MNWWN Executive Committee
Janet Erdman
Janet Erdman is a third-generation private forest landowner and steward of a 453-acre property in the Driftless region in southeastern Minnesota. As custodian of 228 acres of woodland and 150 acres of prairie, Janet joined communities which gave her the confidence to sustainably and effectively care for her land, such as the Minnesota’s Women’s Woodland Network, Minnesota Tree Care Advocates, and Minnesota Master Gardeners. In 2020, Janet was awarded Minnesota’s Southern Region Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year, and in 2022 was awarded Fillmore County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Conservationist of the Year. For 8 years, Janet was appointed to the Minnesota Forest Resources Council as a representative for nonindustrial private forest landowners. Now retired from her role as medical librarian at M-Health Fairview, Janet is eager to spend more time kayaking, gardening, traveling, growing mushrooms, and spending more time tending the landscape.
ANGELA GUPTA
Angela Gupta is a University of Minnesota Extension Professor of Forestry who specializes in terrestrial invasive species and is a founding member of the MN Women’s Woodland Network. She’s done invasive species early detection education and outreach and has been a part of the MN Women’s Woodland Network since 2008. Angie earned an MA in Organizational Management from Spring Arbor University and a BS in Forestry from the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining Extension, Angie was an industrial forester working with private landowners in Michigan and a US Peace Corps Agroforestry Extensionist in Kenya, East Africa.
NIKKI HENGER
Nikki is the Forestry Outreach Specialist at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and joined MNWWN in late 2019. Nikki grew up in Ohio and went to the University of Dayton for her B.S. in Environmental Biology. She continued her education in NY and enrolled in a dual degree program with the State University of New York-Environmental Science and Forestry and Syracuse University. There she obtained an M.S. in Forestry and Natural Resources Management and an MPA. She currently only owns about half an acre of yard but is in the process of turning it into a pollinator haven!
ALEXIS MONTI
Alexis Monti is the Climate Resiliency Specialist at the Wild Rivers Conservancy. She came into this role after spending the past few years pursuing her interest in climate adaptation through various job positions across the country. She received her Bachelor's in Environmental Science and Natural Resources Conservation from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. In her spare time, Alexis enjoys identifying plants, hiking, uprooting buckthorn, and attending any trivia events she can find.
SOPHIA PATANE
Sophia Patane is the Community Engagement Director for WaterLegacy and joined MNWWN in 2022. A writer and editor by training, she holds a Master's degree and two Bachelor's degrees from Hamline University and has extensive experience in marketing, communications, and community organizing. Her work to protect Minnesota's waters intersects with a deep-rooted personal passion for forest ecology and the protection of biodiversity. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, kayaking, and biking with her family throughout the St. Croix River watershed.
Kathleen Preece
Kathleen has always called northern Minnesota ‘home,’ despite travels for work and education that took her away for intervals of time over the past decades. “Home,” now is 60 acres of pineries in Beltrami County where she works (and gazes out the windows) of a home office that restson the edge of her woodlands.
After obtaining degrees in wildlife management/ecology and English from the University of Minnesota, Kathleen began a consulting/free lance career in natural resource communications. She works part-time for Tree Farm Program, Minnesota Forestry Association, Dovetail Partners, forest industry and additional public and private organizations to develop their respective communications and messaging.
Kathleen also works part-time as the executive director of the Minnesota Forest Resources Partnership, a non-profit organization of the state’s largest forest land managers and landowners including the US Forest Service, Minnesota DNR, county land departments, forest industry, and private landowners.
And, with the “part-time” that is left, Kathleen indulges in her greatest joy - the care and training of her rescue donkeys and horses who serve as therapy animals for children and adults dealing with the stresses of their respective worlds.
ANNA STOCKSTAD
Anna Stockstad is a University of Minnesota Extension Educator in Forest Ecosystem Health based at the Cloquet Forestry Center. She specializes in climate-ready forest stewardship, forest soil science, and forest ecology. Anna received her M.S. and B.S. from the University of Minnesota in the Department of Forest Resources. As an Extension Educator, she provides education and outreach for woodland stewards across Minnesota through programs such as Minnesota Woodland Steward. She is passionate about giving woodland stewards the knowledge and tools that they need to manage their land based on their diverse goals and objectives while also improving the resilience of their forests. In her free time, Anna enjoys hiking, running, cooking, and reading plenty of books.
Email: northeast@mnwwn.org
Grace Welle
I am a first generation land owner/caretaker and come from Irish, Sami and Slovak, settler descent. Raised in north Minneapolis in a working class neighborhood near Wakpa Tanka (mississippi river) the river has always been important for myself and my immigrant ancestors for various reasons and was my main connection to nature growing up. The push to buy 40 acres in the boreal forest stemmed from being up in the northwoods during the winter of the line 3 protest movement. My eldest child was involved with Giniw Collective, driving them up north to protest on construction sites of the line 3 pipeline was impactful. My own feeling of peace, connection and ease in these peaceful snow covered woods combined with witnessing the destruction of the land and water was intense. The breaking of treaties with numerous Sovereign Anishinaabe nations the havoc created during the years of construction and into the future: socially, culturally and for place was immense. Being from the city it opened my eyes to both why people love "up north" and the power of owning land in this capitalist system and how ownership defines control of what happens on the land. Our own family needed space and healing and we found it in the bog and the woods. We are reconnecting spiritually with ourselves, creator and our ancestors, my husband's recovery from alcohol is tied to the spiritual healing that is taking place here. We are managing 40 acres in the tamarack lowlands/boreal forest with a stewardship plan, planting trees to replace the inevitable EAB fueled destruction of the black ash in the swale, growing mushrooms, harvesting blueberries and on and on. We continue to live in NE Minneapolis with a fully restored double lot of pollinator plants, native grasses, oak trees, native berries and medicine gardens and spend as much time as we can up north in the woods. It has been a long journey for my partner and myself both getting out of financial poverty that we are from and we feel immensely grateful to the creator to have the resources to be able to steward a little bit of land and water. I am hoping that being a part of MNWWN I can be a connector for others like myself to the healing that can come from deeply connecting with the natural world and creating access for more women and children to the greater northwoods of this state.
