Mary Hammes

The Nature Conservancy

My role is as Reforestation Strategy Manager for the North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota Chapter of TNC. I support a large scale reforestation effort called "Minnesota Million", with a goal of reforesting one million acres of Minnesota. We will do this through elevating all four parts of the reforestation supply chain - seeds, seedling/tree stock production. planting efforts, and ongoing care and maintenance. We are currently working on building a Climate Smart Seedling Production Network as a first step in amplifying the first two components of the supply chain. I am motivated by finding ways to break out of the reforestation industrial complex so more expertise, resources, and energy can come to bear on this work from a fuller community of forest caretakers. I am based on Dakota homeland in the city of Minneapolis and feel most at home on the banks of the Mississippi River.