Inside the SPRUCE experiment

At the end of 2025, we’re saying goodbye to a project that has long been part of the work of many researchers in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate: the SPRUCE experiment, sponsored by the US Department of Energy and housed at the USDA Forest Service Marcell Experimental Forest just north of Grand Rapids, MN. SPRUCE stands for Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments. Over the last decade, the SPRUCE experiment has been a success story of interagency and transdisciplinary collaboration. Randy Kolka, SWAC faculty member and USDA Forest Service representative on the project, says that “the level of collaboration across disciplines and organizations has been unprecedented,” leading to discoveries not otherwise possible.

Read the full story and check out the photos and video on the Department of Soil, Water and Climate website.