Advisory
KATHY AHLERS
Kathy has done citizen-scientist MN DNR water-quality volunteering (Secchi disk readings; benthic macroinvertebrate sampling/ID; wetland vegetation ID) and is fascinated with the idea of biogeomorphology. Her love for plants started with her grandmother, who kept seed, always had a huge garden and taught her which wild berries are edible and which are not. Kathy unschooled her two children through eighth grade, including teaching math and science in homeschool co-ops. Both of her adult kids have STEM careers. Kathy also was a Girl Scout leader. Her encampment "scat walks" were legion, and sparked girls to look for evidence of shy and nocturnal animals and generally to be curious about the natural world. She now coordinates group Meetup walks where she points out basic plants along the trail, and is known to quiz repeat attendees. Kathy connected with MNWWN for its shiitake and oyster mushroom cultivation workshop in 2019. Talk there strayed to the "lite" technology areas that have long been her work, and she has coached MNWWN on evaluating and implementing free and inexpensive tech resources. In her spare time, Kathy draws cartoons and is learning to make videos. She aspires to someday own land to farm hazelnuts and berries. A woodland on that land would be a bonus.
JANET KS BERNU, Northeast Network co-leader
Jan is the owner of an independent forestry/land management consulting company, Two By Forestry (TBF), that works with a variety of private and public entities but specializes in working with private landowners. Jan was born in Nebraska and raised in southern Minnesota (Mankato). She received a B.S. degree in Forest Resource Management with a specialization in Urban Forestry from the University of Minnesota- College of Forestry in St. Paul. She is a Society of American Foresters Certified Forester and is a member of MN Association of Consulting Foresters. She is also a member of the American Forest Foundation Tree Farm program, serves on the State Tree Farm Committee, and belongs to the MN Forestry Association. In her 40+ year career as a consulting forester, she has worked across the eastern half of Minnesota but now concentrates on northeast and north central MN doing a variety of woods projects. She has been a part of the MNWWN since 2010. She is the contact person and co-leader of the MNWWN-NE local network. Jan and her husband, Greg (also a Forester) currently live on and nurture a 40+ acre certified Tree Farm in the northern MN woods. In her spare time, Jan likes to do almost anything on or in the water, ski, bike, hike, travel (especially road trips with the Scamp!), sample craft beers, learn Spanish, and go on some leisurely walks with the dogs and cat, and take time to smell the flowers.
GAIL E W BONG, Northeast Network co-leader
Gail grew up in Carlton County, MN. Whether mushroom or agate picking, hunting, camping, fishing, or riding horses, the outdoors was her playground. After living in a handful of states from the Midwest to the east coast, she moved back to Minnesota to raise her two boys on forty wooded acres.
Gail received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Wisconsin Superior and obtained Master Woodland Owners certification from the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Gail has been involved with the Minnesota Women's Woodland Network for many years and is co-leader of the Northeast chapter.
Gail retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in 2022.
She is involved in community volunteer work and enjoys gardening, foraging, nature crafting, tramping around the woods, and spending time with family and friends.
GINGER KOPP
Ginger has been involved with MNWWN almost since it's inception more than a decade ago. As a woman working in the forestry field she saw first hand the need to educate women and their families on learning about their woodlands for their own benefits. In moving to the Brainerd area in 2018 she saw an opportunity to further the mission of MNWWN by establishing a Brainerd Lakes Area network which is in progress. She worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service for 32 years, 1/2 in Virginia and 1/2 in Minnesota where she served as the staff forester in St. Paul, then an easement forester in Brainerd. She retired in 2020 and became a Master Naturalist to continue educating women and the public on a variety of forestry topics. She also enjoys observing nature, biking, snowshoeing, kayaking, curling, pickleball, and doing random acts of volunteering.
LARA LAU-SCHOMMER
Lara Lau-Schommer is the Education and Outreach Director at the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. Born and raised in Minneapolis, Lara is a true, blue Minnesotan—and now she and her husband are raising their son here, too. Lara actively supports community gardening and beautification of public spaces throughout the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. Lara embodies the spirit of community, bringing gardeners and green organizations together around growing and sustainability. Lara has degrees in Plant Biology and Political Science, is a certified urban farmer through the Permaculture Research Institute for Cold Climates, and has been with MSHS for six years.
Email: lara@northerngardener.org
BARB SPEARS, Past President
Barb is a Natural Resources Specialist with the USDA Forest Service State, Private and Tribal Forestry. She is the owner of TWF Consulting, LLC providing woodland and urban forestry consulting services to individuals, families, communities, and organizations. She has been involved with MNWWN since 2008 and served as Chair and then President from 2015 to 2024. She currently serves as Past President. She was the leader of the MNWWN Metro Area local network from 2010 until 2021. She received her B.S. degree in Urban Forestry from the University of MInnesota. She has had a varied career and has worked for or contracted with federal, state and local governments, non-profits, universities, and a homeowners association. Barb is a MN native having lived in St. Paul until moving to Grand Rapids, MN in 2023 where she now has 1.5 acres to “play” with by planting trees and creating a pollinator-friendly environment. She grew up camping, fishing, hunting and enjoying the outdoors which led to her career in natural resources. She also enjoys bird and wildlife watching, native plant and veggie gardening, plant ID and road trips. Voyageurs National Park is her favorite place on earth!