Peters, Emmie2013-06-112013-06-112013-04-20https://hdl.handle.net/11299/150673The Big Woods once covered over 8000 km² of Minnesota and Wisconsin, but now only small remnants remain (Frelich 2002). Given the importance of these forests to regional biodiversity and forest-derived goods, there is a great need to better understand their development and potential sensitivity to climate variability. Rice County, Minnesota is home to the Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, as well as several other fragments of this forest type making it an ideal place to study the relationship between the present vegetation and its land use history and past climate.en-USPresentation