing through the rings of trees. American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

Larson, E.R. and Montano, N.M., with illustrations by Villiard, M., and forward by Kimmerer, R.W. 2025. Ishkode: A story of fire. Black Bears and Blueberries Press, Duluth, MN. (First printing) and University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN. (Second printing). https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517922719/ishkode/

Larson, E.R., Montano, N.M., Lockling, E.*, Ojibway, A.*, Reynolds, M.*, Zhaawendaagozikwe, V.R.*, Johnson, L.B., Kipfmueller, K.F., Dockry, M.J., Northrup, V., Savage, J., Kimmerer, R.W. 2025. Indigenous fire stewardship shaped North American Great Lakes forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2500024122

Poppe, R., Birch, S., Guiterman, C.H., Kenefic, L.S., Larson, E.R., Orwig, D.A., Pederson, N., and Fraver, S. 2025. Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) as an alternate host for spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana): Dendrochronological evidence from Maine, USA. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2025-0161

Larson, E.R., Dornak, L., Underwood, C.A., Gronewold*, C., Berglund, J., Schmitz, R., and Mandernack, B. 2024. Tree rings and aerial imagery illustrate a multi-century trend from open lands to closed forest at Eagle Valley, Southwest Wisconsin, USA. Natural Areas Journal 44(4): 223–239. https://doi.org/10.3375/2162-4399-44.4.233

Larson, E.R., Mirti, T., Wilding, T., Underwood, C.A. 2023. Five centuries of groundwater elevations provide evidence of shifting climate drivers and human influences on water resources in North Central Florida. Water Resources Research 59: e2022WR031970. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR031970

Harley, G.L., Therrell, M., Maxwell, J., Bhuta, A., Bregy, J., Heeter, K., Patterson, T., Rochner, M., Rother, M., Stambaugh, M., Zampieri, N., Altman, J., Collins-Key, S., Gentry, C., Guiterman, C., Huffman, J.M., Johnson, D, King, D, Larson, E.R., and 12 additional authors. 2023. The Longleaf Tree-Ring Network: Reviewing and expanding the utility of Pinus palustris Mill. Dendrochronological data. Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 47(4): 570–593. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091333221147652

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.